NEA jazz masters : America's highest honor in jazz

National En

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NATIONAL
ENDOWMENT
FOR THE ARTS

A great nation
deserves great art.

The National Endowment for the Arts is a public
agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the
arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all
Americans; and providing leadership in arts education.
Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent
agency of the federal government, the Endowment is
the nation's largest annual hinder of the arts, bringing
great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner
cities, and military bases.

National Endowment for the Arts

America's Highest Honor in Jazz

2009 Fellows

Credits

This publication is published by:
National Endowment for the Arts
Office of Communications
Victoria Hutter. Acting Director
Don Ball. Publications Manager/Editor

Designed by:

Fletcher Design Inc.. Washington DC

October 2008

Cover Photo: NEA Jazz Masters (from left) Candido Camero, Joe
Wilder, and Paquito D'Rivera perform during the finale of the
2008 NEA Jazz Masters awards ceremony and concert in Toronto.
Canada. Photo by Tom Pich

The following reference texts were used in researching biographical
information of the Jazz Masters:

All Music Guide to Jazz by Vladimir Bogdanov. Chris Woodstra,
and Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Backbeat Books

American Musicians II by Whitney Balliett, Oxford University
Press

Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz by Leonard Feather and Ira
Gitler. Oxford University Press

Four Jazz Lives by A.B. Spellman. University of Michigan Press

Jazz: The Rough Guide by Ian Carr, Digby Fairweather, and Brian
Priestley, Rough Guides

Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, 4th Edition by Richard Cook and
Brian Morton, Penguin

Talking Jazz: An Oral History by Ben Sidran. Da Capo Press

Voice/TYY: (202) 682-5496

For individuals who axe deaf or hard-of-hearing.

Individuals who do not use conventional print may contact the Arts
Endowment's Office for AccessAbility to obtain this publication in
an alternate format. Telephone: (202) 682-5532

National Endowment for the Arts
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington. DC 20506-0001
(202) 682-5400

Additional copies of this publication can be obtained for free by
contacting the NEA Web site: www.arts.gov.

'•&»•

(*) This publication was printed on recycled paper.

A Message from the Chairman

In 2003 the NEA made the historic decision to increase
significantly its support for the great America art form of jazz.
An ambitious new national initiative was created that eventually
included touring, festivals, television, radio, recordings, and school
programs. At the heart of this national initiative was the NEA Jazz
Masters Fellowships, the nation's highest honor in jazz. First created in 1982 as a
lifetime achievement award, the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowships were well respected in
the jazz world but little know outside it. The plan was to heighten the recognition of
this singular award to make it worthy of the great art and artists it honored.

Six years later, I am proud to report that the program has been enormously
successful. It has brought jazz to millions of Americans in all 50 states — best of all,
introducing the art to seven million students through the NEA Jazz in the Schools
curriculum which the NEA developed in partnership with Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Meanwhile hundreds of Jazz Moments radio features are broadcast daily on SIRIUS
XM Radio, reaching millions of adult listeners many times a day.

But most important, we honor the artists themselves through the NEA Jazz Masters
award. By doubling the number of annual recipients, we also celebrate the breadth of
talent in this distinctively American tradition.

The NEA Jazz Masters constitute an artistic legion of honor. These living legends
embody the best of our nation's creative culture. As NEA chairman, it is hard for me to
describe the extent of my pleasure and pride to see these master musicians recognized
officially by their nation in their own lifetime.

The NEA's investment in jazz has influenced other institutions. The United States
Department of State, for example, recently bestowed its first individual Benjamin
Franklin Award for Public Diplomacy to Dave Bruebeck in honor of his legendary
work in the Jazz Ambassadors program. This award reminds us that jazz musicians
are more than just performers. They are cultural ambassadors, introducing America's
music to new audiences around the world.

We welcome the 2009 NEA Jazz Masters to their rightful place among the
immortals of America's hottest — and coolest — musical tradition.

<Q&AAC\ H^Ho.

Dana Gioia

Chairman

National Endowment for the Arts

2009 NEA Jazz Masters iii

NEA Jazz Master Gerald Wilson leads his
orchestra at the 2005 NEA Jazz Masters
awards concert in Long Beach, California.

