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:: JAZZ MASTERS LIVE!
NEA Jazz Masters Live is a continuation of the successful NEA Jazz Masters on Tour program that was started in 2004 in partnership with Arts Midwest. Between 2005 and 2007, 28 Jazz Masters toured around the country, resulting in 193 performances, plus accompanying education and outreach programs. More than 165,000 people saw a jazz performance -- many for the first time -- as a result of this program, including more than 40,000 youth, creating new audiences for this American art form. Since 2008, NEA Jazz Masters Live has reached more than 108,000 people, including more than 7,200 youth. So far, 34 NEA Jazz Masters have participated with performances and educational activities. [See the 2011 Grants Press Release for more information on this year's program.] Below is a description of one of the events supported by the program. Portland Jazz Festival,
Portland, Oregon
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NEA Jazz Master Randy Weston performing a solo piano concert on opening night of the 2011 Portland Jazz Festival. Photo by Fran Kaufman, courtesy of Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air |
As part of the Jazz Masters Live program, the recent recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Randy Weston provided the opening night performance for the 2011 Portland Jazz Festival on February 18, 2011, with a rare solo concert. He played compositions from all the eras of his long career for more than 90 minutes, punctuating his songs with anecdotes about the great performers he worked with over the years, such as Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker. A new composition was dedicated to some of the musicians who passed away over the last couple of years, including James Moody and Weston’s longtime collaborator, Benny Powell. The 300 audience members were clearly moved; Weston received two standing ovations.
In addition to the performance, Weston participated in outreach activities as well. The first was an interview as part of the festival’s Jazz Conversation series. Weston spoke for more than an hour with Marty Hughley, critic and performing arts feature writer for the Oregonian, Oregon’s statewide daily. The interview took place in front of a live audience at the PCPA Art Bar, a public venue in the lobby of the Portland Center for the Performing Arts, with more than 60 people attending the event. The interview also was recorded to be aired over KMHD public radio and is available as a podcast through the Oregon Music News website, reaching thousands more listeners across the state.
The next day, February 19, Weston participated in a second outreach activity, a moderated presentation to the students of the jazz studies program at Portland State University. This one-hour conversation with PSU Jazz Studies Director Darrell Grant took place in a classroom with 60 students. Weston talked about his life and experiences as a jazz musician, composer, and bandleader, as well as his travels in search of the musical origins of jazz in Africa. This conversation was followed by a question-and-answer period with Weston.
Both outreach activities were greeted by engaged and interested audiences. For many of the students at PSU, Weston’s talk brought history to life with discussions about the civil rights movement and his experiences in Africa, and their connections to jazz.
National Endowment for the Arts · an independent federal
agency
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20506
NEA Jazz Masters Live grants support performance and educational activities featuring NEA Jazz Masters, recipients of the nation's highest honor in jazz. The program, administered by Arts Midwest, celebrates these living legends who have made exceptional contributions to the advancement of jazz, and offers audiences the unique opportunity to share the artists' expertise in performances, master classes, clinics, lectures, and short-term residencies.