Specialist independent label Rattle Records are already celebrating a win in the 2019 NZ Music Awards season – but are just not sure who it will be that picks up the 2019 NZ Jazz Awards Tui.

This year’s three finalists for the title of 2019 Best Jazz Artist; Antipodes for ‘Good Winter’, DOG for ‘No Dogs Allowed’, and GRG67 for ‘The Thing’ are all artists/albums released on Rattle.

DOG includes four of this country’s most renowned jazz musicians, composers and educators in Kevin Field, Ron Samsom, Roger Manins and Olivier Holland. Their self-titled album debut won the Best Jazz Album Tui in 2015 and the local supergroup’s equally impressive 2018 follow up, ‘No Dogs Allowed’, looks to hold a good lead on a repeat.

Antipodes features Luke Sweeting, Jake Baxendale and Callum Allardice. ‘Good Winter’ is the ensemble’s first studio album, following four years of touring and live recordings throughout Australasia. Roger Manins also features in third finalist GRG67, created as a vehicle to help bring his own musical visions to life. The remaining GRG67 personnel are Michael Howell, Mostyn Cole and Tristan Deck, and their album titled ‘The Thing’ is a collection of Manins’ compositions developed with these musicians in mind.

The Recorded Music NZ Best Jazz Artist Tui Award and the APRA Best Jazz Composition trophy will be presented at an invite-only event on the final evening of the Wellington Jazz Festival, Sunday, June 9. The three works in the running for the Best Jazz Composition are Callum Allardice for Chungin’, Grant Hughson for Follow The Sugar To The Gee, and Jasmine Lovell-Smith for Cerulean Haze.

Anyone looking for a safe bet would likely be putting their chips on Callum Allardice who is looking for a three-peat – the Nelson musician took out the inaugural Best Jazz Composition Award in 2016 and followed that up by winning again in 2017.