The panel of acknowledged jazz authorities headed by its non-voting chairman, Cim Meyer (Denmark), had the following members at its last meeting in 2003:

Filippo Bianchi (Italy), journalist, radio-producer, founder of the Europe Jazz Network, editor of the magazine Musica Jazz

Alex Dutilh (France), editor of the magazine Jazzman, writer, reviewer

Peter H. Larsen (Denmark), journalist, radio-producer, reviewer and editor

Dan Morgenstern (USA), jazz historian, author, editor, and archivist active in the jazz field since 1958; director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University since 1976

Brian Priestley (Great Britain), pianist, author, co-editor of The Rough Guide to Jazz: The Essential Companion to Artists & Albums, writer, radio-producer

Boris Rabinowitsch (Denmark), former pianist, writer, jazz critic in the influential Copenhagen newspaper Politiken

The JAZZPAR Prize Criteria
Many candidates were discussed every year. To reach its decisions The Committee had only a few predetermined criteria or rather guidelines to follow, the most important being that The Prize could be awarded only to an internationally known and fully active jazz artist who was specially deserving of further acclaim. A great number of jazz musicians fully satisfy such criteria.

Openness a keyword
It was never the intention of JAZZPAR that The Winners should represent a special artistic approach, style or line. On the contrary, it was always essential for The Committee to manifest openness. The aim was not to bestow still another honor on those already firmly established in Easy Street but as occasion requires to broaden the scope, to stimulate and facilitate the activity of choice artists. The quality of the music and the situation in which it is created were the decisive factors. The long-term vision was that society some day and to the full extent will acknowledge jazz as one of the important art forms of our time.