Jazz Coalition Announces First Round Of Grant Recipients

  I  
Image

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



  • McBride__Kahn_copy.jpg

    ​Christian McBride and writer Ashley Kahn meet for a DownBeat Blindfold Test hosted by New York University’s Jazz Studies program.

  • Samara_Joy_%C2%A92023_Mark_Sheldon-4639.jpg

    Samara Joy brought fans to their feet in the middle of her Newport set!

  • 20170912_CeramicDog_EbruYildiz_29-2_copy.jpg

    Ceramic Dog is, from right, Shahzad Ismaily, Ches Smith and Ribot.

  • 23_Sullivan_Fortner_BFT_APA_Indianapolis_copy_2.jpg

    ​“He was the coolest,” Fortner says of Nat “King” Cole. “Didn’t break a sweat.”

  • 23_Houston_Person_by_Eugene_Petrushansky.jpg

    Person’s esthetic took shape in an era when jazz functioned as neighborhood social entertainment and moved with a deep dance groove.


On Sale Now
September 2023
Kris Davis
Look Inside
Subscribe
Print | Digital | iPad