Our dialogue on the black audience for creative music, which began with filmmaker-educator Natalie Bullock Brown, vocalist-educator Alison Crockett, and vocalist Angela Stribling, has stimulated some very interesting follow-ups. The first comes from an old friend, the distinguished writer, editor and author Robert Fleming. Robert and I grew up on the East side of Cleveland and I can remember many an hour spent in Fleming’s hothouse 3rd floor walk-up spinning the latest jazz sides and postulating on the music and musicians. Giving full credit where it is due, Robert Fleming is one of those responsible for shaping my sensibilities where this music is concerned. As fledgling writers one of our greatest joint thrills was our two-hour interview encounter with Miles Davis during a kinetic week at the old Smiling Dog Saloon, back in our days of endless contributions to various so-called alternative weekly papers around the area.

The second contribution in this installment comes from the young aspiring DC-area singer-jazz presenter Chad Carter. I’ve been mightily impressed with Chad’s zeal to learn this music and its interior elements from several perspectives. Some months ago I encouraged Chad to attend the Jazz Education Network conference in Louisville earlier this month. Everywhere I turned at the conference there was Chad, soaking up the knowledge, meeting & greeting people from all walks of the jazz life, seizing the opportunity with a refreshing thoughtfulness. In addition to developing his recording and performing career as a singer, Chad and his equally zealous father Ted – with invaluable encouragement and assists from his mom – has turned Monday nights into jazz nights at the Silver Spring, MD restaurant Vicino’s, crafting a steady and rewarding schedule of performances by many of DC’s finest, and several ringers from Harlem as well. In turn he has also performed at the Lenox Lounge.

ROBERT FLEMING

The African American audience for creative music is there, yet small in number but just as passionate. Stats and those responsible for them only count audiences as those between ages 15 to 40. Very few of that age group goes to anything but concerts of rap music. In that age group, I think some of those folks would go to concerts if they were not priced out of their budget. If it was a toss-up between Christian McBride and Missy Elliot, or Sonny Rollins and Snoop Dogg… then the rap representatives would win.

Not only are the young people priced out of these concerts, but all of us as well. Even the boomers. Going to see Keith Jarrett at Carnegie Hall or Cecil Taylor at Town Hall costs an arm and a leg. Exposure to something new is vital, especially when one is young. When I was a sprout, I saw Satchmo at the Home and Flower Show, and George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra doing Mozart and Brahms in a free concert sponsored by my junior high school. Exposure meant seeing Luis Bunuel’s “Un Chien Andalou” and Truffaut’s “400 Blows” in high school with Mr. Mucha, my Spanish teacher.

Those who own the venues are greedy and will do anything to make a profit. As long as tickets go up and up, it will be only an elite, white audience who will witness our music and culture. At some point, those who have the means will have to pull back their thirst for profits and dividends and allow our music and culture to survive. I’m saddened by your situation at your festival in Cleveland. [Editor’s note: Earlier I related how Tri-C JazzFest struggles to engage African American audience members for ticketed shows, but has no problems attracting a robust black audience for our free concerts component. We’ll expound on that in an upcoming installment of this dialogue.]

If there is ever a dire time in our communities and so many downhearted people in need of reasonable, refreshing entertainment, this is it. Keep up the good fight.

CHAD CARTER

This is a discussion that’s been needed for so long and is needed often. I recall reading a piece in JazzTimes back in 2003 by Ron Wynn that asked the same question about where the Black audience is for Jazz. Here we are 8 plus years later asking the same question. As a jazz artist and jazz presenter, this is an issue that I know exists all too well.

Here’s an additional idea to go along with Brother [Nicholas] Payton‘s BAM acronym. I’ve coined the term or acronym BLUHM – Black Unabridged History Music (pronounced Bloom), aka Jazz. I’ve always felt that since before, but particularly during and after slavery, that our music has been the most accurate accounting of our history as a people in the United States of America. Through our music, we have always addressed our happiness, fears, sorrows, dreams, struggles, and our triumphs… our stories. For a people who were stripped from our culture and homeland, our music has sort of been our USB memory stick, our unofficial, official record of our experience in the world as told by us, through us, for us and ultimately for the world. Another term to call our music could be TORIG – The Original Music – since we come from the continent of the origin of humankind; it makes sense to refer to the music in kind.

