The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), every year honors up to seven jazz musicians with Jazz Master Awards. The National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Fellowships are the self-proclaimed highest honors that the United States bestows upon jazz musicians. The award is usually given late in a performer's career after they have long established themselves.
Seven Steps to Heaven is the eighth studio album on Columbia Records by jazz musician Miles Davis, released in 1963, catalogue CL 2051 and CS 8851 in stereo. Recorded at Columbia's 30th Street Studios in Manhattan, and at Columbia Studios in Los Angeles, in sessions recorded in April of 1963, and May of 1963. It presents the Miles Davis Quintet in transition, with the New York session introducing the rhythm section of Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams, who would become Davis' regular sidemen for the next five years. Upon release, the album was Davis' most successful on the Billboard pop LPs chart up to that point, peaking at number 62.
James Carter is an American jazz musician widely recognized for his technical virtuosity on saxophones and a variety of woodwinds. He is the cousin of noted jazz violinist Regina Carter.
Robert Berg was an American jazz saxophonist.
Piano Jazz is a weekly one-hour radio show produced and distributed by National Public Radio (NPR). It began on June 4, 1978, and was hosted by jazz pianist Marian McPartland (1918–2013) until 2011. It is the longest-running cultural program on NPR. The show generally features a single guest, and usually consists of about an equal mixture of discussion and playing, often duets with McPartland. Initially the guests were limited to jazz pianists, but the format was later expanded to include performers on other instruments as well as other genres. The show provides an inside look at the relationships of jazz musicians, since McPartland often had long friendships with many of her guests. Piano Jazz won a Peabody Award in 1983. The show is an exclusive production of South Carolina public radio on WLTR and is offered nationally by NPR.
The Monterey Jazz Festival is an annual music festival that takes place in Monterey, California, United States. It debuted on October 3, 1958, championed by Dave Brubeck and co-founded by jazz and popular music critic Ralph J. Gleason and jazz disc jockey Jimmy Lyons.
Dee Dee Bridgewater is an American jazz singer and actress. She is a three-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, as well as a Tony Award-winning stage actress. For 23 years, she was the host of National Public Radio's syndicated radio show JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater. She is a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization.
The Umbria Jazz Festival, directed by Carlo Pagnetta, is one of the most important jazz festivals in the world and has been held annually since 1973. Today, the summer festival runs for 10 days in Perugia, capital of Umbria. The original plan was to hold events throughout the region of Umbria and indeed the Umbria Jazz Winter Festival takes place annually in December/January in Orvieto.
The Notre Dame Collegiate Jazz Festival is the oldest jazz festival in the U.S. It takes place every spring at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. The university invites college bands and professional jazz musicians from throughout the country to participate in the weekend event.
Antonio Hart is a jazz alto saxophonist. He attended the Baltimore School for the Arts, studied with Andy McGhee at Berklee College of Music, and has a master's degree from Queens College, City University of New York. His initial training was classical, but he switched to jazz in college. He gained recognition for his work with Roy Hargrove.
Franco Ambrosetti is a jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and composer. He was born in Lugano, Switzerland; his father, Flavio, was a saxophonist who once played opposite Charlie Parker. He has recorded several albums for Enja Records, and worked professionally with his father in a group which also included George Gruntz.
Chick Corea (1941–2021) was an American jazz pianist and composer born on June 12, 1941, in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Corea started learning piano at age four. He recorded his first album, Tones for Joan's Bones, in 1966. Corea performed with Blue Mitchell, Willie Bobo, Cal Tjader and Herbie Mann in the mid-1960s. In the late 1960s he performed with Stan Getz and Miles Davis. The National Endowment for the Arts states, "He ranked with Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett as one of the leading piano stylists to emerge after Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner, and he composed such notable jazz standards as 'Spain', 'La Fiesta', and 'Windows'."
San Francisco Jazz Festival is an annual three-week music festival produced by SFJAZZ, a non-profit organization dedicated to jazz and jazz education.
The Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz is a non-profit music education organization founded in 1986. Before 2019, it was known as the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, but was then renamed after its longtime board chairman, Herbie Hancock.
Duduka Da Fonseca, born Eduardo Moreira Da Fonseca is a Brazilian jazz drummer who is a founding member of Trio da Paz with Romero Lubambo and Nilson Matta. He leads the Duduka da Fonseca Trio, with David Feldman and Guto Wirtti.
"Maiden Voyage" is a jazz composition by Herbie Hancock from his 1965 album Maiden Voyage. It features Hancock's quartet – trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams – together with saxophonist George Coleman. It is one of Hancock's best-known compositions and has become a jazz standard.
Directions is a compilation album by American jazz musician Miles Davis, released in 1981 by Columbia Records. It collects previously unreleased outtakes that Davis recorded between 1960 and 1970. Directions was the last of a series of compilation albums—mostly consisting of, at that time, previously unreleased music—that Columbia released to bridge Davis' recording hiatus that ended with the Man with the Horn in July 1981.
International Jazz Day is an International Day declared by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 2011 "to highlight jazz and its diplomatic role of uniting people in all corners of the globe." It is celebrated annually on April 30. The idea came from jazz pianist and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Herbie Hancock. Jazz Day is chaired by Hancock and the UNESCO Director-General. The celebration is recognized on the calendars of both UNESCO and the United Nations.
