Manfred Eicher and ECM win Downbeat 2009 Award

Echoing the results of last year's poll, Manfred Eicher and ECM are voted Producer of the Year and Label of the Year in the 57th Annual DownBeat Critics Poll. This double-win is announced in the August issue of the venerable US jazz magazine (founded 1934).

The awards arrive in ECM's 40th anniversary year. It was in the autumn of 1969 that Eicher founded his label; seven years later, in 1976, he won DownBeat's Top Producer award for the first time.

The 57th Critics Poll includes ECM musicians past and present in almost all of its categories, with Keith Jarrett taking first place slots for Top Pianist and Best Jazz Group (the 'Standards' trio with Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette). Steve Swallow is, once again, #1 in the Electric Bass category, and old friends Bill Frisell, Gary Burton and Chick Corea are also first-place winners.

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