The question Willard poses about the Black audience is an interesting one. This issue in many ways underpins the greater question of our “community” as a whole. I believe sisters [Natalie Bullock] Brown, [Alison] Crockett, and [Angela] Stribling have all hit on things that are part of the complex equation of regaining OUR community. When segregation ended and integration began, we gave birth to the beginning of the erosion of OUR COMMUNITY. The mistake we made was as the song by Mercer and Bloom says, “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread, and so I come to you my love, my heart above my head…” As human beings, we yearned for love and acceptance in America. We wanted the American dream. When we were “accepted” we ran for the brass ring at the expense of the brass rings we forged in our own community. One of those brass rings was our oral history through song, jazz in particular. To have access to “things” is one thing but nothing can ever replace the wealth we shared as a community. We did not survive all those years of slavery and torture through dumb luck. There was pride, ingenuity, love, wisdom, ambition, etc., etc… On some level we failed to protect the strengths we developed through our survival of slavery to the end of Jim Crow. Our resolve got watered down… spread out and shared among others not of our own community. Thus our collective strength has been tremendously weakened. It goes back to the simple but true statement of “Together we stand, divided we fall.” Well, we might not feel like we are falling but some would say we are going down slow and slow is relative depending on one’s perspective on what “slow” means.

We must accept our own diversity and embrace it, nourish it, and acknowledge ALL of it, good, bad, and ugly as OUR COMMUNITY. There have been numerous attempts to form our community via the internet and black business directories, etc…. but until we really get a centralized method of coming together, it will remain a truly daunting task, infighting and fear of corruption exists in any and every community. Therefore, as twisted as this may sound, if there is going to be corruption, and generally speaking, there is, why not have the corruption take place within our community, try to minimize it and at the end of the day that which does not exist, at least the money and resources are staying in our community… at least we hope so. Herein lies the problem with integration, integration created outside community opportunity and nourished greed outside of the community too. However, on the flipside, I can honestly say that it is White audiences that come out to support jazz in consistent numbers, whereas Black patrons are hard to come by with any frequency. Some point to the inequality in economics. Though that still exists, I submit to you that our people are simply choosing not to come, and instead choosing something else. So, all parties in OUR COMMUNITY would have to put the community first before individual gain or at least before the integrated community at large, unless that person or persons does their part to give back to the community.

I would like to point to the Jewish community as an example. This is nothing new, but their sense of community is not just an ideal. I know for a fact that there are “COMMUNITY” books that are provided to a person in our community by a kind of primary identification key or serial number if you will. This book is provided based on where someone moves and settles down. It could be a young man going off to school in another state or a young man moving for a job and career opportunity. Where ever he or she moves, they are provided a book with names, numbers, for any resources for living that one might need. Those contacts are all within their “COMMUNITY” and those contacts take care of their brother or sister because they are a member of that community. My folks raised me to understand that when possible, try to spend your money in your own community, not as a slight to other communities, rather as a support to your own culture and survival of your heritage and people. Unfortunately we are all forced to have a race label in this country and world. I happen to claim African American, and I claim that proudly. However, I’m what I like to call an international Omelet. I’ve got a little bit of this, and a little bit of that in my lineage as so many of us do. I could ask for one of those books legitimately if I wanted to but I’m not sure I’d be provided one.

The Black community has this too but we do this in much smaller numbers or self-insulated bubbles, which cuts us off from one another. The Church used to be our strongest traditional community and still is in many places around the country. However, that has eroded as well from where it was some time ago.

So, to reclaim jazz, perhaps that is the better question as daunting as it sounds, the question of regaining our entire cultural community sounds even more daunting. Perhaps if we figure out how to reclaim jazz and get the Black audience back for jazz, then we just might have an avenue to getting our COMMUNITY back as a people.

One idea I had for regaining our COMMUNITY audience for jazz is to assemble an ongoing All-Star cast of major mainstream artists who have a heavy influence and respect for jazz. This cast of stars would tour in addition to their already packed schedule, interspersed with those major acts would be major stars within the educated jazz audience community. Let me explain by giving an example.

