NEH + Jazz

2022 NEA Jazz Masters Celebrated in March 31 Tribute Concert

Washington, DC—The National Endowment for the Arts will honor the 2022 NEA Jazz Masters—Stanley Clarke, Donald Harrison, Jr., Billy Hart, and Cassandra Wilson—and kick off a year-long celebration of the 40th anniversary of the program with a concert on Thursday, March 31, 2022, at 7:30 p.m. PT/10:30 p.m. ET. Held in collaboration with SFJAZZ at the SFJAZZ Center’s Robert N. Miner Auditorium (201 Franklin Street, San Francisco, CA), the concert is free and open to the public and also available through a live webcast and radio broadcast. In addition, the honorees will participate in a Meet the NEA Jazz Masters virtual conversation, available on demand the week before the concert.

NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert—Thursday, March 31, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. PT/10:30 p.m. ET
2018 NEA Jazz Master Dianne Reeves will host the concert, which will celebrate the 2022 NEA Jazz Masters’ contributions to jazz through performances, video tributes, and remarks.

The concert will feature performances by 2022 honorees Stanley Clarke, Billy Hart, and Donald Harrison, Jr. Additional performers include Jeremiah Collier, Joe Dyson, Ethan Iverson, Dan Kaufman, Salar Nader, Noriatsu Naraoka, Ruslan Sirota, Ben Street, and Mark Turner, as well as the SFJAZZ Collective—Matt Brewer, Etienne Charles, Martin Luther McCoy, Gretchen Parlato, Chris Potter, David Sanchez, Kendrick Scott, Edward Simon, and Warren Wolf—and Skylar Tang, a 16-year-old trumpeter and a member of the SFJAZZ High School All-Stars. (Performers subject to change.)

NEA Chair Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson and Founder and Executive Artistic Director of SFJAZZ Randall Kline will provide remarks.

Ticket details:
Starting on Wednesday, March 2, 2022, at 11:00 a.m. PT, up to two tickets per household may be reserved for the free concert online, at the SFJAZZ Center Box Office (201 Franklin St., San Francisco, CA), or by phone (415-788-7353).

Live webcast and radio broadcast details:
The live webcast of the 2022 NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert will begin on March 31 at 7:30 p.m. PT/10:30 p.m. ET at arts.gov and sfjazz.org and on Facebook. An archive of the webcast available following the event at arts.gov. 

In addition, the following websites will also share the live webcast: All About Jazz and Jazz Near You, Blues Alley, BMI, DownBeat, Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz, JazzTimes, KQED, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Museum of African American History and Culture, National Museum of American History, NPR Music, WBGO, WRTI, WZUM, and Voice of America’s Albanian, Armenian, Bosnian, Creole, English to Africa, French to Africa, Georgian, Macedonian, Persian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, and Ukrainian services, and VOA Zimbabwe’s Ndebele and Shona sections. (Subject to change.)

The following radio stations will share the radio broadcast of the event: KCSM 91.1 FM (San Mateo, CA), KKJZ (Los Angeles, CA), SiriusXM Channel 67, Real Jazz, WBGO 88.3 FM (Newark, NJ), WDCB 90.9 FM (Chicago, IL), WPFW 89.3 FM (Washington, DC), and WZUM 88.1 FM (Pittsburgh, PA). (Subject to change. Radio broadcasts may occur at later times; contact the radio stations for more information.)

Media who wish to request press access to the concert should contact Liz Auclair at auclaire@arts.gov. Photos will be available for media use upon request.

Meet the NEA Jazz Masters Virtual Conversation
In the week leading up to the concert, the NEA and SFJAZZ will make available on demand a Meet the NEA Jazz Masters conversation with the 2022 honorees. Tune in to arts.gov or sfjazz.org to hear about the artists’ lives, careers, and impact on jazz.

About the NEA Jazz Masters
Since 1982, the National Endowment for the Arts has awarded 165 fellowships to great figures in jazz, such as Terri Lyne Carrington, Chick Corea, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Nat Hentoff, Sheila Jordan, Charles Lloyd, Pat Metheny, Sonny Rollins, Maria Schneider, Billy Taylor, George Wein, and Nancy Wilson. The Arts Endowment’s website contains photos and bios for all of the NEA Jazz Masters, as well as archived concerts, video tributes, podcasts, and more than 350 NEA Jazz Moments audio clips. The National Endowment for the Arts has also supported the Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program, an effort to document the lives and careers of nearly 100 NEA Jazz Masters.

Nominate an NEA Jazz Master:
The Arts Endowment annually honors musicians who represent a range of styles and instruments. In addition, one fellowship—the A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship for Jazz Advocacy—is given to an individual who has made major contributions to the appreciation, knowledge, and advancement of the American jazz art form. NEA Jazz Masters Fellowships are up to $25,000 and can be received once in a lifetime. Visit the NEA’s website for detailed information and to submit nominations.