Congrats: Nippertown’s Own Andrzej Pilarczyk, Rudy Lu, Susan Brink…

Friday the 13th isn’t always an unlucky day.

Last Friday, the NYC-based Jazz Journalists Association revealed the nominees for the prestigious 16th annual JJA Jazz Awards, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to announce that Nippertown chief photographer Andrzej Pilarczyk and Nippertown contributors Rudy Lu and Susan Brink are among the nominees.

Pilarczyk earned a nod in the Photo of the Year category for his in-concert photograph of saxman Houston Person, which he snapped last year at A Place for Jazz at the First Unitarian Society’s Whisperdome in Schenectady. Pilarczyk also regularly contributes to AlbanyJazz.com.

Lu also snagged a nomination in the Photo of the Year category for his live black and white shot of vibraphonist Joe Locke in concert at Planet Arts’ one2one performance at the Athens Cultural Center in Athens last fall. Lu also regularly contributes to AlbanyJazz.com. (Locke also picked up a nomination in the Mallets Instrumentalists of the Year category, as did Albany native Stefon Harris.)

Brink served as associate producer of “DMo CBB,” which earned a nomination for Short Form Jazz News Video of the Year. Diane Moser’s Composers Big Band is the focus of the seven-and-a-half minute film by Dennis Connors.

Meanwhile, Capital Region jazz journalist R.J. DeLuke also earned a Photo of the Year nomination for his shot of Ravi Coltrane from the Newport Jazz Festival in August, 2011.

Winners of select categories will be announced throughout the month of June, with Lifetime Achievement, Musician, Record, and Male and Female Jazz Vocalists of the Year awarded at a party at the Blue Note Jazz Club in NYC on Wednesday, June 20.

Congrats!

Here’s a slideshow of the Photo of the Year nominees…

To view all of the JJA 2012 Jazz Award nominees, go here…