Photo by Vance Jacobs

Table of Contents

A Brief History of the Program 1

Program Overview 3

2009 NEA Jazz Masters 5

George Benson 6

Jimmy Cobb 7

Lee Konitz 8

Toots Thielemans 9

Snooky Young 10

Rudy Van Gelder 11

NEA Jazz Masters Award Ceremony 12

1982-2009 NEA Jazz Masters 13

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2012 with funding from

Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

http://archive.org/details/neajazzmastersam2008nati

NEA Jazz Master Slide Hampton takes a solo at the 2007 NEA Jazz Masters awards concert in New York City.

A Brief History of the Program

A melding of African and European music
and cultures, jazz was born in America,
a new musical form that used rhythm,
improvisation, and instruments in unique and
exciting ways. Jazz came to prominence in the early
20th century on the dance floors of major cultural
centers such as Kansas City and New York. With the
advent of sound recording techniques, the increased
availability of affordable gramophones, and the
rise of radio as popular entertainment, jazz quickly
conquered the country. By the 1930s and 1940s,
jazz had become America's dance music, selling
albums and performance tickets at dizzying rates
and sweeping millions of fans in foreign countries
off their feet.

By the 1950s, however, with the advent of rock
and roll and the tilt in jazz toward bebop rather
than the more popular swing, jazz began a decline
in its popularity. It was still seen as an important
and exciting art form, but by an increasingly
smaller audience. Jazz was still being exported
overseas, though, especially by Voice of America
radio broadcasts and U.S. Department of State
goodwill tours that featured such musicians as Dizzy
Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, and Dave Brubeck.

By the 1960s, when the National Endowment
for the Arts (NEA) was created by Congress, jazz
album sales were down and jazz performances
were becoming more difficult to find. Large
dance orchestras disbanded for lack of work, and
musicians found themselves in stiff competition
for fewer and fewer gigs. The music, starting with
bebop and into hard bop and free jazz, became more
cerebral and less dance-oriented, focusing on freeing
up improvisation and rhythm. It was moving to a
new artistic level, and if this high quality were to be
maintained, it would need some assistance.

NEA assistance to the jazz field began in 1969,
with its first grant in jazz awarded to pianist/
composer George Russell (who would later go on
to receive an NEA Jazz Master award in 1990),
allowing him to work on his groundbreaking book,
Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization,
the first major academic work in jazz. In a decade,
jazz funding went from $20,000 in 1970 to $1.5
million in 1980 to more than $2.8 million in 2005,
supporting a wide range of activities, including jazz
festivals and concert seasons, special projects such
as Dr. Billy Taylor's Jazzmobile in New York and
the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz's Jazz Sports

2009 NEA Jazz Masters

program, educational jazz programming on National
Public Radio, artists-in-schools programs, and
research.

While the NEA recognized and acted on the
need for public funding for jazz, the pioneers of the
field were rapidly aging, and often dying without
the appropriate recognition of their contribution
to this great American art form. Louis Armstrong
and Duke Ellington, two of the giants of jazz in
terms of both musicianship and composition, both
died in the early 1970s without the importance of
their contributions being fully acknowledged and
appreciated.

In an effort to nationally recognize outstanding
jazz musicians for their lifelong achievements and
mastery of jazz, the Arts Endowment in 1982 created
the American Jazz Masters Fellowships — now the
NEA Jazz Masters Fellowships — given to musicians
who have reached an exceptionally high standard of
achievement in this very specialized art form.

In addition to the recognition, the NEA included
a monetary award of $20,000 for each fellowship.
The rigors of making a living in the jazz field are
well documented. Jazz is an art form to which
the free market has not been kind. Despite their
unparalleled contributions to American art, many
jazz greats worked for years just barely scraping by.
The monetary award often has provided a much
needed infusion of income.

That such recognition was long overdue is
exemplified by Thelonious Sphere Monk, one of the
great American composers and musicians. Monk
was nominated for an NEA Jazz Master Fellowship
in the first year of the program, but unfortunately
passed away before the announcement was made
(the fellowship is not awarded posthumously).
The three who were chosen certainly lived up to
the criteria of artistic excellence and significance
to the art form: Roy Eldridge, Dizzy Gillespie, and
Sun Ra. The panel in that first year included stellar
jazz musicians themselves, including some future
NEA Jazz Masters: trumpeter Donald Byrd and
saxophonists Frank Foster, Chico Freeman, Jackie
McLean, and Archie Shepp. In addition, legendary
Riverside record company co-owner and producer
Orrin Keepnews was on the panel.

