Berklee Honors Clint Eastwood

  I  

Berklee College of Music in Boston will present Clint Eastwood with an honorary doctorate at the Monterey Jazz Festival this weekend, the school has announced.

Berklee singled out the actor, director and producer for his contributions to jazz.  “From Play Misty For Me, where he famously starred as a jazz disc jockey, to the groundbreaking Charlie Parker biopic, Bird, to executive producing the seminal documentary, Thelonious Monk Straight No Chaser, Clint Eastwood has made so many choices that have little to do with Hollywood, and everything to do with a lifelong love for this music,” said Berklee President Roger Brown in a news release.

Eastwood joins a prestigious list of previous recipients that includes Duke Ellington, Sonny Rollins and Ornette Coleman. Brown and Berklee alumna Diana Krall will present the honorary doctorate Sept. 22 at the Monterey, Calif., festival.



  • Coltrane_John_008_copy_2.jpg

    “This is one of the great gifts that Coltrane gave us — he gave us a key to the cosmos in this recording,” says John McLaughlin.

  • 2tx3p_BNJF2025LineupApr11080x1350--1_copy.jpg

    The Blue Note Jazz Festival New York kicks off May 27 with a James Moody 100th Birthday Celebration at Sony Hall.

  • Ethan_Iverson_by_David_Moressi_2024_copy.jpg

    “I’m certainly influenced by Geri Allen,” said Iverson, during a live Blindfold Test at the 31st Umbria Jazz Winter festival.

  • Isaiah_Collier_by_Michael_Jackson_2025.jpg

    “At the end of the day, once you’ve run out of differences, we’re left with similarities,” Collier says. “Cultural differences are mitigated through 12 notes.”

  • Andy_Bey_NYC_2014_by_Steven_Sussman_copy.jpg

    “It kind of slows down, but it’s still kind of productive in a way, because you have something that you can be inspired by,” Andy Bey said on a 2019 episode of NPR Jazz Night in America, when he was 80. “The music is always inspiring.”

    Vocalist Andy Bey Dies at 85

    Singer Andy Bey, who illuminated the jazz scene for five decades with a four-octave range that encompassed a bellowing…


On Sale Now
June 2025
Theo Croker
Look Inside
Subscribe
Print | Digital | iPad