Free tickets now available for the next (last?) NEA Jazz Masters Awards Ceremony and Concert

From the NEA via Jazz at Lincoln Center:

Washington, DC - Tickets for the National Endowment for the Arts 2012 Jazz Masters award ceremony and concert will be available to the public on Tuesday, November 1, 2011.  The award ceremony and concert that each year recognizes the newest members of this elite group of jazz artists and will also celebrate 30 years of honoring the best of jazz.

More on the Jazz Masters, which just might survive

DownBeat continues the story about the NEA Jazz Masters program, which the NEA proposed eliminating, to which the House Appropriations Committee said, "Not so fast." Michael West points out potential hazards that await the program if it continues, including budget cuts and the lingering bruise left by the NEA's boot on its behind.

Is there hope for the Jazz Masters?

In his blog "Jazz Beyond Jazz," Howard Mandel reports that "the National Endowment for the Arts has been directed by the US House Appropriations Committee in its report to Interior to continue the American Jazz Masters Fellowships and dump its proposed American Artists of the Year honors." Read more here, with links.

The Last Masters: The 2012 NEA Jazz Masters are announced

Talk about bittersweet. The official press release arrived in today’s email, naming the recipients of the 2012 NEA Jazz Masters Award, our nation’s highest honor in jazz. Each of the five recipients will receive $25,000 and be feted in January at an awards ceremony and concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Hall. Those tickets will go fast, because after the 2012 awards, the Jazz Masters program becomes the Museum of Jazz Masters.

This year’s honorees, the Last Masters, are drummer Jack DeJohnette, saxophonist Von Freeman, bassist Charlie Haden, vocalist Sheila Jordan, and trumpeter/educator Jimmy Owens. As of 2012, the 30-year-old program will be defunct, crossed off the NEA’s budget, replaced by the watered-down “American Artist of the Year Awards,” in which jazz artists (like, for example, Dave Holland) will compete for recognition alongside dancers, actors, filmmakers, visual artists, and all kinds of musicians, not to mention basketweavers and quiltmakers. The chances of a jazz artist rising to the top are similar to those of Esperanza Spalding winning the Best New Artist Grammy. True, she won it, but how unlikely was that? Lightning-strike unlikely.

Howard Mandel has much to say about the new Jazz Masters and the end of the program. The press release, on the other hand, says nothing about the end of the program, probably because no one wants to rain on the winners’ parade. That’s understandable. Let’s give them the spotlight, the applause, and the acclaim they all deserve for their hard work, dedication, brilliance, musicianship, creativity, and no doubt plenty of sacrifice and suffering incurred during their many years of service to jazz.

Once a Jazz Master, always a Jazz Master, and there are now 124 men and women who bear that title. And hundreds more who will never bear it. Great artists now in their 40s and 50s, young artists still in their teens, kids practicing their Hanon finger exercises. It matters when a nation honors its artists. And it matters when a nation doesn’t.

NEA Jazz Masters Award gets the axe in new budget proposal

I'd heard rumors but hoped they weren't true. The National Endowment for the Arts plans to eliminate its Jazz Masters award.

2012 will be the 30th and final year of this prestigious award, the nation's highest honor for jazz, often called the only American art form. Since 1982, 119 artists and groups have received the Jazz Masters fellowship, which includes a relatively modest $25,000 grant and opportunities to participate in educational programs across the country.

I'm guessing that when the Jazz Masters award goes away, so will the rest of the NEA's jazz initiative, including NEA Jazz in the Schools, NEA Jazz Masters Live, and the Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Project. NEA Jazz Masters Live is administered by Arts Midwest, one of six regional arts organizations in the United States, with offices in downtown Minneapolis. Late last year, I worked with Arts Midwest to award the 2011 NEA Jazz Masters Live Grants, which will send several Jazz Masters to communities across the nation to perform, teach, and spread the jazz message.

The Jazz Masters awards (and also specific folk, opera, and other honorifics) will be replaced by something called the NEA American Artists of the Year awards. These will be given to "individuals who have advanced artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities." Awards will be made in two categories: Performing Arts (dance/music/opera/musical theater/theater) and Visual Arts (design/media arts/museums/visual arts, including crafts). Eligible individuals will include not only those who have devoted a lifetime to their art, but also those who have made an "extraordinary contribution" at mid-career.  (Quotes and information from the National Endowment for the Arts Appropriations Request for Fiscal Year 2012. You can read the whole thing here.)

NEA Jazz Masters Awards Ceremony and Concert tonight, live and online

Go here at 6:30 pm CST (7:30 pm EST) to watch this year's NEA Jazz Masters Awards Ceremony and Concert, streaming live from Rose Theater at Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center.

