Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
In Memoriam: John Hammond Jr., 1942–2026
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
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
Hammond came to the blues through the folk boom of the late 1950s and early 1960s, which he experienced firsthand in New York’s Greenwich Village.
Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
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