NEA Jazz Masters Go Live

  I  

Building on the National Endowment for the Arts’s (NEA) successful NEA Jazz Masters On Tour initiative, the NEA will have multiple events featuring jazz masters with extended engagements in selected communities. The live initiative will bring more than 25 NEA Jazz Masters to 12 venues across nine states, including the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City, Mo.

NEA Jazz Masters Live provides more in-depth opportunities for the masters to share their contributions to the art of jazz through performances, master classes, clinics, lectures or other types of presentations, many of which last several days.

More info: arts.gov



  • Flea_by_Gus_Van_Sant_copy.jpg

    “Cerebral and academic thought is a different way to approach music,” Flea says of his continuing dive into jazz. “I’ve always relied on emotion and intuition and physicality.”

  • 2026_Cecil_McLorin_Salvant_Sullivan_Fortner_Big_Ears.jpg

    Cécile McLorin Salvant busts out Jelly Roll Morton’s “The Murder Ballad” at Big Ears, here with pianist Sullivan Fortner.

  • JAM_posters_-_a_selection_cropped.jpg

    Each of the 25 JAMs has delivered a poster featuring a jazz legend that is sent out to schools across the nation. This year’s poster features Tony Bennett.

  • NikBaertschs_RONIN_by_Christian_Senti.jpg

    “We thought it’s important that Ronin has a new statement,” said Nik Bärtsch of his band’s latest album, Spin. “The sound is differently produced, so it reflects more of who we are.”

  • Stefano_Bollani_by_David_Morresi%3AUmbria_Jazz_copy.jpg

    Bollani demonstrates at the piano during a live Blindfold Test in Umbria, Italy, while writer Ashley Kahn, right, and translator Greg Burk look on.