From that auspicious beginning, the program has
continued to grow and provide increased awareness
of America's rich jazz heritage. In 2004, the number
of fellowships awarded increased, and a new award
was created for those individuals who helped
to advance the appreciation of jazz. In 2005, the
advocacy award was designated the A. B. Spellman
NEA Jazz Masters Award for Jazz Advocacy in
honor of A. B. Spellman, a jazz writer, accomplished

poet, innovative arts administrator, and former
NEA Deputy Chairman, who has dedicated much
of his life to bringing the joy and artistry of jazz
to all Americans. Additionally, the amount of the
fellowship was increased to $25,000.

In 2005, Chairman Dana Gioia greatly expanded
the NEA Jazz Masters initiative to include several new
programs in addition to the fellowships. A two-CD
anthology of NEA Jazz Masters' music was produced
by Verve Music Group. NEA Jazz Masters on Tour,
sponsored by Verizon, brought jazz musicians to
all 50 states throughout 2005-07 for performances,
community events, and educational programs.
This led to a new program, NEA Jazz Masters Live,
which brings these jazz legends to selected events for
performances, master classes, and lectures. A new
arts education component was created in partnership
with Jazz at Lincoln Center and with support from the
Verizon Foundation, NEA Jazz in the Schools. This
educational resource for high school teachers of social
studies, U.S. history, and music includes a five-unit,
Web-based curriculum and DVD toolkit that explores
jazz as an indigenous American art form and as a
means to understand U.S. history (more information
can be found at www.neajazzintheschools.org). New
broadcasting programming was created, such as 14
one-hour shows on NEA Jazz Masters featured on the
public radio series Jazz Profiles, hosted by NEA Jazz
Master Nancy Wilson, and Jazz Moments, radio shorts
for broadcast on SIRIUS XM Radio.

Each passing year brings increased international
recognition of the NEA Jazz Masters awards as the
nation's highest honor for outstanding musicianship
in the field of jazz. The recipients of the NEA Jazz
Masters award cover all aspects of the music: from
boogie-woogie (Cleo Brown) to swing (Count Basie,
Andy Kirk, Jay McShann); from bebop (Dizzy
Gillespie, Kenny Clarke) to Dixieland (Danny
Barker); from free jazz (Ornette Coleman, Cecil
Taylor) to cool jazz (Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Ahmad
Jamal); and everywhere in between. What ties all
these styles together is a foundation in the blues,
a reliance on group interplay, and unpredictable
improvisation. Throughout the years, and in all the
different styles, these musicians have demonstrated
the talent, creativity, and dedication that make them
NEA Jazz Masters.

Celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2007, the
award continues to offer a solid platform for raising
worldwide awareness of America's rich jazz heritage
by not only honoring those who have dedicated their
lives to the music, but also by leading the way in
efforts encouraging the preservation and nourishing
of jazz as an important musical form for generations
to come.

2009 NEA Jazz Masters

2008 NEA Jazz Masters Gunther Schuller, Quincy Jones, and Candido Camera
at the NEA Jazz Masters panel discussion in Toronto, Canada.

Program Overview

The National Endowment for the Arts
recognizes the importance of jazz as one
of the great American art forms of the
20th century. As part of its efforts to honor those
distinguished artists whose excellence, impact, and
significant contribution in jazz have helped keep
this important tradition and art form alive, the Arts
Endowment annually awards NEA Jazz Masters
Fellowships, the highest honor that our nation
bestows upon jazz musicians. Each fellowship
award is $25,000.

The NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship is a lifetime
achievement award. The criteria for the fellowships
are musical excellence and significance of the
nominees' contributions to the art of jazz. The Arts
Endowment honors a wide range of styles with
awards currently given in the categories of rhythm
instrumentalist, solo instrumentalist, vocalist,
keyboardist, arranger/composer, and bandleader.
There is also a special award given to a non-
musician, the A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Master
Award for Jazz Advocacy, which is awarded to an
individual who has made major contributions to the

appreciation, knowledge, and advancement of jazz.

