The National Endowment of the Arts panel determining recipients of the annual Jazz Masters Fellowships is a small one. In the interest of transparency, the NEA has supplied the names of panelists who chose the class of ’09. It comprises five previously named Fellows, one “layperson,” one independent record producer, and two longtime jazz adminstrator-activists (who both happen to be honorees of the Jazz Journalists Association’s “A Team”).
Of course, if John McCain becomes president, it’s all moot (as Lee Rosenbaum reports, the GOP has no arts policy in its platform, and I remember writing to McCain during the 1980s objecting to his desire to de-fund the NEA). He’s clearly no jazz candidate — whereas Barack Obama spoke at the site of the Detroit Jazz Festival, on Labor Day, and San Francisco musicians are lining up behind him with a fundraising jam in San Francisco, October 13.
But that’s another posting: back to the NEA panelists –Â