Jazz Coalition Announces First Round Of Grant Recipients

News, Aaron Parks, Ben Williams, James Carter, Lakecia Benjamin, Camille Thurman, Greg Ward

By DownBeat I May. 22, 2020

Lakecia Benjamin performs during this year’s Winter Jazzfest, which ran Jan. 8–18 in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
(Photo: Adrien H. Tillmann)

Set up in early May, the Jazz Coalition is rallying support for musicians unmoored from their regular incomes during the pandemic with a program that commissions new works through $1,000 grants. The first round of recipients was announced May 21.

Among the 51 musicians and programmers to receive funds are pianists Bertha Hope and Aaron Parks, bassist Ben Williams, and saxophonists James Carter, Lakecia Benjamin, Camille Thurman and Greg Ward. Rio Sakairi, the artistic director at The Jazz Gallery, also was allocated money.

The nonprofit currently is seeking to raise additional funds for another round of grants.

“When public assembly restrictions are lifted, commission recipients will premiere their new works at mutually agreed upon Jazz Coalition member venues, and their works-in-progress will be streamed in advance,” coalition representatives wrote in a press email. “The commissions will become a new canon of music that represents our collective resilience moving us all forward.”

For a full list of grant recipients, visit the organization’s website. DB