Sydney bassist Phil Stack has been awarded first prize in the 2008 National Jazz Awards at the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz.
Ben Waples was second and Sam Anning took third place.
Stack, best known for his work in rock band Thirsty Merc, receives $6000 plus a studio recording session for Jazztrack with Mal Stanley on ABC Classic FM and an invitation to perform in the Stonnington Jazz concert series in Melbourne in May, 2009.
Ben Waples, also from Sydney, receives prize money of $3000 prize money, and Sam Anning, from Melbourne, $1500.
The National Jazz Awards feature a different instrument every year. Last year, it was guitar; this year, bass, for the first time since 2001, when the judges gave the first prize to Brendan Clarke.
The judges in 2008 were pianist Mike Nock, and leading bass players Craig Scott and Jonathan Zwartz.
The National Jazz Awards have been staged since 1990 as part of the Wangaratta Festival Of Jazz. Previous winners include pianists Barney McAll and Mark Fitzgibbon, saxophonists Julien Wilson and Roger Manins, trumpeters Scott Tinkler and Phil Slater, singers Michelle Nicolle and Elana Stone, guitarists Steve Magnusson and James Muller.