Fellowships are awarded to living artists on the
basis of nominations from the general public and
the jazz community. The recipients must be citizens
or permanent residents of the United States. An
individual may submit only one nomination each
year, and nominations are made by submitting
a one-page letter detailing the reasons that the
nominated artist should receive an NEA Jazz
Masters Fellowship. Nominations submitted to the
Arts Endowment by the deadline are reviewed by
an advisory panel of jazz experts and at least one
knowledgeable layperson. Panel recommendations
are forwarded to the National Council on the
Arts, which then makes recommendations to the
Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Nominations remain active for five years, being
reviewed annually during this period.

Information on submitting a nomination and on
the NEA Jazz Masters award is available on the NEA
Web site: www.arts.gov.

2009 NEA Jazz Masters

2009 NEA Jazz Master
Toots Thielemans

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2009 Fellows

50L0 INSTRUMENTALIST
RHYTHM INSTRUMENTALIST

SOLO INSTRUMENTALIST

SOLO INSTRUMENTALIST

SOLO INSTRUMENTALIST

A.B. SPELLMAN NEA JAZZ
MASTERS AWARD FOR
JAZZ ADVOCACY

NOTES:

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Names in bold in biographies denote NEA Jazz Masters awardees.

All recordings listed in Selected Discography are under the artist's name unless otherwise noted.

Years listed under recordings in Selected Discography denote the years the recordings were
made.

Benson

Born March 22, 1943 in Pittsburgh, PA

GUITARIST VOCALIST

Appreciated as both a musician and performer,
George Benson plays the dual role of expert
improviser and vibrant entertainer. Rounding out
his singular approach with a strong sense of swing, he is
considered one of the greatest guitarists in jazz.

Benson began his career as a guitarist working the
corner pubs of his native Pittsburgh. Legendary jazz
guitarist Wes Montgomery came across Benson early
on, complimenting him and urging him to continue his
already impressive work. In the early 1960s, Benson
apprenticed with organist Brother Jack McDuff; he found
the organist's gritty swing a fertile ground for the sly,
confident, and adventurous guitar lines that earned him
an early reputation as a master.

By the time
legendary talent scout
John Hammond signed
Benson to Columbia,
the guitarist's name
was becoming known
throughout the
industry. In the late
1960s he sat in on
Miles Davis' Miles in
the Sky sessions, and
also put a personal
spin on the tunes from
the Beatles' Abbey
Hoari. Joining the CTI

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^DDISCOo^

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The New Boss Guitar of George Benson,
Prestige/OJC, 1964

The Other Side of Abbey Road, A&M, 1 969

Weekend in LA., Warner Brothers, 1977

Tenderly, Warner Brothers, 1989

Absolute Benson, GRP, 1999

label in 1970, Benson was united with many of jazz's
finest instrumentalists — including Stanley Turrentine,
Ron Carter, and Freddie Hubbard — and released classic
albums, such as Beyond the Blue Horizon.

Despite his success, Benson's desire to combine his
singing and guitar playing was blocked until he worked
with music producer Tommy LiPuma. The result was
Breezin', the first jazz record to attain platinum sales.
The 1976 blockbuster, his first in a long association
with Warner Brothers Records, brought Benson to the
attention of the general public with such hits as his soulful
rendition of Leon Russell's "This Masquerade," which
featured the guitarist scatting along with his solo break. He
followed up with many pop hits, including a sultry version
of "On Broadway" and the irresistible "Give Me the Night"
(produced by Quincy Jones).

In the mid-1990s Benson followed LiPuma to the GRP
label where they released three well-received albums
highlighting Benson's vocal and guitar prowess. In 2006,
Benson and vocalist/songwriter Al Jarreau released Givin'
It Up with Benson's current label, Concord Music Group.

Benson has won ten Grammy Awards, thrilling
many crowds around the world with his performances,
including recent appearances at Malaysia's 50th Merdeka
celebration and the Mawazine Festival in Morocco.

6 2009 NEA Jazz Masters

DRUMMER EDUCATOR

III

Born January 20, 1929 in Washington, DC

An accomplished accompanist
and soloist, Jimmy Cobb is best
known for being a key part of
Miles Davis' first great quintet in the
late 1950s.

