June
24, 2010
National Endowment for the Arts Announces the
2011 NEA Jazz Masters
The
National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) today announced the
recipients of the 2011 NEA Jazz Masters Award -- the nation's
highest honor in this distinctly American music. For the
first time in the program's 29-year history, in addition
to four individual awards, the NEA will present a group
award to the Marsalis family, New Orleans' venerable first
family of jazz. All of the 2011 recipients will be publicly
honored at the annual awards ceremony and concert on January
11, 2011 at Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln
Center.
The Marsalis family, together and individually, has been enormously influential
in the world of jazz as performers, composers, conductors, educators, and advocates.
The patriarch of the family, Ellis Marsalis, Jr. is a noted pianist, director-emeritus
of Jazz Studies at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, and former head
of the Jazz Studies Program at the University of New Orleans.
The patriarch of the family, Ellis Marsalis, Jr. is a noted pianist, director-emeritus
of Jazz Studies at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, and former head
of the Jazz Studies Program at the University of New Orleans.
Ellis's oldest son, Branford Marsalis, is one of the most sought-after saxophonists
in jazz, pop, and classical, in addition to leading his own renowned quartet.
He has developed a learning approach for student musicians in colleges and
high schools in which leading jazz ensembles present concert/jam sessions in
mini-residencies.
By creating and performing an expansive range of brilliant new music for quartets
to big bands, chamber music ensembles to symphony orchestras, tap dance to
ballet, Wynton Marsalis has expanded the vocabulary for jazz and created a
vital body of work that places him among the world's finest musicians and composers.
As a devoted advocate for arts education, he has developed curriculums, initiated
programs, and given countless master classes and speeches around the world.
He has won nine Grammy Awards, the Pulitzer Prize for Music, and has been awarded
the National Medal of Arts. Wynton presently serves as Artistic Director
for Jazz at Lincoln Center and Music Director for the Jazz at Lincoln Center
Orchestra.
Delfeayo Marsalis is one of the most in-demand jazz producers and has toured
internationally as a trombonist with artists such as Abdullah Ibrahim, Slide
Hampton, and Max Roach, as well as with his own ensemble. In 2009, he implemented
Uptown Music Theatre's Kidstown AfterSchool in three New Orleans grammar schools.
The youngest son, Jason Marsalis, took up drumming at age six and began sitting
in with his father's band at age seven. His interest in Latin music—in
particular Brazilian—has permeated his recordings. After studying the
vibraphone for almost a decade he now increasingly includes the instrument
in his performances and recordings.
http://www.nea.gov/honors/jazz/2011-NEA-Jazz-Masters-Announced.html
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