NEA Announces Live Webcast of 2013 NEA Jazz Masters Awards Ceremony & Concert

National Endowment for the Arts Announces Live Webcast

of 2013 NEA Jazz Masters Awards Ceremony & Concert

on January 14, 2013 at 7:30 p.m. EST

As a music form born and bred in the United States, jazz has committed fans throughout the world. On January 14, 2013 at 7:30 p.m., EST, the National Endowment for the Arts, in partnership with Jazz at Lincoln Center, will hold its annual NEA Jazz Masters Awards Ceremony & Concert at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, located at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall, in New York City. The NEA invites the nation's jazz fans to join in celebrating the recipients of the nation's top honor in jazz by watching the NEA Jazz Masters Awards Ceremony & Concert via live webcast. The NEA Jazz Masters Awards Ceremony & Concert will prominently feature NEA Jazz Masters, who will perform tributes to the 2013 honorees: Mose Allison, Lou Donaldson, Lorraine Gordon (A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Award for Jazz Advocacy), and Eddie Palmieri.  The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. EST and can be accessed by the public at arts.gov/jazzmasterswebcast as well as jalc.org/neajazzmasters. An archive of the webcast will be available the following day.

Wynton Marsalis, NEA Jazz Master (2011) and Jazz at Lincoln Center Managing and Artistic Director, will emcee the concert.  NEA Jazz Masters Kenny Barron (2010), Ron Carter (1998), and Jimmy Cobb (2009) will make up a featured trio in an evening of performances that will also include Paquito D'Rivera (2005), Sheila Jordan (2012), Dave Liebman (2011), and Randy Weston (2001), as well as 2013 NEA Jazz Masters Mose Allison, Lou Donaldson, and Eddie Palmieri. Other NEA Jazz Masters in attendance at the concert include Muhal Richard Abrams (2010), David Baker (2000),), Benny Golson (1996), Chico Hamilton (2004), Roy Haynes (1995), Dan Morgenstern (2007), Jimmy Owens (2012), McCoy Tyner (2002), Cedar Walton (2010), and Phil Woods (2007).*

In addition to the live webcast, the concert will be broadcast live on WBGO Jazz 88.3FM, NPR Music, and SiriusXM Satellite Radio's Real Jazz Channel XM67.  A video archive of the concert will also be available at  arts.gov/jazzmasterswebcast following the event.

*Performers and attendees are subject to change.

About NEA Jazz Masters

Each year since 1982, the Arts Endowment has conferred the NEA Jazz Masters Award to living legends in recognition of their outstanding contributions to jazz. With this new class, 128 awards have been given to great figures of jazz in America, including Count Basie, George Benson, Art Blakey, Dave Brubeck, Betty Carter, Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis, Roy Eldridge, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Herbie Hancock, Elvin Jones, John Levy, Abbey Lincoln, Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Cecil Taylor, Sarah Vaughan, Nancy Wilson, and Teddy Wilson.

NEA Jazz Masters are selected from nominations submitted by the public and receive a one-time fellowship award of $25,000, are honored at an awards ceremony, and may participate in NEA-sponsored promotional, performance, and educational activities. One-hundred seventy-three nominations were considered for the 2013 NEA Jazz Masters. Only living musicians or jazz advocates  (U.S. citizens or permanent residents) may be nominated for the NEA Jazz Masters honor.

The NEA has created numerous resources as part of the NEA Jazz Masters program, including:

• Video tributes, brief video tributes to recent NEA Jazz Masters' lives and careers in jazz,
• Jazz Moments, 222 short audio pieces featuring musical excerpts and short interviews with NEA Jazz Masters,
• Podcasts with NEA Jazz Masters and other jazz figures about the history and current state of jazz,
• In-depth interviews with more than 45 NEA Jazz Masters,
• NEA Jazz in the Schools, a free, five-unit, online curriculum created in partnership with Jazz at Lincoln Center that explores jazz as an indigenous American art form and a means to understanding American history,
• NEA Jazz Masters Live grants to support performance and educational activities featuring NEA Jazz Masters, administered by Art Midwest.

In addition, the NEA supports the Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program, an effort to document the lives and careers of NEA Jazz Masters. In addition to transcriptions of the hours-long interviews, the website also includes audio clips with interview excerpts of the artists'  early years; their first introduction to  music and jazz; as well as their unique personal experiences in world of jazz.

The National Endowment for the Arts was established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. To date, the NEA has awarded more than $4 billion to support artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities. The NEA extends its work through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector. To join the discussion on how art works, visit the NEA at arts.gov.

Jazz at Lincoln Center is dedicated to inspiring and growing audiences for jazz. With the world-renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and a comprehensive array of guest artists, Jazz at Lincoln Center advances a unique vision for the continued development of the art of jazz by producing a year-round schedule of performance, education, and broadcast events for audiences of all ages. Under the leadership of Managing and Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis and Chairman Robert J. Appel, Jazz at Lincoln Center produces thousands of events each season in its home in New York City, Frederick P. Rose Hall, and around the world.