The shortlist for this year's Scottish Jazz Awards has been decided, following long deliberations by a jury of 12.

The 276 nominations has been whittled to a trio of contenders in each category, with a dozen albums in the Jazz Album Of The Year to be selected by online public vote.

The winners will be revealed at a red carpet event at Dirty Martini in Le Monde, Edinburgh, on October 21, and will include a Lifetime Achievement Award to guitarist Jim Mullen and the Award For Services To Jazz to BBC radio producer and Glasgow Jazz Festival board member Keith Loxam.

The shortlisted artists in the other categories are: Best Vocalist - Carol Kidd, Judith Williams, and Alison Affleck; Instrumentalist - Brian Kellock, Konrad Wiszniewski and Martin Kershaw; Media - Radio Scotland's Jazz House, journalist Rob Adams and broadcaster and promoter Alan Steadman; International Artist - Joe Temperley, Tim Kliphuis, Champion Fulton.

Innovation - Brass Jaw's schools workshops, New Focus, Tinderbox; Ensemble - New Focus, Rose Room, Brass Jaw; Education Work - Tinderbox, Richard Michael, Richard Ingham; Emerging Artist - Brodie Jarvie, Euan Stevenson, Ruaridh Pattison; and Live Jazz Experience - Scottish National Jazz Orchestra's In The Spirit Of The Duke, Edinburgh's Jazz Bar, and New Focus.

The full list can be viewed at the Scottish Jazz Federation website, where voting opens today at 10am in the Best Album category, with the ballot running until 5pm on Friday.

Recordings by Breach, Havanna Swing, Tom Gibbs, Tom Bancroft's Trio Red, Das Contras, the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, Ali Affleck, Brass Jaw, Euan Stephenson and Konrad Wiszniewski, Euan Burton, Graeme Stephen, and Jonathan Silk are in contention.

Half a dozen Herald readers will be joining Scotland's jazz glitterati for the announcement of the winners in all categories a week on Monday - see below.

l scottishjazzfederation.com