The celebration of one of the greatest double bass players ever and of the European way to jazz.

The Jimmy Woode European Jazz Award was instituted in memory of the famed double bass player by his daughter Shawnn Monteiro and the Director of the Tuscia in Jazz Festival Italo Leali, in 2006, just one year after his passing. Jimmy Woode spent his career carving his deep double bass sound into recordings by Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespe, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Lionel Hampton.
From the beginning, the participation to this contest was restricted to musicians under 30 years of age and it was decided that the jury in the final phase of the contest would be made up only of International musicians.
Since then, the jury has been composed of musicians of the caliber of Shawnn Monteiro, Mulgrew Miller, Benny Golson, Eddie Gomez, George Garzone, Buster Williams, Bonny Durham, Jimmy Cobb, Kenny Barron, Ray Mantilla, George Cables, Joey De Francesco, Francisco Mela, Kioshi Kitagawa, Dave Kikosky, Tony Monaco, Antonio Sanchez, Rick Margitza and Kurt Rosenwinkel, just to name a few.
Each edition’s winner of the award is entitled to the recording of a CD with the indipendent label Tuscia In Jazz Live, which is also distributed internationally, with costs fully supported by the festival.
The Jimmy Woode European Jazz Award brings to the Tuscia In jazz festival young talents from the entire country and from all over the world and in the past editions it has contributed launching the career of many young talents including Leonardo Corradi, Jessica Brando, Domenico Sanna, Luke Celenza, Andrea Rea, Elio Coppola, Marco Bardoscia, Francesco Marziani, Mirco Rubegni, Grace Kelly, Daniele Raimondi, Enrico Mianulli, Sandro Savino e Vladimir Kostadinovich.
From the 2011 edition, the Jimmy Woode European Jazz Award, pays honour to the European jazz that Jimmy Wooded met in his long European experience and especially in his Berlin experience, by making it compulsory for the participants in the contest to include original works by European authors and standards selected in those contained in the European Real Book.

Jimmy Woode

Jimmy Woode (born James Bryant Woode, 23 september 1926) has been one the most important double bass players in the history of jazz. Since the beginning of his career he’s on stage with musicians as Nat Pierce, Flip Phillips and Zoot Sims, and he also plays with amazing singers as Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. In 1955 he’s invited by Duke Ellington to join his orchestra, where he’ll perform for the next five years. Then he moves to Europe, where he’ll find his elective homeland, and joins the Clarke-Boland Big Band. In the 60′s and 70′s Jimmy tours with many artists as Don Byas and Johnny Griffin, and he also works in radio, TV and recording studios. In 1988 he’s in the Ellington Orchestra reunion and partners with the great drummer Sam Woodyard. In the 90′s, alreasy fond of the old world, keeps touring the whole Europe, performs with the best jazzplayers in the world, makes some of his most relevant recordings and he also stands out as an extraordinary singer and composer. In the last year he’s in the quartet of his daughter, the famous singer Shawnn Monteiro, and records an album with Jimmy Cobb and Clarke Terry. He becomes first a guest and then a friend of the Tuscia In Jazz untill the 2005, year of his death.