Kamasi Washington’s Heaven and Earth (Young Turks) got the album of the year nod at the U.S. independent music sector annual award show, the Libera Awards, presented by A2IM at the Ziegfeld Theatre on Thursday night (June 20). That LP also won the best jazz album award and was cited for best creative packaging.
The show capped the indie week, here in New York, which also included American Assn. of Independent Music annual conference, with panels, speakers and seminars on the indie label issues of the day.
In other awards, Domino Records was named large indie label of the year, while Partisan Records won the medium-sized category and Daptone Records won the small label segment.
The award ceremony also included Sub-Pop’s Jonathan Poneman receiving the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award; and recognized NPR as a champion of independent music, while artists such as Deva Mahal, Jean-Michel Blais, Sunflower Bean, Kadhja Bonet, among others and Hiss Golden Messenger performed.
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In other music awards, Charles Bradley’s Black Velvet (Daptone) won best R&B album; Awkwafina’s In Fina We Trust, and the band’s own self-named label through AWAL, won best hip-hop/rap album; Deafheaven’s Ordinary Corrupt Human Love (ANTI- Records) won best metal album; Courtney Barnett’s Tell Me How You Rally Feel (Mom + Pop) won best rock album; Khruangbin’s Con Todo El Mundo (Dead Oceans) named best outlier album; and the Pixies’ Come On Pilgrim…It’s Surfer Rosa (4AD) got the nod for best re-issue.
In still other awards, the recent Songwriters Hall of Fame honoree John Prine picked up the best American roots/folk album and the best country/Americana album for his The Tree of Forgiveness, on his own Oh Boy Records; while Fantastic Negrito’s Please Don’t Be Dead (Cooking Vinyl) won best blues album; Yves Tumor’s Safe In The Hands of (Warp Records) topped the best Dance/Electronic album; Bad Bunny’s X 100PRE (Rimas Entertainment) won best latin album; and Bombino’s “Deran” (Partisan) took best world album while Jean-Michel Blais’ Dans Ma Main, took the best classical album award.
Finally, Badbadnotgood (Innovative Leisure) was named best live act; while Idles’ Joy as an Act of Resistance (Partisan Records) got the break-through artist/release acknowledgement; while Warp Records picked up the marketing genius award for the Aphex Twins’ Collapse EP; and Mitski’s Nobody (Dead Oceans) won video of the year.