Jazz Act
Grace Kelly
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Teenage Brookline saxophonist Grace Kelly won our Boston Jazz category four years running. And last year, the votes she garnered dominated not only the local jazz category, but the entire field of Best Music Poll local and national nominees. That’s right: LCD Soundsystem, Lady Gaga, Amanda Palmer, Dropkick Murphys — beat ’em all. That says something for Kelly’s loyal fan base as well as her genuine talent. So it seemed high time that we promote Kelly to the nationals — even though her work is still released on her family’s Pazz label. Two of those albums set her own alto sax with two masters — Lee Konitz and Phil Woods — with whom she held her own. Albums with her own band — like 2008’s Mood Changes and the new album Grace, dedicated to spirituals and hymns — show the kind of maturity she seems to have had from the beginning. Something Woods noticed when he first heard her: “It’s not any one thing. She’s got the whole kit.”
Runners-up: Esperanza Spalding, Hiromi, Jason Moran
_Jon Garelick
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