The all=star cast of performers and entertainers would be Pop artists and celebrities who would have concerts and host smaller outreach initiatives to expose kids, particularly African American kids to jazz and show why it is cool, why it is important and why it is their music to claim and share with the world. However, for them to share it, they have to know about it, know its cool, learn that its fun, know that its a major art form that grows out of their heritage and that it is something for them to be proud of being the first in their family to earn a college degree and all that it implies achieving that accomplishment in the context of their history as a people. The message does not have to be overly complex nor should it be “dumbed down” to the point where the significance is lost, it just simply has to be relatable, fun and approachable.

Here’s a list of artists I think would work for this effort.
Note: Each of these artists would meet certain criteria for the purpose of greatest impact socially, economically, musically, educationally, and sustainability.

Sample All-Star Cast-
Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, Will I Am, Alicia Keys, John Legend, Trombone Shorty, Jennifer Hudson, Beyonce, Jamie Foxx, Lenny Kravitz, Eric Benet, Clint Eastwood, Erykah Badu, Jay-Z, Common, Queen Latifah, Mos Def, Cee-Lo Green, Tyler Perry, George Lucas, Janet Jackson, Esperanza Spalding… and the list would go on and on… (there would of course need to be the involvement of several existing jazz masters in some shape or form so as not to send the wrong message to the existing jazz audience that is already educated most likely a bit more than the masses.) However, it would also be up to the production efforts of such a project to address these kinds of concerns to the established jazz audience too. Obviously, though the goal is to cultivate new listeners for the music, we would not want to disenchant the existing audience either.

Ultimately, a full blown production would need to be established in grand fashion, ala Michael Jackson style… meaning bigger than life, thinking outside the box to present the music while still being very classy with it. The event would need to be sold as a blockbuster, worthwhile, fun experience to be embraced by mainstream popular culture. From this effort, records would need to be pressed and actual jazz artists on the jazz scene today would need to be brought into the fold in creative ways to make them relatable to the mass population of young people.

The stars listed above would also need to take an active role in contributing to creative ways to pull this effort together. They would be traveling ambassadors for America’s music, jazz, but they would be traveling primarily within the United States. A certain percentage of the proceeds from the concerts would be slated to fund jazz music programs at some of the schools and communities that are being exposed to the music. I would also suggest having a plan already laid out to provide tools for the kids to learn the most popular songs that come out of the tour. For them to learn jazz, they have to like it and relate to it. Once they are fans, people tend to be fans for life and thus they become interested more and more in its origins, and like most music, they will dig deeper to whatever degree fits them. Any degree is good and healthy for the future of jazz and the future of jazz in the African American community and audience rebuilding effort. That’s my two cents for the moment. This response was jazz-inspired, total improvisation!

New Year, New Voices in Jazz: Monk in Motion’s Top Finalists Perform in NYC this Winter

The BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center is proud to present the talented winners of this year’s Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition in piano. We are especially proud to partner with Thelonious Monk Jazz Institute once again as they celebrate their 25th year of this remarkable competition! Announced in early September, this year’s three finalists – Kristopher Bowers in First Place, Joshua White in Second Place and Emmet Cohen in Third Place – will perform three solo concerts on January 28, February 11, and February 18 respectively. Each performance is a Saturday at 7pm and single tickets are $25 (students/seniors $15) or $20 for TribecaPAC Mainstange Members. All performances will be held at BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center, 199 Chambers Street (Between Greenwich and West St.) in Theatre 2.

Monk in Motion: The Next Face of Jazz is a partnership between BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center and the Thelonious Monk Institute that presents the top three winners from the renowned Annual Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. Each concert features one winner and their combo from various parts of the world, demonstrating the versatility and variety of different jazz styles. We are thrilled to host the finalists’ first show in New York City since the competition!

