[Dixielandjazz] Jazz Masters announced

[Norman Vickers]

 Listmates:  here are the Jazz Masters announced by the National Endowment
for the Arts.  FYI.

Norman Vickers

washingtonpost.com
NEA Jazz Program Touts D.C.'s Own Horn

By Jacqueline Trescott
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 5, 2004; Page C02


The National Endowment for the Arts yesterday named Shirley Horn, the
powerful Washington-bred vocalist, to the roster of this year's Jazz
Masters.

The annual honor salutes composers, instrumentalists and vocalists, as well
as advocates for discovering and preserving musical talent. "Jazz may well
be considered America's most treasured and most influential export," said
Dana Gioia, the NEA chairman, who made the announcement at a jazz event in
Seattle.

Reaching way back in jazz history, the NEA also named Artie Shaw to the
list. Now in his nineties and living in California, the clarinetist was a
renowned bandleader of the 1930s and '40s swing era. Yesterday Shaw said,
through the NEA: "I am, naturally, pleased by the present appraisal of my
work. As I have often said, 'I did the best I could with the material at
hand.' "

Others joining the list are guitarist Kenny Burrell, clarinetist and
saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera, arranger and composer Slide Hampton, organist
Jimmy Smith and impresario George Wein. The Jazz Masters program was
established in 1982 but was expanded last year to produce tours and
recordings by the honorees. People who have promoted jazz through writing
and concerts were also added and Wein, a pianist, was cited for creating the
Newport Jazz Festival, now 50 years old.

The awards are given at the annual convention of the International
Association for Jazz Education, held in January in Long Beach, Calif.

Early in her career Horn, now 70, switched from classical piano to jazz and
combined her playing with vocal interpretations that caught the attention of
Miles Davis, Oscar Peterson and Ahmad Jamal. She recorded and appeared
steadily at clubs and festivals but then took a decade off in the 1970s to
raise her family. She came back stronger than ever, and several of her more
than 20 albums have been nominated for Grammy awards. In 1998 her tribute to
Davis, "I Remember Miles," won the Grammy for best jazz vocal performance.

In her characteristically understated manner, Horn told the NEA yesterday:
"I am thrilled to be in such good company."