The jazz world has plenty to celebrate these days, like well-deserved fellowships, a grand opening, new albums, and live performances not to be missed.
On July 12, the National Endowment for the Arts announced the 2024 Class of NEA Jazz Masters. The recipients of the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowships include Gary Bartz, Terence Blanchard, Amina Claudine Myers and Willard Jenkins, recipient of the 2024 A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship for Jazz Advocacy.
The fellowships include an award of $25,000, plus the honorees will be celebrated at a free concert in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, April 13, 2024, in collaboration with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
The Louis Armstrong Center just opened in Queens, New York on July 6. The new 14,000-square-foot expansion opened to the public directly across the street from where the Armstrongs spent their final years.
The Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens first opened in 2003. The center is a $26 million facility.
Pianist Jason Moran curated the inaugural exhibition at the Louis Armstrong Center. The title of the exhibition is “Here to Stay.” The center not only preserves Armstrong’s legacy but will expand it as well. Visitors will get to listen to homemade tape recordings, view scrapbook photo collages, and more.
New releases and observances
Saxophonist Joshua Redman makes his Blue Note debut with his first-ever vocal album, “where are we” due out on Sept 15, featuring Gabrielle Cavassa, Aaron Parks, Joe Sanders and Brian Blade, plus guests Nicholas Payton, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Peter Bernstein.
This is all pretty exciting news considering the beloved history of Blue Note Records, and that Redman has been one of the most popular jazz artists on the scene for some time now.
Out since June 16, via Smoke Sessions Records, pianist Orrin Evans’ “The Red Door” album showcases Evans taking plenty of chances with a first-class date with Nicholas Payton, Gary Thomas, Robert Hurst and Marvin “Smitty” Smith with special guests Buster Williams, Larry McKenna, Gene Jackson, the late Wallace Roney, and vocalists Jazzmeia Horn, Sy Smith and Alita Moses.
According to Evans, “It’s a swinging party on the inside.”
A very happy birthday to the late trumpeter Lee Morgan, whose birthday was on July 10. Edward Lee Morgan (July 10, 1938-February 19, 1972) was also a composer. He was one of the key hard-bop musicians of the 1960s and came to fame in his late teens.
Morgan played on John Coltrane’s “Blue Train,” and with the band of drummer Art Blakey before beginning a solo career. My favorite Lee Morgan album is “Lee-Way” for its swingin’ song “These are Soulful Days.” I also dig his version of “All the Way” from his impressive album “Candy.”
Pianist Ahmad Jamal, who recently passed on April 16, also had a birthday on July 2. At the age of three, Jamal began playing piano. He died at 92 years old, from complications of prostate cancer, at his home in Ashley Falls, Massachusetts.
Jamal’s album “Saturday Morning” is worth checking out. He will forever be remembered for his beautiful interpretation of the song “Poinciana.” I love the live version at Olympia Paris, which you can watch on YouTube.
The Walker Art Center has announced its 2023-24 performing arts season. Not to be missed is An Evening with Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, and Shahzad Ismaily—the Love in Exile Trio. The performance takes place on Oct 10, 2023, at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis.
The Grammy Award-winning vocalist Aftab is returning to Minneapolis with longtime Walker-supported artists pianist Iyer and the multi-instrumentalist Ismaily. The sounds created as described by Aftab are “about self-exile, and the search for freedom and identity, and finding it through love and music.”
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