In honor of the 2023 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Jazz Masters—Regina Carter, Kenny Garrett, Louis Hayes, and Sue Mingus—the NEA presents the 2023 NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert on Saturday, April 1, 2023, at 7:30 p.m. ET at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and available through a live webcast below.

Hosted by Mark Ruffin of SiriusXM’s Real Jazz channel (67), this one-night-only concert will honor the 2023 NEA Jazz Masters, recipients of the nation’s highest honor in jazz. The concert will feature performances by honorees Regina Carter, Kenny Garrett, and Louis Hayes. Additional performers include Rudy Bird, Michael Bowie, Keith Brown, Ronald Bruner, Abraham Burton, Adam Cruz, Dezron Douglas, Kal Ferretti, Alvester Garnett, Sarah Hanahan, David Hazeltine, Corcoran Holt, Steve Nelson, Shawn Purcell, Melvis Santa, Helen Sung, Camille Thurman, and The String Queens—Dawn Michelle Johnson, Kendall Isadore, and Elise Sharp. (Performers subject to change.)

The concert will also include video tributes to the honorees, illuminating their lives and careers, as well as remarks by NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD; President of the Kennedy Center Deborah F. Rutter; honorees Regina Carter, Kenny Garrett, and Louis Hayes; and Roberto and Emma Ungaro, representing honoree Sue Mingus, who passed away in September 2022.

Wayne Shorter was a member of the Institute family for over 30 years, serving as a member of the Board of Trustees, Competition Judge, and teacher and mentor to our college students and other young artists in our programs. Wayne participated each year in International Jazz Day and was deeply committed to its mission of uniting people around the world through the power of jazz.  He was a giant in the music and we are forever grateful for his friendship and the generous sharing of his vast knowledge and wisdom with all of us. 

Visionary composer, saxophonist, visual artist, devout Buddhist, devoted husband, father and grandfather Wayne Shorter has embarked on a new journey as part of his extraordinary life – departing the earth as we know it in search of an abundance of new challenges and creative possibilities.  Always inquisitive and constantly exploring – ever the fearless and passionate innovator – Shorter was 89 years young and had just won his 13th Grammy Award in February.  A gentle spirit, sci-fi and cartoon enthusiast, his long realized Opera “…Iphigenia,” that he created with collaborator esperanza spalding (and featuring sets by Frank Gehry) played to widespread critical acclaim across the country in 2021.  Shorter was surrounded by his loving family at the time of his transition and is survived by his devoted wife Carolina, daughters Miyako and Mariana, and newly-born grandson, Max.  Most recently Wayne had been contemplating his next project, a Jazz ballet.   

“Generally acknowledged to be jazz’s greatest living composer” (The New York Times), Wayne Shorter has left an indelible mark on the development of music for the last half-century. He first rose to prominence in the late 1950s as the primary composer for Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. Shorter next joined the Miles Davis Quintet, becoming what that bandleader referred to as the ensemble’s “intellectual musical catalyst” before co-founding the pioneering group Weather Report. Since 2001, he has led his own highly acclaimed quartet.

Said Herbie Hancock, Shorter’s closest friend for more than six decades, “Wayne Shorter, my best friend, left us with courage in his heart, love and compassion for all, and a seeking spirit for the eternal future. He was ready for his rebirth. As it is with every human being, he is irreplaceable and was able to reach the pinnacle of excellence as a saxophonist, composer, orchestrator, and recently, composer of the masterful opera ‘…Iphigenia’. I miss being around him and his special Wayne-isms but I carry his spirit within my heart always.” 

Shorter’s works have been performed by the Chicago Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Lyon Symphony, National Polish Radio Symphonic Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Prague Philharmonic, and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Acclaimed artists and ensembles including Renée Fleming and the Imani Winds have also performed his works. He has received commissions from the National, St. Louis, and Nashville symphony orchestras, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the La Jolla Music Society. In all, Shorter has realized over 200 compositions, and dozens of these works have become modern standards.  His many accolades include 13 Grammy Awards and a 2018 Kennedy Center Honor.

The Institute completed its first international tour since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with jazz legend and Institute Chairman Herbie Hancock joining acclaimed saxophonist Don Braden and the eight students of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz Performance at UCLA for a week of teaching, learning and cultural exchange in the Kingdom of Jordan. Sponsored by the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the May program continued the Institute’s commitment to using jazz to advance diplomacy, dialogue between cultures and mutual understanding.

Over the course of five days, the Institute delegation visited prominent educational, performing arts and community service organizations in and around the Jordanian capital, Amman, offering free concerts and master classes for local students and jazz lovers. Complementing the extensive outreach programs were visits to the vaunted 5^th-century BC city of Petra, as well as outdoor concerts at the ancient ruins of Gadara in Umm Qais and the Odeon, a Roman amphitheater situated in the heart of downtown Amman.

