It was a thrill to find out this week that I won the 2014 Julian Award! The full name of the award is actually "Julian Award of Excellence for Emerging Canadian Jazz Artists", which is quite a mouthful, but explains what it's all about. Nominees for the award have to be Canadian, must have released an album containing original music in the past 14 months, and must not be signed to a major label. Hey, that describes me! Some more background: the award is offered by The Jazz Spectrum, a weekly radio show on CJSF 90.1 FM based out of Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, BC. And is named in honour of Patrick Julian, long time patron of the arts in Vancouver and board member of the Coastal Jazz and Blues Society. This year there were 6 nominees from across the country. The winner was decided by vote and apparently there were three times as many votes this year as last. (Between you and me, I think you, my awesome fans, are responsible for a good chunk of that jump.) Thank you to all of you who voted and supported me. I am grateful to you! When the show host, Peter Prentice, announced the winner of the award, he didn't say my name immediately. Instead, he said, "The winner is...." and then Life So Sweet started playing. I was just finishing up making dinner and my whole family was in the kitchen, so we all cheered. And then we sat down to eat dinner. The award comes with a cash prize of $500, which will be very welcome for the recording project I'm doing in 2 weeks... but more about that another time. (P.S. If you love vocal jazz, go discover the runner-up for the award, the wonderful Jordana Talsky.)