Jun 17, 2025 11:12 AM
Kandace Springs Sings Billie Holiday
When it came time to pose for the cover of her new album, Lady In Satin — a tribute to Billie Holiday’s 1958…
This year’s honorees.
(Photo: Courtesy NEA Jazz Masters)The National Endowment for the Arts 2022 NEA Jazz Masters will be honored March 31 in collaboration with SFJAZZ at the SFJAZZ Center’s Robert N. Miner Auditorium. The concert, which is free and open to the public, will be available also through a live webcast and radio broadcast. In addition, the honorees will participate in a Meet the NEA Jazz Masters virtual conversation, available on demand the week before the concert.
This year’s honorees — Stanley Clarke, Billy Hart, Donald Harrison Jr. and Cassandra Wilson — will be featured in the 40th anniversary celebration of the awards, considered one of the highest honors in jazz.
Dianne Reeves, a 2018 NEA Jazz Master, will serve as host for the concert in tribute to this year’s inductees. Clarke, Hart and Harrison are all scheduled to play. Additional performers will include Jeremiah Collier, Joe Dyson, Ethan Iverson, Dan Kaufman, Salar Nader, Noriatsu Naraoka, Ruslan Sirota, Ben Street and Mark Turner, as well as the SFJAZZ Collective, which includes Matt Brewer, Etienne Charles, Martin Luther McCoy, Gretchen Parlato, Chris Potter, David Sánchez, Kendrick Scott, Edward Simon and Warren Wolf. Skylar Tang, a 16-year-old trumpeter and a member of the SFJAZZ High School All-Stars, is also scheduled to perform.
In-person tickets are available through sfjazz.org. The live webcast will be aired at arts.gov, sfjazz.org and through a variety of social media pages, including DownBeat’s Facebook page, beginning at at 7:30 p.m. Pacific/10:30 p.m. Eastern.
Radio broadcasts will be available through KCSM 91.1 FM (San Mateo, California), KKJZ (Los Angeles), SiriusXM Channel 67, Real Jazz, WBGO 88.3 FM (Newark, New Jersey), WDCB 90.9 FM (Chicago), WPFW 89.3 FM (Washington, D.C.) and WZUM 88.1 FM (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). DB
“There’s nothing quite like it,” Springs says of working with an orchestra. “It’s 60 people working in harmony in the moment. Singing with them is kind of empowering but also humbling at the same time.”
Jun 17, 2025 11:12 AM
When it came time to pose for the cover of her new album, Lady In Satin — a tribute to Billie Holiday’s 1958…
James Brandon Lewis earned honors for Artist of the Year and Tenor Saxophonist of the Year. Three of his recordings placed in the Albums of the Year category.
Jul 17, 2025 12:44 PM
You see before you what we believe is the largest and most comprehensive Critics Poll in the history of jazz. DownBeat…
Galper was often regarded as an underrated master of his craft.
Jul 22, 2025 10:58 AM
Hal Galper, a pianist, composer and arranger who enjoyed a substantial performing career but made perhaps a deeper…
Chuck Mangione on the cover of the May 8, 1975, edition of DownBeat.
Jul 29, 2025 1:00 PM
Chuck Mangione, one of the most popular trumpeters in jazz history, passed away on July 24 at home in Rochester, New…
“Hamiet was one of the most underrated musicians ever,” says Whitaker of baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett.
Jul 8, 2025 7:30 AM
At 56, Rodney Whitaker, professor of jazz bass and director of jazz studies at Michigan State University, is equally…