Then at least, you have a fighting chance of hearing them. But once a year, as it's the season of goodwill, the rules are relaxed a little and we hand out the awards to the ghosts of good music past.

The Phew award goes to Brad Mehldau, who unveiled a new trio to his faithful Irish audience in February. The general feeling in Vicar Street was that new drummer Jeff Ballard seems to have startled a fine pianist out of a complacency that had crept into his playing over recent years.

Drummers, of course, always get a fair shake in this paper, and two American heavy hitters added a few more lines to the legend of JJ Smyths early in the year. The Tail Wagging the Dog award goes to Adam Nussbaum who effortlessly overpowered the young German front line that had the temerity to hire him for a tour in February. Then barely three weeks later, frequent visitor Keith Copeland showed a packed JJs that his powers are undiminished by his recent illness, and the love in the small upstairs room was palpable.

Honorary citizenship cannot be far away.

The David and Goliath award goes to the Bray Jazz Festival in April for proving that a small festival can succeed creatively and draw the crowds, with a riveting performance in the Mermaid Arts Centre from pianist Andrew Hill, whose classic album Point of Departure has proved exactly that for many of the current generation. The Cork Jazz Festival in contrast, seemed determined to play it safe this year with plenty of hard swinging Americans like Benny Golson and Joe Lovano, but little attention paid to the fresher sounds coming out of Europe.

The audience for music from outside the favoured Anglophone region continued to grow in size and discernment. Malian guitarist Afel Bocoum gently rocked a packed Whelans in June and then on the summer solstice, a lucky few beheld the glories of Qawwali music in Liberty Hall with Farid Ayaz Qawwal and Brothers from Pakistan, and then, just last month, Romanian wedding band Mahal Rai Banda played their hearts out and filled the dance floor of the new Tripod venue in Harcourt Street, with not a DJ in sight.

But the Most Weclome Visitor award goes to Brazillian icon, Joyce, who brought her hip contemporary bossanova to the town of Rathmelton, Co. Donegal for the Eargiall festival in July, and then returned three weeks later, and turned a rainy Farmleigh into a beach party.

On the home front, saxophonist Michael Buckley debuted his Translations project in the Mermaid in Bray, which featured his collaboration with New York pianist Greg Burk, and Sean-nos singer Eamon O'Doncha. Ronan Guilfoyle released Live in Dublin, one of the albums of the year on the Italian Auand label, featuring Jim Black and Julian Arguelles.

Residency of the Year goes to pianist Phil Ware, whose summit series at JJs set the standard high early in the year with a glorious month of Louis Stewart in the guest chair.

2006 marked an auspicious moment in the history of jazz education in Ireland with the first graduates from the degree programme in Newpark Music Centre collecting actual awards from the minister of education herself. Jazz remains a Cinderella art form in many respects, regarded with polite bemusement by the musical establishment, but the degree status is a very encouraging and hard-won advance. But perhaps the most encouraging event of the year was the two nights of concerts in the Project which launched the Improvised Music Company's new Artists initiative, which revealed a vibrant and dynamic younger scene, bursting with talent and creativity. Now all they need is an audience.