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Jazz Forward Award Nominees
Recognizing jazz industry movers and groovers!
All About Jazz, a driving force for jazz music since 1995, is thrilled to honor and celebrate industry trailblazers who actively promote jazz awareness, discovery, and culture through its prestigious Jazz Forward award program. For more information about Jazz Forward, go here.
Sligo Jazz Project
Sligo Jazz Project: Europe’s Most Inclusive Jazz Education Festival
Nestled in the heart of Yeats country in the northwest of Ireland, Sligo Jazz Project (SJP) has, for over two decades, offered one of Europe’s most unique and inclusive jazz education experiences. Every July, SJP transforms the town of Sligo into a vibrant hub for jazz lovers, combining a world-class summer school with a dynamic festival of concerts and jam sessions that blur the lines between student and master, stage and classroom.
Founded in 2005 by Eddie Lee, Eddie McFarlane, Felip Carbonell, and Jim Meehan—alongside Sligo-born jazz guitarist Michael Nielsen—SJP was born from a vision to bring the global jazz community to Ireland’s west coast. Since then, it has become the largest and most accessible jazz education event in Europe, attracting participants aged 10 to 80 from around the world. At its core is a deep commitment to inclusivity, mentorship, and musical discovery.
Each year, approximately 30 world-class musician-educators arrive in Sligo to lead workshops, masterclasses, and ensembles by day, and perform in unforgettable concerts by night. The festival’s immersive format gives participants the rare opportunity to learn from—and jam with—international jazz greats in an informal, supportive setting. Students share meals with their mentors, perform alongside them, and form lasting musical bonds that continue well beyond the festival.
SJP’s legacy is seen in the remarkable number of young Irish and European musicians who have gone on to build professional careers after discovering jazz at the summer school. “Many young musicians who attended our summer school never played a jazz note before they came to Sligo Jazz,” explains co-founder and director Eddie Lee. In just the past few years, two Sligo pianists—both SJP alumni—won the Young Irish Jazz Musician Bursary Award in Limerick, and one, Nils Kavanagh, reached the finals of the BBC Young Jazz Musician in 2024.
Legendary artists such as Rufus Reid, Ernie Watts, Mike Stern, Liane Carroll, and Victor Wooten have graced SJP’s faculty, alongside rising stars like Melissa Aldana, Freddie Hendrix, and Sun-Mi Hong. Remarkably, each year’s faculty also includes a growing number of former summer school participants now carving out careers on the Irish, UK, and European jazz scenes—a testament to the project’s generational impact.