ARTIST BIOS

Kris Bowers – January 28 7pm

Kris Bowers, a native of Los Angeles, began studying piano privately at the age of nine. Beginning his formal lessons in classical music, Kris found it hard to concentrate on just one genre as he was surrounded by the sounds of old school R&B and Funk at home, and the Hip-Hop and Pop of his generation. Immersed in this musically diverse world, Kris soon found himself attracted to the rhythmic and soulful feeling of Jazz. He then enrolled in both classical and jazz classes at the Colburn School for Performing Arts, where he remained until the end of high school. While at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA), Kris received numerous awards, accreditations and scholarships, and in 2006, he graduated from LACHSA and moved to New York to continue his studies at the Juilliard School.

Since his arrival in New York, Kris has shared the stage and/or recorded with jazz artists such as: Terell Stafford, Vincent Herring, Louis Hayes, Casey Benjamin, and Kenneth Whalum III. In addition, he has continued working in a number of other genres, performing and/or recording with: Murs, Q-Tip, Josè James, Jay-Z and Kanye West. Kris can be heard on Kanye West and Jay-Z’s latest album, Watch the Throne. He has also had the good fortune to perform for notable individuals like Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and President Barack Obama.

Joshua White – February 11 7pm

Pianist Joshua White is a remarkably gifted young jazz performer, classical pianist, and composer. He began formal piano training at the age of seven and became the organist and pianist for the Encanto Southern Baptist Church by age 10. Recently, Joshua won second place honors at the 2011 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition in Washington D.C.

Emmet Cohen – February 18 7pm

At 21, jazz pianist Emmet Cohen plays with the maturity and confidence of a seasoned veteran. With astonishing technique and an innovative harmonic palate, Emmet engenders a deep musical bond with his audience. Cohen has shared the bandstand with a plethora of musical luminaries, including Christian McBride, Benny Golson, Joshua Redman, Dave Holland, Patti Austin, Maceo Parker, Carmen Bradford, Billy Hart, and many others. He is completing a music degree at the University of Miami where he studies with Brian Lynch, Terence Blanchard, Shelly Berg, and Martin Bejerano. Emmet regularly appears as a sideman and leader on both piano and Hammond B3 Organ in New York and Miami.

BMCC Tribeca PAC is Downtown Manhattan’s premier presenter of the arts, reaching audiences from the college community, downtown residential and business communities, local schools, families, and audiences of all ages. BMCC Tribeca PAC strives to present a broad global perspective through the presentation of high-quality artistic work in music, theatre, dance, film and visual arts. BMCC Tribeca PAC is located on the Borough of Manhattan Community College campus, 199 Chambers Street (between Greenwich Avenue & West Street) and is convenient to the 2/3, A/C/E and R/W subway lines and the New Jersey Path Train. For more information please visit our website, www.tribecapac.org.

Trumpeter Nicholas Payton has fostered a healthy, ongoing dialogue on the subject of the creative music widely known as jazz, the implications of that “J” word (negative as he sees it; preferring Black American Music, or the acronym BAM he has subsequently coined and begun running with), and various aspects and implications. Part of his contention seemed to suggest that somehow some element of theft has occurred relative to the African American origins of this music. I wrote a subsequent piece in The Independent Ear, once again suggesting that there’s really been no theft, that through attrition, lack of interest, and inattention to the legacy, black folks have simply given the music away. Nicholas was quick to disabuse me of the notion that his theory involved thievery, but the ensuing dialogue – including blog, Facebook, and Twitter posts – got me to thinking that perhaps one way to foster a broader dialogue on the puzzling subject of the black audience for the music – BAM, African American Classical Music, jazz or however you call this creative musical force – might be to pose a question to certain black folks who have deep investment in the music and get their take.

I started out by posing this simple question to a select few friends and colleagues in the music; however this question is not limited to that select group and if you wish to be part of the dialogue The Independent Ear would be happy to hear from you and subsequently publish your response in this space as part of a series of such dialogues. So here you go…

Where’s the African American audience for creative music, where did it go, can we recapture that audience, and how can we go about doing so. Is the term “jazz” a hindrance, or is that argument pure nomenclature?

The first two responses come from two extremely talented and brilliant women, both of whom have in-depth histories with the music and care deeply about its future. I’ve also included a thoughtful letter from one of my old BET Jazz colleagues who weighed in on the dialogue that firestarter Nic Payton laid out there for our consideration.

