Television Broadcast: Legends of Jazz

In April 2006, Legends of Jazz launched on public television, the first new jazz series on television in 40 years. Hosted by musician, radio personality, and 2007 NEA Jazz Master Ramsey Lewis, the series brings together master musicians and jazz personalities for an intimate 30-minutes of conversation and music. The series opened in 2005 with a pilot program featuring NEA Jazz Masters. In April 2008, the series continued with a program devoted to the 2007 NEA Jazz Masters. The series was broadcast both on WTTW in Chicago, on BET J -- a TV channel available to 23 million viewers, and was also distibuted across a digital broadband platform to 30 different web sites, reaching an estimated 20,000 online viewers worldwide throughout the month of April.

Radio Broadcasts

The NEA is partnering with XM Satellite Radio, Inc. to produce a steady stream of jazz and literature "moments" that air on various jazz, literary, and news channels of XM Satellite Radio. The NEA Jazz Moments, which run in random rotation, consist of musical excerpts and short interviews with legendary and contemporary artists about their own work and that of other artists. There are currently 89 Jazz Moments in circulation.

The Arts Endowment partnered with National Public Radio in 2005 on a new series of 14, one-hour documentaries. The programs were part of NPR’s Jazz Profiles, a weekly program hosted by NEA Jazz Master Nancy Wilson that combined interviews, commentary, and music to craft rich and nuanced presentations of a jazz artists, places, and events.

Recordings

The National Endowment for the Arts collaborated with Verve Music Group in 2004 to produce a two-CD set of recordings by 27 NEA Jazz Masters, with liner notes written by NEA Jazz Master Nat Hentoff. In addition, in 2005 Borders issued a series of CDs featuring and titled NEA Jazz Masters including recordings by Sarah Vaughan, Sonny Rollins, and Dizzy Gillespie.

National Endowment for the Arts · an independent federal agency
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20506