Gary Giddins, Chucho Valdés & More to Receive NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship

Marshall Allen, Marilyn Crispell, Chucho Valdés, and Gary Giddins are set to receive the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship. They will be honored on Saturday, April 26, 2025, at a free concert at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. in Washington, D.C.

Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD, chair of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) said in a statement: “We are delighted to welcome these four luminaries to the ranks of NEA Jazz Masters. They have each in their own way played a crucial role in the nurturing and development of this art form and demonstrate the immense diversity and creativity found in jazz today. We look forward to working together with the Kennedy Center on events next April that will celebrate their achievements and inspire new audiences and musicians to embrace jazz.”

“This class of NEA Jazz Masters represents the finest in free-thinking musicians,” said Jason Moran, Kennedy Center artistic director for jazz. “Each has been an active and integral part of communities that have pushed the music forward to new heights.”

Here are thumbnail sketches of the four honorees:

• Marshall Allen’s inventive and distinctive saxophone playing, as well as his band arrangements, have made him a major force in jazz going into his hundredth year. He is best-known for his work with Sun Ra, recording and performing with him from the 1950s until Sun Ra’s death in 1993, and taking over the leadership of the Sun Ra Arkestra for the past 30 years. He received a Grammy nomination two years ago for best large jazz ensemble album for Swirling.

• Since emerging on the scene in the late 1970s, Marilyn Crispell has become one of the most original and sought-after avant-garde jazz pianists and composers. Her adventurous and distinctive style was influenced by her first loves in jazz, John Coltrane and Cecil Taylor.

• Originally from Cuba, pianist, bandleader, composer, and arranger Chucho Valdés is one of the most influential figures in the world of Latin and Afro-Cuban jazz. In a career spanning more than 60 years, Valdés has fused elements of the Afro-Cuban music tradition, jazz, classical music, rock, and more into his distinctive style. Valdés has won seven Grammys over a 42-year span (1980-2022).

• Gary Giddins has been one of the leading critics in the field of jazz for more than 50 years, having written books as well as essays for The New York Times, New Yorker, Esquire, and many other publications, and the “Weather Bird” column for The Village Voice. As a teacher, he has spurred new generations of jazz fans at several universities. Giddins won a Grammy for best album notes in 1987 for the Frank Sinatra collection, The Voice: The Columbia Years 1943-52. He was also nominated in that category for his notes for collections by Duke Ellington and Art Pepper.

Giddins is this year’s recipient of The A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship for Jazz Advocacy. The award is given to those who have made major contributions to the appreciation, knowledge, and advancement of this distinctively American art form.

Since 1982, the NEA has awarded 177 fellowships to great figures in jazz, including Kenny Barron, Terence Blanchard, Carla Bley, Dave Brubeck, Terri Lyne Carrington, Betty Carter, Stanley Crouch, Roy Eldridge, Paquito D’Rivera, Quincy Jones, Sun Ra, Dianna Reeves, and Henry Threadgill.

The NEA Jazz Masters Fellowships are awarded to living individuals on the basis of nominations from the public. NEA Jazz Masters Fellowships are $25,000 and can be received once in a lifetime. Visit the NEA’s website for detailed information and to submit nominations.

The deadline for nominations for the next class of honorees is Oct. 31, 2024.

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Written by Mr. Nimbus