[Dixielandjazz] Jazz Masters Awards

[Stephen G Barbone]

New Names On Jazz’s Honor Roll

NY TIMES - By NATE CHINEN - January 11, 2011

Accepting his 2011 NEA Jazz Masters award at the Rose Theater on  
Tuesday night, the pianist Ellis Marsalis noted the privilege of  
standing alongside his fellow honorees, both “past and passed on.” He  
paused to reflect on those who died last year — the pianists Hank  
Jones and Billy Taylor, the singer Abbey Lincoln and the saxophonist  
James Moody — before joining four of his sons, all accomplished  
musicians, for a brightly buoyant finale. That transition put an  
emphasis on continuity, the passing of information from one generation  
to the next. It was a genuine jazz moment, and fittingly so in an  
evening full of them.

Jazz is a living art, its lexicon in a perpetual state of renewal. But  
it also has a clear, strong center, as an art form and as a set of  
practices. That’s one reason for the aftershocks that inevitably  
follow the loss of an important jazz elder. And it’s one more reason  
for the continuing cultural value of the NEA Jazz Masters awards,  
which have been bestowed each year since 1982 by the National  
Endowment for the Arts.

Along with Mr. Marsalis, this year’s class includes the record  
producer Orrin Keepnews, the flutist Hubert Laws, the saxophonist and  
flutist David Liebman and the composer-arranger Johnny Mandel. (It  
also includes Mr. Marsalis’s sons, but we’ll get to them.) Each award  
came with $25,000. And the ceremony and concert, presented in  
conjunction with Jazz at Lincoln Center and viewable at the Web site  
ustream.tv, gave each honoree a warm bask in the spotlight, with many  
previously inducted Jazz Masters looking on, and some of them giving  
the introductions.

Despite the long-windedness of a few of those introductions — here’s  
looking at you, Benny Golson, Jazz Masters Class of 1996 — the evening  
moved quickly, better paced than in previous years. The Jazz at  
Lincoln Center Orchestra played crisp arrangements of some pertinent  
themes: “Re: Person I Knew,” written for Mr. Keepnews by the pianist  
Bill Evans (the title is an anagram of his name), and “The Shadow of  
Your Smile,” among the best-loved songs by Mr. Mandel. The orchestra  
also played behind Mr. Liebman’s soprano saxophone lead on two  
Gershwin themes recorded by Miles Davis with Gil Evans: “Summertime”  
and “There’s a Boat Dat’s Leavin’ Soon for New York.”

And just before Mr. Marsalis took the stage to receive his award,  
there was a musical nod to last year’s departed Jazz Masters, as the  
orchestra backed the singer Roberta Gambarini and the saxophonist  
Jimmy Heath (Class of 2003) on a bittersweet ballad called “Angel  
Face.” Composed by Jones with lyrics by Lincoln, it’s not a career- 
defining song for either of them. But its pedigree — it comes from  
Lincoln and Jones’s duet album, “When There Is Love,” released on  
Verve in 1994 — sounded the right note about the deep current of  
camaraderie that jazz still cultivates.

A more musically fulfilling iteration of that message came earlier, as  
Mr. Laws played a softly rippling version of “Stella by Starlight”  
with the pianist Kenny Barron (Class of 2010). Adopting a free-flowing  
cadence at first, they eased brilliantly into the song together,  
responding to each other’s signals with extraordinary poise. Mr. Laws  
was captivating, unerring with his intonation and luxurious in his tone.

Rocco Landesman, the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts,  
announced early in the program that in addition to the award money,  
the endowment was distributing $250,000 in grants to 15 nonprofit arts  
organizations across the country, to present NEA Jazz Masters in  
performance or educational settings. (The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival  
and the 92nd Street Y are the two New York City recipients of this  
financing.)

At the end of the night, Mr. Landesman also felt the need to point out  
something that had been deftly underplayed: Mr. Marsalis’s award was  
actually dedicated to “The Marsalis Family,” including his sons  
Branford, a saxophonist; Wynton, a trumpeter (and artistic director of  
Jazz at Lincoln Center); Delfeayo, a trombonist; and Jason, a drummer.  
Because it’s the first group award in NEA Jazz Masters history, that  
decision has met with some pointed criticism. The criticism stands,  
but so does the decision. And given the evening’s unspoken focus on  
legacy, it didn’t seem out of place here.