NATALIE BULLOCK BROWN, Producer/Consultant; filmmaker, college/university educator, and one of the producers of the Ken Burns’ PBS series “Jazz”.

I have really been pondering your question and honestly, feel like I should do research and conduct polls! I mean this is the stuff of thesis papers, really. It’s a very deep question. Following is my humble attempt at an answer.

I don’t really know where the African American audience for creative music, aka “jazz,” has gone. But I suspect that integration had something to do with the dispersement. I think that when the African American community was united under Jim Crow, we supported our PEOPLE – whether they were doctors, lawyers, teachers, singers or even jazz musicians. But with integration came many opportunities to be distracted by all the new choices we were afforded, and unified support of the “community” became less and less a priority. Now, we have so many issues as a people, not the least of which is that many of us tend to ascribe the term “white” to anything we don’t do (like speak the King’s English) or don’t understand (like jazz). And it really doesn’t matter what we might call jazz, the thinking will be the same.

Many of us think to be smart is acting white, to eat well and take care of our bodies is acting white, and to play or sing anything other than hip hop, R&B or gospel is – you guessed it – playing the white role; [a] deep pathology in our community now. Deep. And unfortunately, as a result, we’ve walked away from a music – whatever you want to call it – that WE created. Now, our position vis a vis jazz, or BAM, is like that of an absent father who has been away from his offspring for many years. The music has evolved and mutated and grown – it has become so many things to so many people, and spread in ways that could never have been anticipated during the music’s infancy. There’s so much that our community has missed as jazz has grown up. So in many ways, it is hard for us to appreciate what it currently IS because we missed the years of maturation and experimentation – the “teenage years,” if you will.

Now that jazz is all grown up, (even though very much a work in progress, still), it seems to me that African Americans have to want to get to know jazz in order to re-establish the relationship. And that’s on us – not the music. Because the sweet thing about jazz is that it is so completely welcoming, holds no grudges, and forgives absence in a moment, that it will take us back the minute we step back into the clubs, or the concert halls, or the festivals. We have to want it, though. We have to recognize the need, all that we’ve missed, and how enriched and enlightened our lives can be when we return to the music we left.

In other words, we as a people have to grow up. We have to mature and desire clarity, knowledge, wisdom. We have to love ourselves in order to love what has come from us. Only God knows how to accomplish this. In the meantime, I hope that our music will continue to be what it always has been – inviting, funny, transcendent, peaceful, transformational, suggestive, sexy, brilliant, heady, clever, beautiful and all of the other amazing things jazz is. Because eventually, prayerfully, we WILL evolve and grow and return to ourselves. Only then will a true reunion take place.

ALISON CROCKETT, vocalist/educator

Where is the audience for black music? Listening to Drake, Rhianna, and Beyonce. They’re black. That’s where they’re going. This music is part of their lives on a daily basis. It’s on their iPods. They listen to it on YouTube. It’s on the Disney Channel. It’s in Church and school. It’s the music playing at the ice skating rink and the music they dance to in their dance classes.

Music outside of that is “special.” Music that you are told about in school for an assembly; your parents take you out to see to enlarge your cultural perspectives. Or, what your parents may or may not listen to in the car or in the house.

Music is always about function. We use our culture for purpose. In the past, dance music was big band music. But Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie turned it into “art” music; fast and difficult to dance to and use in daily life. Coltrane moved the music into a “spiritual” path and Monk made unique shapes and sounds with it. These different ways of looking at music did not always lend themselves to easy, singable melodies all the time that you could dance to and use in your daily life. Solos became longer and it possibly became more difficult for the unknowledgeable listener to follow the basic structure of the tune. There was Motown and later Gamble and Huff for that. [Editor’s note: Kenny Gamble once told me in an interview that in his orchestrations for the legion of Gamble & Huff hits he always strove to emulate the swinging atmosphere of the Basie band; listen to some of their classic R&B hits – the O’Jays “Love Train for example – the orchestration always swung.] These are not value judgments; I love all these musical expressions. But truth is truth. Its hella hard to dance to “Donna Lee” or sing along with “Brilliant Corners.” Also, the music was listened to in small clubs while you smoked or drank. As people did less of both, and it became more and more expensive to do either in a public situation, I’m assuming there is less going out. Also, you can smoke and drink at home with your state-of-the-art system for watching and listening in your hooked-up living room.