Largely self-taught, Cobb spent
his younger days in his hometown
Washington, DC, playing engagements
with Charlie Rouse, Frank Wess, and
Billie Holiday, among others. He left
DC in 1950, joining Earl Bostic, with
whom he cut his first recordings, before
finding work with Dinah Washington,
Pearl Bailey, Clark Terry, Dizzy
Gillespie, and Cannonball Adderley.
In 1957, Cobb began playing with
Miles Davis, eventually becoming part of a formidable
rhythm section that included Paul Chambers on bass
and Wynton Kelly on piano. Between 1957 and 1963,
Cobb played (along with saxophonists John Coltrane
and Cannonball Adderley) on some of Davis' most noted
records: Kind of Blue, Sketches of Spain, Someday My
Prince Will Come, Live at Carnegie Hall, Live at the
Blackhawk, and Porgy and Bess, among others. In 1963,
Cobb left the Davis band to continue working as a trio
with Chambers and Kelly. The trio disbanded in the late
1960s, and Cobb worked with singer Sarah Vaughan for
nine years. He then freelanced for the next 20 years
with artists such as Sonny Stitt, Nat Adderley, Ricky

^DDISCO^

Miles Davis, Kind of Blue,
Columbia, 1959

Wes Montgomery, Smokin'at
the Half Note, Verve, 1965

Joe Henderson, Four!, Verve, 1968

Marsalis Music Honor Series,
Marsalis Music/Rounder, 2005

Cobb's Corner, Chesky, 2006

Ford, Hank Jones, Ron Carter, George
Coleman, David "Fathead" Newman,
and Nancy Wilson.

Cobb released his first CD (and
music video) for the A&E network in
1986 that featured Freddie Hubbard,
Gregory Hines, and Bill Cosby. In
2006, Cobb was produced by Branford
Marsalis for the Marsalis Music
Honor Series, recorded around Cobb's
75th birthday. In the last few years,
he has released several albums as
a leader — New York Time, Cobb's
Corner, and West of 5th — playing with
stalwart musicians such as pianists
Cedar Walton and Hank Jones and
relative newcomers such as bassist Christian McBride and
trumpeter Roy Hargrove.

Jimmy Cobb continues to play music in New York City,
where he lives with his wife and two children. He now
leads the Jimmy Cobb "So What" Band, celebrating 50
years of Kind of Blue and the music of Miles Davis, and
travels the international circuit as he approaches his 80th
birthday. Cobb currently teaches master classes at Stanford
University's Jazz Workshop and has taught at The New
School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, the University of
Greensboro in North Carolina, the International Center for
the Arts at San Francisco State University in California,
and international educational institutions.

2009 NEA Jazz Masters

Koiiitz

Bom October 13, 1927 in Chicago, IL

SAXOPHONIST COMPOSER EDUCATOR

Lee Konitz is one of the more distinctive alto
saxophonists in jazz since Charlie Parker (and one
of the few that did not outright copy Parker's style),
pairing his individual style and voice with a strong sense
of innovation.

Born to an Austrian father and a Russian mother in
Chicago, Konitz as a youth studied clarinet, then alto
saxophone with various teachers.
In the early 1940s, Konitz met noted
pianist Lennie Tristano, under whose
influence and tutelage Kontiz's mature
style in jazz began to emerge. His
recordings with Tristano include
the 1949 releases "Intuition" and
"Digression" — precursors to the "free
jazz" movement of the 1960s.

In 1947, Konitz played with the
Claude Thornhill Orchestra, meeting
Gil Evans, who was then arranging
for Thornhill. Evans brought Konitz
along to participate in Miles Davis'
nonet performances and recordings
[Birth of the Cool, 1948-50), considered
the beginning point for what came to

tiled "cool jazz." Konitz went on to play with Gerry
Mulligan and Chel Baker's influential band and worked
from 1952-53 in Stan Kenton's big band. From then on, he
mainly led his own small groups, occasionally touring
abroad.

c^DISCOGi?

