The Jazz Journalists Association congratulates the 2023 class of National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Masters,
comprising Louis Hayes, violinist Regina Carter, saxophonist Kenny Garrett — winner of the JJA’s 2022 Album of the Year Award for Sounds from the Ancestors — and Sue Mingus, director of Charles Mingus repertory ensembles, record producer and author (Tonight at Noon: A Love Story).
Ms Mingus, who was named a JJA “Jazz Hero” in 2010, is receiving the A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship for Jazz Advocacy. The widow of the bassist-composer whose centennial is celebrated this year, Sue Mingus is an artist in her own right, a tireless archivist (Mingus archives are now at the Library of Congress), teacher and publisher of her husband’s work, whose nonprofit has created an annual Mingus High School Festival and Competition.
Garrett, Hayes and Carter — the JJA’s 2017 String Player of the Year were all born and raised in Detroit, which has previously produced its share of previous NEA Jazz Masters, but never in a sweep like this.
“It represents the profound legacy and lineage of jazz from Detroit, and the influence that this city has had on this music over the last 75 years,” critic Mark Stryker told NPR. Stryker’s book Jazz From Detroit includes chapters devoted to each of the new NEA honorees (and was named JJA Book of the Year in 2020).
The NEA Jazz Masters fellowship, the nation’s official celebration of jazz, brings with it a $25,000 award. According to longstanding custom, the new class will be honored in a gala NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert, to be held on April 1, 2023. The concert, presented in collaboration with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, will be free to attend with a reservation, and webcast live at NPR.org and arts.gov. Enjoy the 2022 Tribute Concert, produced by SFJazz, posted below.