This year's ceremony celebrates the lifetime achievements of Orrin Keepnews, Hubert Laws, David Liebman, Johnny Mandel, and the Marsalis Family. The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and Wynton Marsalis will perform. Several of the honorees will join them, including Liebman, Laws, and the Marsalis Family. The evening will also feature video tributes to each 2011 Master.

The event will take place at Jazz at Lincoln Center and feature the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in a program dedicated to the honorees' works. Several of the honorees will perform with the orchestra during the event. The evening also will feature video tributes to each of the honorees.

Can't watch? Listen live on Sirius XM Satellite Radio's Real Jazz Channel 70, WBGO jazz radio (NYC) on 88.3 FM or online, and at NPR Music online.

In NYC? The concert is sold out but standby tickets are available today at the JALCO box office, Broadway at 60th street, ground floor. The line begins at 6:30 p.m. If you don't get a ticket, you can watch a simulcast at Rose Hall.

___

Information from www.arts.gov

Panel discussion with 2011 NEA Jazz Masters tonight, live and online

The NEA and Jazz at Lincoln Center will present a free panel discussion with the 2011 NEA Jazz Masters tonight, January 10, starting at 7 pm EST (6 pm CST).

The 2011 Masters are Hubert Laws, David Liebman, Johnny Mandel, Ellis Marsalis Jr. (representing the Marsalis Family), and Orrin Keepnews. The discussion will be led by moderator A.B. Spellman and will focus on the artists' careers.

If you're in NYC, you can see it live at the Agnes Varis and Karl Leichtman Studio in the Irene Diamond Education Center at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Broadway at 60th St. The event is free to the public, first come, first served. Doors at 6:30.

If you're not, you can watch and listen live through the NEA's UStream page.

2011 NEA Jazz Masters Announced

On Thursday, the NEA announced the winners of the 2011 NEA Jass Masters Award: flutist Hubert Laws, saxophonist/flutist/composer David Liebman, composer/arranger/trumpeter/trombonist Johnny Mandel, jazz producer/author Orrin Keepnews (winner of the award for jazz advocacy), and the Marsalis family: pianist/educator Ellis Jr., saxophonist/composer/bandleader Branford, trumpeter/composer/educator/bandleader Wynton, trombonist Delfeayo, and percussionist/vibraphonist Jason.

I don't get the family award. (Lois Gilbert of Jazz Corner put it this way: "I'm kind of surprised at an all encompassing Marsalis family honor being named 2011 NEA Jazz Masters.") I agree that the Marsalis family has been and is important to jazz. Although each has occasionally said or done boneheaded things (except, maybe, for father Ellis), I'm not a Marsalis basher and never will be. But--Jazz Masters?

Here's how the NEA describes the award:

The National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Fellowship is the highest honor that our nation bestows upon a jazz musician. Each year since 1982, the program has elevated to its ranks a select number of living legends who have made exceptional contributions to the advancement of jazz.

For the NEA Jazz Masters, the selection criteria are artistic excellence and significance of the nominees' contributions to the development and performance of jazz. The Arts Endowment will honor musicians who represent a range of styles and instruments. These awards will be categorical, e.g., a rhythm instrumentalist, pianist, solo instrumentalist, vocalist, and an arranger or composer.

Why not honor Ellis as paterfamilias, performer, composer, and educator? Although "educator" isn't one of the categories, and neither is "paterfamilias." I'm not saying that Ellis doesn't deserve to be honored and respected. But is he a Jazz Master? Wynton and Branford, one day, yes. Right now they seem kind of young to wear the Jazz Master hat. Delfeayo and Jason? Waaaay too soon to tell.

I'm not sure what the "family" award says about the Jazz Masters program. Currently this leads every story about this year's awards. "America's first family of jazz can now claim the nation's highest jazz honor" (AP). Most egregiously: "The patriarch of the first family of New Orleans jazz, Ellis Marsalis, will be honored along with his four sons as Jazz Masters by the National Endowment for the Arts...Three other artists also will be honored..." (WWLTV). We learn who the "three other artists" are at the very end of the article, almost as an afterthought. Let's hope the spotlight doesn't stay on the unusual "family" award while Laws, Liebman, and Mandel (and Orrin Keepnews) are left in the shadows.

Free tickets for NEA Jazz Masters Awards Ceremony in January

Here's where to be at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 12, 2010: in the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center in NYC, where the 2010 NEA Jazz Masters will be honored.

The National Endowment for the Arts and JALC announced today that free tickets will be distributed to the general public at jalc.org/concerts or at the JALC Box Office on Broadway at 60th Street (Monday-Saturday, 10am to 6 pm; Sundays, 12 pm to 6 pm). Limit 2 tickets per person.

It's good that this is a free event. When it was part of the now-defunct IAJE, the ceremony was too pricey for most people to attend.