The black community still has yet to embrace en masse any art form of music not embraced by the larger “majority” community. Money is an issue. Economic class is another. We do not value our culture monetarily as a group. I include myself in this assessment. As a mother of 2 young children, I don’t always have the resources between mortgage, groceries, children’s activities, and daycare. There’s only so much left to go around for entertainment and when I do, it’s centered on children, or something that I really want to see. There’s also a long and continuous history of going out and listening to music while drinking in the white community around the country. This is not mirrored in the black community to the same extent. The black community also doesn’t really want to talk about or hear, as a group, themes outside of love, sex, relationships, etc. They do not want to be spoken to about activism, deep thoughts or emotions, complex ideas, etc. Not to put us down, but as a grooup, we would prefer to watch Maury or Oprah when it comes to entertainment.

What do you do about it? I really don’t know. It’s a holdover from the slave mentality I believe. The ship may have already sailed. That may sound like a cop-out, but… there it is. One thing that really needs to be thought of is money and structure. Quincy Jones created Vibe magazine to support hip hop. It helped to legitimize the music. In this day and age, there needs to be a legitimizer in the black community for jazz and jazz-inspired music. There needs to be an embracing of the styles within jazz and a knowledge of what they are: neo-soul, drum ‘n bass, soulful house music, etc. These more electronic modes of music use jazz as their base and should be embraced by the wider American jazz listener and musician. We have to allow the music to evolve also. Whenever I performed with Orrin Evans, there was always a sense of fun in the show. In DC, Allyn Johnson has the same feeling. We musicians need to respond to the public and the public needs to respond to us. We can present the music that we love in a way that people of all ages can respond.

It’s a long educational slog on both sides that can be an invigorating experience for all. Many of the people that I know are interested in hearing good music, but don’t have the time to dig for it or go see it. Creating interfaces for busy people with disposable income is a must. Make the music a part of people’s lives in an organic way, just like people do with country music. My family went to a pig pull of a well known sweet potato farmer in South Carolina and there was not an ounce of music presented; FYI, it is when a local farmer gives a LARGE dinner for all the important people in the area, thanking them for their support. Food was delicious, and there should be music that is a part of it. Though this may be a little bit of a stretch, we have to think outside of the box in order to compete with the multi-leveled, media-saturated environment that we are in today.

And this related note in response to some black folks’ ongoing email dialogue on Nicholas Payton’s think-pieces; from vocalist and former BET Jazz host ANGELA STRIBLING:

Happy New Year All!
Thanks for including me in this post. I often ponder the same thing about the plight of Jazz today and tend to agree with Willard! No one is putting up a fight for it. So, we’re essentially giving it away!

My question is, how can we as jazz musicians and enthusiasts attract more African Americans out to hear this beautiful music?

Like many of you, I perform Straight Ahead Jazz all over the world and get so much support for this art form. However, when it comes to gigs here in the States, I rarely see “us” in the audience…

We know it’s a growing problem… For years we’ve watched this transformation… Now, what can we do to get our people into jazz again?

Without any of us being judgmental or too critical of what we come up with… can we just kick around some ideas? I’d love to hear what you think:)

In the meantime, keep swinging’ and have a Blessed and Prosperous 2012!

National Endowment for the Arts Announces $135,000 in NEA Jazz Masters Live Grants

Grants support unique opportunities to engage with NEA Jazz Masters through performance and education opportunities

Announcement made during 30th anniversary celebration of NEA Jazz Masters program

New York, NY– At last night’s celebration of the 30th anniversary of the NEA Jazz Masters program, Rocco Landesman, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, announced that 12 not-for-profit organizations will receive grants totaling $135,000 to bring outstanding jazz musicians, writers, producers, and scholars to communities across the nation through NEA Jazz Masters Live. Managed by Arts Midwest, NEA Jazz Masters Live grants support performance and educational activities featuring NEA Jazz Masters, recipients of the nation’s highest honor in jazz. The program offers audiences the unique opportunity to engage with the Jazz Masters through such activities as performances, master classes, clinics, lectures, and short term residencies.