Subconscious-Lee, Prestige/OJC, 1949-50

The Lee Konitz Duets, Milestone/OJC, 1967

The New York Album, Soul Note, 1987

New Nonet, Omnitone, 2006

Lee Konitz-Ohad Talmor Big Band,
Portology, Omnitone, 2007

In the early 1960s, as opportunities for performances
declined, Konitz withdrew from the music business
and took on day work. He continued to develop his
unique sound, however, occasionally working with such
musicians as Paul Bley, Martial Solal, Charlie Haden,
and Brad Mehldau. He also worked as a private teacher,
conducting lessons by tape with students worldwide.

Konitz joined with Warne Marsh, his
fellow sideman from early Tristano
sessions, to tour Europe and record
in 1975-76; he also founded his own
nonet and performed regularly during
the 1980s. In 1992, Konitz won the
prestigious Danish JAZZPAR Prize.

With his insatiable musical
curiosity, Konitz records in a variety
of different settings. His later albums
include French impressionist music
with a string quartet [Lee Konitz &■
The Axis String Quartet Play French
Impressionist Music from the 20th
Century), work with the Orquestra
Jazz de Matosinhos [Portology), and an
album with the big band Mark Masters
Ensemble [One Day with Lee). Konitz divides his time
between residences in the United States and Germany and
continues to travel and perform around the globe.

8 2009 NEA Jazz Masters

HARMONICA PLAYER GUITARIST

Thielemaiis

Born April 29, 1922 in Brussels, Belgium

Harmonica player, guitarist, and whistler Jean
Baptiste "Toots" Thielemans has been credited
by jazz aficionados as being among the greatest
jazz harmonica players of the 20th century, improvising
on an instrument more known in folk and blues music.
Thielesman is known to audiences young and old, his
harmonica heard on the Sesame Street theme and his
whistling heard in an "Old Spice" commercial.

Thielemans learned to play the accordion at the age
of three, took up chromatic harmonica at 17, and taught
himself to play the guitar. Influenced by Django Reinhardt
and Charlie Parker, he became interested in jazz. In 1950,
Thielemans toured Europe as a guitarist with the Benny
Goodman Sextet. He immigrated to the United States in
1952, getting a chance to play with Charlie Parker's All-
Stars. His performance so impressed George Shearing
that he invited Thielemans into his band, where he stayed
until 1959.

In 1961, Thielemans composed and recorded
"Bluesette" using unison whistling and guitar, and ever
since has been greatly in demand — particularly for his
harmonica and his whistling — on pop records and as a
jazz soloist. Thielemans began freelancing, playing and
recording with Ella Fitzgerald, Quincy Jones, Bill Evans,
Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Astrud Gilberto, and Elis Regina,
among others. He also made prominent appearances on
movie soundtracks, notably on The Pawnbroker, Midnight
Cowboy, and The Sugarland Express.

^

C&V BIBLlo^

«/>

Man Bites Harmonica,
Riverside/OJC, 1957-58

Do Not Leave Me, Vintage Jazz, 1 986

Only Trust Your Heart, Concord Jazz, 1988

East Coast West Coast, Private Music, 1994

Toots and Kenny Werner, Verve, 2001

Thielemans has
appeared as a leader of
swing and bop quartets
on recordings and at
international festivals.
At the Montreux
International Jazz
Festival, he recorded as
a sideman with Oscar
Peterson in 1975, then
with Dizzy Gillespie in
1980. Thielemans' two-
volume Brasil Project was
popular in the 1990s and
featured top Brazilian
musicians.

A perennial winner of Down Beat readers and critics
polls in the category "miscellaneous instruments,"
Thielemans was called "one of the greatest musicians
of our time" by Quincy Jones in 1995. Thielemans has
received many awards and titles, including the French
"Chevalier des arts et des lettres" honors and honorary
doctorates from both universities in the city of Brussels. In
2001, Belguim's King Albert II bestowed on him the title
"Baron," making him Baron Jean "Toots" Thielemans.

^;

>

2009 NEA Jazz Masters

V*"!

Young

Born February 3, 1919 in Dayton, OH

TRUMPETER

c$»

^DDISCOo^

Jimmie Lunceford,
1939-1940, Classics, 1939-40

Count Basie, Kansas City Suite, Roulette, 1960

Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, Live at the
Village Vanguard, Solid State, 1967

Horn of Plenty, Concord Jazz, 1979

Gerald Wilson, State Street Suite,
MAMA Foundation, 1994

Known for his prowess
with the plunger
mute, Eugene Edward
"Snooky" Young's trumpet
playing is most often heard
in the context of the big band.
For 30 years, he was heard
every week night as a member
of the Tonight Show orchestra.

