May 26, 2026 11:08 AM
Sonny Rollins Passes Away at 95
Sonny Rollins, the iconic saxophonist, composer and improviser whose career stretched from the origins of bebop to 21st…
On Tuesday, trombonist George Lewis was named one of the 24 winners the annual “genius grants” awarded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. With the Fellowship award, the AACM stalwart will receive a total of $500,000 over five years from the Chicago-based foundation.
Although nominees are reviewed for their achievements, the Fellowship is not a reward for past accomplishment, but rather an investment in a person’s originality, insight and potential to effect positive change. The purpose of MacArthur Fellowships is to enable recipients to exercise their own creative instincts for the benefit of society at large.
Lewis is the second member of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians to win the award, as composer Anthony Braxton won in 1994.
Lewis is currently a music professor at the University of California at San Diego; and he’s currently spending the semester at the University of California at Irvine.
Onstage, Rollins would move about restlessly, thrusting his tenor sax in the air as he blew.
May 26, 2026 11:08 AM
Sonny Rollins, the iconic saxophonist, composer and improviser whose career stretched from the origins of bebop to 21st…
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Ava Preston, a 12-time DownBeat Student Music Award winner, is currently pursuing her master’s degree in jazz voice at Juilliard.
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