Aug 12, 2025 10:24 AM
Vocalist Sheila Jordan Dies at 96
Sheila Jordan, a vocalist who was celebrated for her scatting and lyric-improvising abilities, died Aug. 11 at her home…
Clockwise from top: Lorraine Gordon (Photo: Eric Ogden), Mose Allison (Photo: Michael Wilson), Eddie Palmieri and Lou Donaldson (Photo: Bob Lasky)
(Photo: )The National Endowment for the Arts announced the names of the 2013 NEA Jazz Masters, the nation’s highest honor in jazz, on July 18. The honorees are pianist Mose Allison, saxophonist Lou Donaldson, Village Vanguard jazz club owner Lorraine Gordon and pianist/bandleader Eddie Palmieri.
The four recipients will join a list of 124 NEA Jazz Masters who have been honored for their contributions to jazz. Previous recipients include Count Basie, Roy Eldridge, George Benson, Dizzy Gillespie and Ella Fitzgerald. Each honoree will receive a one-time award of $25,000 and will be recognized during the annual NEA Jazz Masters awards ceremony on Jan. 14, 2013. The NEA will once again partner with New York’s Jazz at Lincoln Center to present the ceremony at its Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola.
“Each of the 2013 NEA Jazz Masters has made an indelible mark on jazz as we know it today,” said NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman. “Mose Allison’s fusion of jazz and blues has created a new sound uniquely his own, influencing scores of musicians and songwriters after him. Lou Donaldson has been a major force not just as a musician but also as a scout for new talent for the Blue Note label. Eddie Palmieri successfully combines the sounds of his Puerto Rican heritage with the jazz music he grew up with as a first-generation American. And Lorraine Gordon continues to provide a haven for jazz musicians to present their art at the Village Vanguard. I look forward to celebrating their achievements and contributions to this important American art form.”
The audience at Dizzy’s for the Jan. 14 ceremony will be limited to the friends and family of the NEA Jazz Masters. The event will be webcast live at arts.gov and on the Jazz at Lincoln Center website. Sirius XM Satellite Radio will simulcast the ceremony.
The 2012 NEA Jazz Masters are saxophonist Von Freeman, vocalist Sheila Jordan, bassist Charlie Haden, trumpeter Jimmy Owens and drummer Jack DeJohnette.
For more information on the honorees, visit the NEA website.
—Hilary Brown
Jordan was a dyed-in-the-wool bebopper whose formative musical experiences were with Charlie Parker.
Aug 12, 2025 10:24 AM
Sheila Jordan, a vocalist who was celebrated for her scatting and lyric-improvising abilities, died Aug. 11 at her home…
“I don’t guess I’m going to excite you; I know I’m going to excite you,” Palmieri said in an August 1994 DownBeat feature.
Aug 12, 2025 10:33 AM
Famed Latin jazz composer, bandleader and pianist Eddie Palmieri passed away in his New Jersey home on Aug. 6. He was…
“What I got from Percy was the dignity of playing the bass,” Buster Williams said of Percy Heath.
Aug 26, 2025 1:53 PM
Buster Williams, who at the age of 83 has been on the scene for 65 years, had never done a Blindfold Test. The first…
Don and Maureen Sickler serve as the keepers of engineer Rudy Van Gelder’s flame at Van Gelder Studio, perhaps the most famous recording studio in jazz history.
Sep 3, 2025 12:02 PM
On the last Sunday of 2024, in the control room of Van Gelder Studio, Don and Maureen Sickler, co-owners since Rudy Van…
The Free Slave, Cosmos Nucleus and Sunset To Dawn: three classic Muse albums being reissued this fall by Timer Traveler Recordings.
Aug 26, 2025 1:32 PM
Record producer and “Jazz Detective” Zev Feldman has launched his next endeavor, the archival label Time Traveler…