Young began playing
the trumpet at five and by
his early teens was working
in various regional bands.
From 1939-1942 he made

a name for himself as lead trumpeter and soloist in
the Jimmie Lunceford band. From 1942 to 1947 Young
worked with Les Hite, Benny Carter, and Gerald Wilson,
as well as with the Count Basie band, where he replaced
trumpet player Ed Lewis. Young led his own band in his
hometown of Dayton from 1947 to 1957 and continued to
perform periodically with both Lionel Hampton and Basie
from the early 1960s.

Upon leaving Basie in 1962, Young began his longest
engagement with a band as a trumpeter for the Doc
Severinson band on the Tonight Show. In 1972, he moved

'♦

>

to Los Angeles when the show relocated to the
West Coast, and remained until Johnny Carson
left in 1992.

Young continue to work on other projects
as well. He was a founding member of the
Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra in 1966,
and throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, he
played with a variety of big bands, including on
recordings by such jazz greats as Louis Bellson,
Gil Evans, Quincy Jones, Charles Mingus, and
Jimmy Smith. Young has worked outside of jazz
as well, playing with the rock group the Band
on New Year's Eve in 1971 and on the classic
1976 blues recording Bobby Bland and B.B. King
Together Again. ..Live.

Young has worked since with several Los Angeles big
bands, and has issued three albums under his own name,
including Horn of Plenty, which demonstrated his solo
gifts as a strong lead trumpeter. Young has appeared as
a soloist at jazz festivals in Montreux, Switzerland; The
Hague, Holland; Antibes, France; and Concord, California.
His work has appeared on numerous soundtracks as well,
including The Color Purple. He continues to perform and
tour with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra and the
Gerald Wilson Orchestra.

10 2009 NEA Jazz Masters

RECORDING ENGINEER

Van Gelder

Born November 2, 1924 in Jersey City, NJ

Considered by many the greatest recording engineer
in jazz, Rudy Van Gelder has recorded practically
every major jazz musician of the 1950s and 1960s on
thousands of albums.

Van Gelder became involved with amateur radio
as a teenager, which led to his interest in microphones
and electronics. Since recording consoles were not
then manufactured commercially, he created his own
equipment and set up a studio in his parents' living room
in Hackensack, New Jersey. An optometrist by day, Van
Gelder began recording local jazz musicians in his free
time.

In 1953, saxophonist Gil Melle introduced Van Gelder
to Blue Note founder Alfred Lion, beginning a 14-year

association with the
label. He recorded
practically every
session that Blue Note
produced during that
time period, from
obscure sessions like
Jutta Hipp with Zoot
Sims in 1956 to the
popular Maiden Voyage
by Herbie Hancock
in 1965. Van Gelder's
notable recordings
helped establish Blue

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*

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Sonny Rollins, Volume 2, Blue Note, 1957

Cannonball Adderley, Somethin' Else,
Blue Note, 1958

Eric Dolphy, Outward Bound, Prestige/0 JC, 1960

John Coltrane, A Love Supreme,
Impulse!, 1964

Joe Henderson, Lush Life: The Music
of Billy Strayhorn, Verve, 1991

Note's reputation as an elite jazz label. They also enticed
other labels, such as Prestige, Savoy, and Impulse!, to seek
out his recording skills.

In 1959, needing a larger space for Blue Note and his
other clients, Van Gelder finally quit his day job and
moved his studio to a new facility he built in Englewood
Cliffs, New Jersey, where he has remained ever since. He
became the house engineer for Creed Taylor's CTI label in
the early 1970s.

The signature Van Gelder sound features a clearly
defined separation among the instruments, ensuring
that every sonic detail is clear and audible. This was
accomplished by the strategic placement of instruments
in the studio, though his exact technique has always been
a closely guarded secret. Van Gelder's main goal was to
create the best mood for the musicians to perform in,
and from the results, he seems to have greatly succeeded.
Among the timeless recordings made under his aegis are
John Coltrane's Blue Train (Blue Note) Miles Davis' Workin'
(Prestige), Andrew Hill's Point of Departure (Blue Note),
Freddie Hubbard's Red Clay (CTI), and Wayne Shorter 's
Speak No Evil (Blue Note).