“There is no substitute for being in the presence of a great artist, and through the NEA Jazz Masters Live grants, the NEA is pleased to provide opportunities for Americans all across this country to have exactly that experience,” said NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman. “Twelve exceptional organizations will be our partners this year, and we are pleased to once again work with Arts Midwest in administering these grants.”

Among the NEA Jazz Masters scheduled to participate in NEA Jazz Masters Live events are 2012 NEA Jazz Masters Jack DeJohnette, Sheila Jordan, and Jimmy Owens, as well as Kenny Barron, Chick Corea, and Randy Weston. Of the twelve organizations chosen this year, a third are first-time recipients of NEA Jazz Masters Live grants.

Organizations chosen for the 2012 NEA Jazz Masters Live are:

§ Artists Collective (Hartford, CT)
§ Burlington Discover Jazz Festival, Flynn Center for the Performing Arts (Burlington, VT)
§ DC Jazz Festival (Washington, DC)
§ *Deer Isle Jazz Festival (Stonington, ME)
§ *Harlem Stage (Aaron Davis Hall) (New York, NY)
§ *Healdsburg Jazz Festival (Healdsburg, CA)
§ Monterey Jazz Festival (Monterey, CA)
§ New Mexico Jazz Festival, Outpost Productions (Albuquerque, NM)
§ *Tribeca Performing Arts Center (New York, NY)
§ Tri-C JazzFest (Cleveland, OH)
§ University Musical Society (Ann Arbor, MI)
§ “We Always Swing” Jazz Series (Columbia, MO)

*First-time recipient of an NEA Jazz Masters Live grant.

About NEA Jazz Masters and NEA Jazz Masters Live
Each year since 1982, the Arts Endowment has conferred the NEA Jazz Masters Award to living legends who have made major contributions to jazz. With this new class, 124 awards have been given to great figures of jazz in America, including Count Basie, Dave Brubeck, Sonny Rollins, Nancy Wilson, and the Marsalis family.

NEA Jazz Masters are selected from nominations submitted by the public and receive a one-time fellowship award of $25,000, are honored at a public awards ceremony, and may participate in NEA-sponsored promotional, performance, and educational activities. Only living musicians or jazz advocates may be nominated for the NEA Jazz Masters honor.

NEA Jazz Masters Live celebrates these NEA Jazz Masters by offering funding nationally to support innovative engagements featuring the Masters and their music. Since the program’s inception in 2008, NEA Jazz Masters Live has provided 48 grants to arts organizations, which has resulted in 90 performances and 150 outreach activities conducted by NEA Jazz Masters, reaching more than 150,000 people in communities across the country.

The NEA has created numerous resources as part of the NEA Jazz Masters program, including:
· Video tributes, brief video tributes to recent NEA Jazz Masters’ lives and careers in jazz,
· Jazz Moments, 222 short audio pieces featuring musical excerpts and short interviews with NEA Jazz Masters,
· Podcasts with NEA Jazz Masters and other jazz figures about the history and current state of jazz,
· In-depth interviews with more than 45 NEA Jazz Masters,
· NEA Jazz in the Schools, a free, five unit, online curriculum created in partnership with Jazz at Lincoln Center that explores jazz as an indigenous American art form and a means to understand American history,

In addition, the NEA supports the Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program, an effort to document the lives and careers of NEA Jazz Masters. By the end of January 2012, 58 oral histories with NEA Jazz Masters will be available on this website, with a total of 80 by September. In addition to full transcripts of the interviews, which average six hours in length, the website also includes audio highlights. The interviews cover a wide range of topics including early years, initial involvement in music and jazz, as well as personal experiences in the jazz music world.

About the National Endowment for the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts was established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. To date, the NEA has awarded more than $4 billion to support artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities. The NEA extends its work through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector. To join the discussion on how art works, visit the NEA at arts.gov.

