{"id":759,"date":"2012-01-11T03:18:25","date_gmt":"2012-01-11T08:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/?p=759"},"modified":"2019-09-12T21:02:16","modified_gmt":"2019-09-13T01:02:16","slug":"nea-jazz-masters-jazz-at-lincoln-center-live-and-webcast-smash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2012\/01\/nea-jazz-masters-jazz-at-lincoln-center-live-and-webcast-smash.html","title":{"rendered":"NEA Jazz Masters @ Jazz at Lincoln Center live and webcast smash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The glory of living American jazz musicians filled Jazz at Lincoln Center last night to celebrate the 30th annual National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Masters fellowships &#8212; and some of the best news was the vitality of the music they played\u00c2\u00a0(webcast audio by WBGO and Sirius Radio,\u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.jalc.org\/neajazzmasters\/\">video at arts.gov)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_760\" style=\"width: 211px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/images.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-760\" class=\"size-full wp-image-760\" title=\"images\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/images.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"201\" height=\"251\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-760\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sheila Jordan, NEA Jazz Master &#8211; photo credit sought &#8211; no copyright infringement intended<\/p><\/div>\n<p>But of equally significance immediately was spread of the word that the Jazz Masters program will indeed continue into the future in regards to financial awards for selected Masters, for sure. \u00c2\u00a0As for celebratory ceremonies and productions such as the concert, press activities, luncheons and fellowship attending the 30th annual Jazz Masters awards, the future is less clear.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some highlights of what I saw and heard:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bobby Hutcherson, 72 and hooked to oxygen, sitting back from his vibes for brief rest between each chorus, ending his duo with pianist Kenny Barron improvising one of the most utterly spontaneous yet finely struck of final cadences.<\/li>\n<li>\u00c2\u00a0Frank Wess, turned 90 Jan. 4, blowing a tenor sax tribute to long gone but never forgot Lester Young, with young Benny Golson (83 on Jan. 25, 2012) fast on his tail.<\/li>\n<li>Irrepressible class of 2012 Jazz Master Sheila Jordan, 83, playfully getting an audience to sing along with her, &#8220;Bird!&#8221; and returning to scat with &#8217;12 JM Jimmy Owens playing flugelhorn on Ornette Coleman&#8217;s jaunty &#8220;When Will The Blues Leave?&#8221; &#8212; driven by &#8217;12 JM Jack DeJohnette, tethered by long-ago-named JM bassist Ron Carter, and with Ornette himself (a JM of course) listening from a front row.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This was music full of fun, a sense of possibility and jauntiness &#8212; nothing old fashioned about it, though sure enough a blues.<\/p>\n<p>A few minutes earlier Owens had played a touching unaccompanied flugelhorn solo on &#8220;Nobody Knows the Trouble I&#8217;ve Seen,&#8221; which he dedicated to the late Dr. Billy Taylor &#8212; having first lambasted New York City&#8217;s jazz performance clubs for reneging on promises purportedly made to a jazz musicians&#8217; pension fund. His blunt indictment might have seemed out of place at a fete of lifetime achievement, had not Jack DeJohnette in his acceptance speech cited today&#8217;s turbulence as like that of the &#8217;60s when he began his jazz career, and had &#8217;12 JM Charlie Haden, who stayed home for medical reasons, not earned a rep for similar truth to power with protests that got him arrested in Portugal, and that resulted in his classic Liberation Music Orchestra album.<\/p>\n<p>Wynton Marsalis, named an NEA Jazz Master along with his father Ellis and brothers Branford, Jason and Delfayo in 2011, sat in the trumpet section of his Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, backing the performing masters as necessary and delivering substantially swinging versions of big band works by Count Basie and Benny Carter. There was an ostensible bridging of generations in this Jazz Masters concert, as young up &#8216;n&#8217; comers Grace Kelly, Kris Bowers and Ambrose Akinmasure with older Masters Phil Woods, Wess-Golson and Liebman\/Carter\/DeJohnette, respectively. Altoist Kelly could aspire to Woods&#8217; naturalness, Bowers seemed more Monk- than Basie-like, and Akinmasure didn&#8217;t make a strong impression, though Liebman did, squeezing sardonic squiggles out of his soprano saxophone as if putting his reed under the most intense pressure.<\/p>\n<p>There were other nice moments, like Hubert Laws&#8217; rippling low notes against Ron Carter&#8217;s upright bass. Some nice moments of speech &#8212; as when Stanley Crouch, presenting the award who, like Von Freeman, wasn&#8217;t attending for health reasons, spoke of empathy as the essence of jazz.<\/p>\n<p>The Jazz Masters ceremonies, including press conference and photoshoot, luncheons, rehearsals as well as the two and a half-hour concert performed by Masters and Wynton Marsalis&#8217;s Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, are the occasion of an amazing gathering of living, aging yet still active jazz masters. At a photo shoot before the concert, Randy Weston, Ahmad Jamal, Muhal Richard Abrams, Annie Ross, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Lee Konitz (seemingly recuperated from a medical crisis last summer), Jimmy Scott (wearing one perfectly white shoe, one sneaker, and in a chair), Paquito d&#8217;Rivera, Candido, Laws, Carter, Jordan, Woods, Coleman, Sheila Jordan, DeJohnette, George Wein, George Avakian, Gunther Schuller, Dan Morgenstern, Yusef Lateef, Jimmy Heath, Joe Wilder, Roy Haynes . . . \u00c2\u00a0They posed for a formal portrait, then broke and let in\u00c2\u00a0NEA officers and about half the music photojournalists in the tri-state area (Jack Vartoogian, Norm Harris, Alan Nahigian, Mitchell Seidel, Frank Stewart, etc.) It was most entertaining.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.howardmandel.com\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">howardmandel.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/JazzBeyondJazz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Subscribe by Email or RSS<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/archives.