Van Gelder still freelances for a variety of labels
and since 1999 has been instrumental in the modern
remastering of his original recordings — most notably the
Blue Note RVG series — with the conversion from analog to
digital formats.

2009 NEA Jazz Masters 11

NEA Jazz Masters
Award Ceremony

NEA Jazz Masters events include a luncheon for all attending NEA Jazz
Masters (and a group photo), portraits of the new class of honorees, and a
special concert and awards ceremony. Below are a few candid moments from
the last few years.

—

Frank Wess, Gerald Wilson, Jon Hendi

Photo by Tom Pr1-

Ornette Coleman

Photo by Katja von Schuttenbach

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David Baker,
Freddie Hubbard,
James Moody

Photo by Tom Pich

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Jimmy Smith, Kenny

Burrell, Slide Hampton,

Paquito D'Rivera

Photo by Vance Jacobs

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Chico Hamilton,
Roy Haynes

Photo by Vance Jacobs

Chick Corea,
Roy Haynes,
Ron Carter

Photo by Tom Pich

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Hank Jones, Barry Harris, Billy Taylor

Photo by Tom Pich

Benny Golson,

Jimmy Heath,

Percy Heath

Photo by Tom Pich

12 2009 NEA Jazz Masters

1982-2009

1982

Roy Eldridge*
Dizzy Gillespie*
Sun Ra*

1983

Count Basie*
Kenny Clarke*
Sonny Rollins

1984

Ornette Coleman
Miles Davis*
Max Roach*

1985

Gil Evans*
Ella Fitzgerald*
Jo Jones*

1986

. Benny Carter*
Dexter Gordon*
Teddy Wilson*

1987

Cleo Brown*
Melba Liston*
Jay McShann*

1988

Art Blakey*
Lionel Hampton*
Billy Taylor

1989

Barry Harris
Hank Jones
Sarah Vaughan*

1990

George Russell
Cecil Taylor
Gerald Wilson

1991

Danny Barker*
Buck Clayton*
Andy Kirk*
Clark Terry

1992

Betty Carter*
Dorothy Donegan*
Sweets Edison*

* Deceased

1993

Jon Hendricks
Milt Hinton*
Joe Williams*

1994

Louie Bellson
Ahmad Jamal
Carmen McRae*

1995

Ray Brown*
Roy Haynes
Horace Silver

1996

Tommy Flanagan*
Benny Golson
J.J. Johnson*

1997

Billy Higgins*
Milt Jackson*
Anita O'Day*

1998

Ron Carter
James Moody
Wayne Shorter

1999

Dave Brubeck
Art Farmer*
Joe Henderson*

2000

David Baker
Donald Byrd
Marian McPartland

2001

John Lewis*
Jackie McLean*
Randy Weston

2002

Frank Foster
Percy Heath*
McCoy Tyner

2003

Jimmy Heath
Elvin Jones*
Abbey Lincoln

2004

Jim Hall
Chico Hamilton
Herbie Hancock
Luther Henderson*
Nat Hentoff
Nancy Wilson

2005

Kenny Burrell
Paquito D 'Rivera
Slide Hampton
Shirley Horn*
Jimmy Smith*
Artie Shaw*
George Wein

2006

Ray Barretto*
Tony Bennett
Bob Brookmeyer
Chick Corea
Buddy DeFranco
Freddie Hubbard
John Levy

2007

Toshiko Akiyoshi
Curtis Fuller
Ramsey Lewis
Dan Morgenstern
Jimmy Scott
Frank Wess
Phil Woods

2008

Candido Camero
Andrew Hill*
Qutncy Jones
Tom McIntosh
gunther schuller
Joe Wilder

2009

George Benson
Jimmy Cobb
Lee Konitz
Toots Thielemans
Rudy Van Gelder
Snooky Young

2009 NEA Jazz Masters 13

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT

FOR THE ARTS

National Endowment for the Arts

Washington, DC 20506-0001
202.682.5400

.ot for sale — Available for free at www.arts.gov