About Arts Midwest

Arts Midwest promotes creativity, nurtures cultural leadership, and engages people in meaningful arts experiences, bringing vitality to Midwest communities and enriching people’s lives. Based in Minneapolis, Arts Midwest connects the arts to audiences throughout the nine-state region of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. One of six non-profit regional arts organizations in the United States, Arts Midwest’s history spans more than 25 years. For more information, please visit artsmidwest.org.

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In the spirit of The Masked Announcer, the ancestor Joel Dorn, ace record producer (Atlantic Records, 32Jazz, etc.) who first made his mark on the music spinning platters in Philly and subsequently released a must-have compilation titled “Songs That Made the Phones Light Up”, we present our annual “Songs That Made the Phones Ring” listing for 2011. These were the tunes that elicited strong listener response (and made the studio phones light up) on the Ancient Future radio program, hosted by Willard Jenkins on WPFW 89.3 FM in Washington, DC; listed by artist, song title, (album title & label). These were recordings spun during our New Release Hour during 2011.

SONGS THAT MADE THE PHONES RING 2011
(in no particular order)
Giacomo Gates “Gun” (The Revolution Will be Jazz, Savant)
Wynton Marsalis & Eric Clapton “Joe Turner’s Blues” (Play the Blues, Reprise/JALC)
Jerry Gonzalez “Equipoise” (El Commando Del Clave, Sunnyside)
Miles Espanol “Pan Piper” (New Sketches of Spain, eOne)
Jolley Brothers “Passion”, “Glory” (Memoirs Between Brothers, J)
Marcus Shelby Orchestra “Trouble on the Bus” (Soul of the Movement, Porto Franco)
Etienne Charles “Ten to One’s Murder”, “Kitel’s Bebop Calypso” (Kaiso, Culture Shock)
Cuong Vu “Body and Soul” (Leap of Faith, Origin)
Gerald Wilson Orchestra “Variations on Clare de Lune” (Legacy, Mack Avenue)
Sachal Vasandani “The Very Thought of You” (Hi Fly, Mack Avenue)
Malika Zarra “Mossameeka” (Berber Taxi, Motema)
JD Allen “Sura Harida” (Victory, Sunnyside)
Aaron Johnson “Shamba” (Songs of Our Fathers, Bubble-Sun)
Sean Jones “Love’s Fury” (No Need for Words, Mack Avenue)
Joseph Daley & Earth Tones Ensemble “Luxuria” (The Seven Deadly Sins, Jaro)
Jowee Omicil “Mickey’s Groove” (Roots & Grooves, Jowee)
Herman Burney “Offering” (Offering, CDBY)
Charles Lloyd “Requiem” (Athens Concert, ECM)
Ambrose Akinmusire “Confessions” (When the Heart Emerges Glistening, Blue Note0
Trio Esperanca “Caminho Da Razo” (De Bach a Jobim, Dreyfus)
Honey Ear Trio “Stampede” (Serenade, Honey Ear Trio)
Adia Ledbetter “Rendezvous with Yesterdays” (Take 2, Adia)
Youn Sun Nah “Uncertain Weather” (Same Girl, ACT)
Allyn Johnson & DIvine Order “Looking for a Miracle” (Allyn Johnson & Divine Order)
Bones & Tones “Song for the Old Ones” (Bones & Tones, Far)
Kellylee Evans “Mood Indigo” (Nina, Plus Loin Music)
Byron Morris & Unity “Sunshower” (Unity, A Retrospective, By-Mor)
Cecile Salvant “Social Call” (Cecile)
Cyrille Aimee “Long As You’re Living” (Surreal Band, Harmonic Reach)
Curtis Fuller “Little Dreams” (The Story of Cathy & Me, Challenge)
Akua Allrich “Black Orpheus” (A Peace of Mine, Akua Allrich)
David Murray Cuban Ensemble “Black Nat” (Plays Nat King Cole en Espanol, Motema)
Native Soul “Castles Made of Sand” (Soul Step, 1-2-3-4 GO)
Miles Davis Quintet “No Blues” (Live in Europe 1967, Columbia)
Fred Ho “Rope-a-Dope” (The Sweet Science, Mutable)