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> All JBJ posts <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The glory of living American jazz musicians filled Jazz at Lincoln Center last night to celebrate the 30th annual National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Masters fellowships &#8212; and some of the best news was the vitality of the music they played\u00c2\u00a0(webcast audio by WBGO and Sirius Radio,\u00c2\u00a0video at arts.gov). But of equally significance immediately [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-759","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-main","8":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/images.jpeg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1i3CL-cf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":748,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2012\/01\/nea-jazz-masters-concert-webcast-program-to-continue.html","url_meta":{"origin":759,"position":0},"title":"NEA Jazz Masters concert webcast, program to continue","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"January 9, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The National Endowment of the Arts, formally inducting its 30th class of \u00c2\u00a0\"Jazz Masters\" with a concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center January 10 2012 that is being webcast live\u00c2\u00a0on\u00c2\u00a0WBGO Jazz 88.3FM\u00c2\u00a0 and\u00c2\u00a0SiriusXM Satellite Radio's Real Jazz Channel XM67, (starting at 7:30 pm ET) has announced that Jazz Masters will\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;main&quot;","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/neajazzmasters-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1140,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2012\/12\/my-suggestion-for-2014-nea-jazz-master-reggie-workman.html","url_meta":{"origin":759,"position":1},"title":"My suggestion for 2014 NEA Jazz Master: Reggie Workman","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"December 17, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Things may be somewhat up-for-grabs at the National Endowment for the Arts, with chair Rocco Landesman \u00c2\u00a0stepping down at year end (NEA Senior Deputy Chairman Joan Shigekawa will serve as the agency's acting head), but assuming the show will go on\u00c2\u00a0I urge\u00c2\u00a0Reggie Workman (b. 1937, Philadelphia) receive a 2014 NEA\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;main&quot;","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"bassist Reggie Workman","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/reggie-workman1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":293,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2010\/02\/nea_jazz_masters_as_new_yorker.html","url_meta":{"origin":759,"position":2},"title":"NEA Jazz Masters as New Yorkers","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"February 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Are all Jazz Masters in\/of NYC? Most, yes -- but can that last? My new City Arts column.\u00a0See photos that demonstrate the thesis. photo by Tom Pich:\u00a0back row, l to r: Rocco Landesman (NEA Chairman, NYC), Cedar Walton (NYC), Bobby Hutcherson, Bill Holman, Kenny Barron (NYC), Wayne Brown (NEA Director\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;main&quot;","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"NEA 2010 Jazz Masters Photo by Tom Pich.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/assets_c\/2010\/02\/NEA%202010%20Jazz%20Masters%20Photo%20by%20Tom%20Pich-thumb-420x278-12894.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":285,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2010\/01\/wynton_orch_play_nea_jazz_mast.html","url_meta":{"origin":759,"position":3},"title":"Wynton &#038; Orch play NEA Jazz Masters, on radio tonight!","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"January 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Just announced: WBGO, NPR and Sirius\/XM are broadcasting live and streaming on the web tonight's NEA Jazz Masters ceremony and concert with W. Marsalis and the LIncoln Center Jazz Orchestra performing works by Muhal Richard Abrams, Bill Holman, Bobby Hutcherson et al. Pianist Cedar Walter will perform with singer Annie\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;main&quot;","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":288,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2010\/01\/visionaries_photod_at_nea_jazz.html","url_meta":{"origin":759,"position":4},"title":"Visionaries photo&#8217;d at NEA Jazz Masters concert","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"January 14, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Just in -- \u00c2\u00a0Muhal Richard Abrams conducting the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and Yusef Lateef on tenor sax with percussionist Adam Rudolph, fine performance photography by Frank Stewart from the National Endowment for the Arts' Jazz Masters concert. My post on the concert is here, and the images are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;main&quot;","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adam Rudolph and 2010 NEA Jazz Master Yusef Lateef perform during the Awards Ceremony & Concert. Frank Stewart.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/assets_c\/2010\/01\/Adam%20Rudolph%20and%202010%20NEA%20Jazz%20Master%20Yusef%20Lateef%20perform%20during%20the%20Awards%20Ceremony%20%26%20Concert.%20Frank%20Stewart-thumb-460x306-12563.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1818,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2015\/04\/ann-meier-baker-nea-director-of-music-and-opera-on-her-new-job-and-nea-jazz-masters.html","url_meta":{"origin":759,"position":5},"title":"Ann Meier Baker, NEA director of Music and Opera, on her new job and NEA Jazz Masters","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"April 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm pleased to have interviewed Ann Meier Baker, who was appointed last October as the National Endowment for the Arts' director of Music and Opera \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a position that includes responsibilities for the U.S.'s federal support of jazz, such as the induction of NEA Jazz Masters, celebrated with a live-streamed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;main&quot;","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"ann","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/ann.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}