This year's Jazz Masters are Muhal Richard Abrams, Kenny Barron, Bill Holman, Bobby Hutcherson, Yusef Lateef, Annie Ross, and Cedar Walton. It's expected that 26 fellow Jazz Masters will also be present including Toshiko Akiyoshi, Ornette Coleman, Paquito d'Rivera, Ramsey Lewis, and Dr. Billy Taylor.

The event will be both awards ceremony and concert, with video tributes to each of the 2010 honorees. For those who can't be there (which sadly includes yours truly), it will be broadcast live on Sirius XM Satellite Radio and WGBO radio (88.3 in NYC, online for the rest of us).

Read the full press release here.

2010 NEA Jazz Masters named

This just in from the NEA (thanks, Janis, for forwarding it to me):

Washington, DC - The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) today announced the recipients of the 2010 NEA Jazz Masters Award -- the nation's highest honor in this distinctly American music. The eight recipients will each receive a $25,000 grant award and be publicly honored in an awards ceremony and concert on Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center.

The eight 2010 NEA Jazz Masters are:

Muhal Richard Abrams
Pianist, Composer, Educator
New York, NY

Kenny Barron
Pianist, Composer, Educator
Brooklyn, NY

Bill Holman
Composer, Arranger, Saxophonist
Los Angeles, CA

Bobby Hutcherson
Vibraphonist, Marimba Player, Composer
Montara, CA

Yusef Lateef
Saxophonist, Flutist, Oboist, Composer, Educator
Amherst, MA

Annie Ross
Vocalist
New York, NY

Cedar Walton
Pianist, Composer
Brooklyn, NY

George Avakian, a jazz producer, manager, critic, and educator from Riverdale, New York, will receive the 2010 A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Award for Jazz Advocacy.

See the full press release at http://www.arts.gov/news/news09/2010-NEA-Jazz-Masters.html

Toots Thielemans

Toots Thielemans has been named a 2009 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, America's highest jazz honor.

He last came to the Dakota in April 2006 with his good friend and frequent touring partner, pianist Kenny Werner. Toots was about to turn 84.

Seeing him live is an unforgettable experience. Like being showered with gifts by someone who loves you and every gift is just what you want. Like sitting somewhere with a beautiful view and the sun warming your face. Like understanding that life is a mix of the sweet and the bitter and that's how it's supposed to be. Impossibly corny? Can't help it. I adore Toots.

Notes and the playlist from that evening in April 2006:

Toots opens by saying, "I got the jazz virus during the German occupation. I got infected." [He was born in 1922 and would have been 19. His family fled to France, then moved back home when the Nazis occupied that country.]

(1) "Summertime." A song I've heard a thousand times but never like this.

(2) Steve Swallow's "Falling Grace." Optimistic and wise.

(3) "Autumn Leaves." Toots says, "When a musician doesn't know what to play, he certainly will play 'Autumn Leaves'."

(4) "Tender is the Night," a Jimmy Van Heusen theme. Lush and nostalgic. Kenny Werner is playing lots of electronic keyboards tonight, with sustained chords and reverb.

This is jazz that makes you want to kiss the person you're with, not out of desire or need but out of generosity. After this tune, Toots gives the thumbs-up to Kenny.

(5) Herbie Hancock's "Dolphin Dance." Toots tells us he hired Herbie before he [Herbie] went with Miles, 43 years ago; he was recently Herbie's guest of honor at Carnegie Hall.

(6) "No More Blues." Sometimes music is the one thing you can count on to deliver no more blues.

(7) Jobim's "Wave." Toots says, "There is more than osmosis between Brazil's music and the jazz evolution." He names some of the people he has played with over the years, then says, "And now I'm practically married to Kenny Werner." The evident affection between them is part of what makes their performances remarkable and memorable.

(8) Bill Evans' "Time Remembered." Music so beautiful I want to weep. Kenny plays a lovely solo; Toots puts his hand on his heart and smiles.

Finally:

(9) Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" mixed with something by Nasciemento. Toots became a naturalized American citizen in 1957, and he's proud of it. "I came for the music and got to play with my idols," he says. And now it's the other way around.



Coda

I wondered how Toots came by his nickname. I found the answer in an interview he gave to Les Tomkins in 1978:

"It happened way back in Belgium, in 1946. We had a little amateur band, called Le Jazz Hot, and I was the up-and-coming fellow playing the guitar in Belgium. You know, I was playing like Django Rheinhardt, Charlie Christian—a combination of whatever was played then; it was just before the advent of bebop, I would say. But my name, Jean Thielemans—that doesn’t swing at all. Names on the scene at that time were Toots Mondello, who was with Benny Goodman, and the arranger Toots Camarata; so they said: 'That’s it—Toots.' I said: 'Okay, why not?'— it started like that, and it stuck. It’s been a lucky label, I guess, through the years."