A Focus on Education

As part of the tour’s educational offerings, young Jordanians aspiring to careers in music gathered at the King Hussein Foundation’s National Centre for Culture and Arts (NCCA) for an informance, concert and jam session with the Institute band. Led by Braden, the Institute of Jazz Performance students gave musical demonstrations of every major stylistic touchpoint in jazz, from ragtime to present day. To represent the fusion era, the group invited Hancock up for a performance of his landmark composition “Actual Proof.” Later, Institute of Jazz Performance clarinetist Matthew Stubbs led a demonstration of the connections between Western classical music and jazz.

The intensive session gave the assembled Jordanian musicians an invaluable opportunity to listen to and learn from world-class jazz artists in an intimate setting, and to share their own talents and musical perspectives. To close the educational program, more than a dozen music students and faculty from the NCCA and Jordan’s National Music Conservatory gave a special performance fusing traditional Jordanian music with contemporary improvisational forms. The entire group then convened for a spirited jam session, demonstrating that when it comes to jazz music, no translation is required.

Musical Relief

Perhaps the most moving moment of the trip came in the northern city of Jerash, where the Institute delegation gathered to perform for a group of Syrian refugee students at the Princess Taghrid Institute for Development and Training. Established by Jordan’s King Abdullah and led by Princess Taghrid Mohammad, the Princess Taghrid Institute provides lodging, education and psychological support to orphaned and abandoned youth, including those displaced by the ongoing war in Syria, which has led to an influx of more than 1 million refugees over the border into Jordan. The musicians’ interactive presentation included the performance of jazz standards and original compositions, a basic introduction to the history and significance of jazz music, and an instrument “petting zoo” for the youngsters, many of whom had never had opportunities to hold musical instruments in their hands.

Memorable Performances

With the blessing of Jordan’s Department of Antiquities, Hancock, Braden and the Institute students also brought the contemporary sounds of jazz into some of the Kingdom’s storied archaeological sites. At Umm Qais, against the iconic backdrop of the Sea of Galilee and the Golan Heights, the group gave an hourlong concert for Jordanian officials and guests, showcasing a range of original compositions and inventive takes on some of Hancock’s classic tunes. At the final concert at the Odeon, the multigenerational band illuminated the millennia-old amphitheater with songs blurring the lines between jazz, blues and local traditional music, including an Arabic maqam-inflected performance of “Autumn Leaves” featuring renowned Jordanian vocalist Macadi Nahhas.

The Jordan tour proved an apt addition to the long tradition of U.S. State Department-led cultural diplomacy abroad, following in the footsteps of the famed Jazz Ambassadors program from the 1950s. As one American diplomat remarked of the Institute’s visit, “It’s remarkable and wonderful that here we are, almost 70 years after [the Jazz Ambassadors] program began, still connecting with each other through the beauty and inclusiveness of jazz music. That is the power of this art form.”

Special thanks to the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the U.S. Embassy in Jordan for sponsoring this program.

Air transportation for the May 2022 Jordan tour was provided by United Airlines, the official airline of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz.

The Institute’s recent jazz informance at the U.S. Department of Education displayed all the hallmarks that have made the annual event a favorite for Department colleagues and DC and Baltimore public school students and teachers alike. These included a superb high school student group–the Institute’s Peer-to-Peer Jazz Quintet, a renowned guest artist–internationally acclaimed trumpeter Sean Jones­–and the pedagogical prowess of jazz educator and Institute Vice President of Education and Curriculum Development Dr. JB Dyas. This year, the presentation featured one other notable element: the participation of U.S. Secretary of Education Dr. Miguel Cardona, who traded his customary speaker’s podium for a pair of bongos and joined in on lively renditions of Herbie Hancock’s compositions “Chameleon” and “Watermelon Man.”

Back in the Groove

The April 19 jazz informance brought audiences back into the Department of Education building after two years of virtual presentations due to the pandemic. The excitement in the auditorium was palpable as dozens of Department of Education officials, students and educators–including 2021 National Teacher of the Year Juliana Urtubey–took their seats. In parallel, students in hundreds of school districts across the United States and music lovers around the world had the opportunity to watch the afternoon program via livestream on the Department of Education’s YouTube, Facebook and Twitter accounts.

“Jazz is the Great Equalizer”

In just over 90 minutes, students from the Institute’s Jazz in the Classroom programs in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., led by Dr. JB Dyas, demonstrated the roots and rhythms of jazz through a dynamic series of performances and presentations. The session included explanations of jazz history, performance practices, and the music’s role in promoting equality and mutual understanding among people with vastly different backgrounds. “Jazz is the great equalizer,” Dr. Dyas noted to resounding applause, because in a jazz group, factors like ethnicity, religion and gender all become secondary to “what you have inside.”

The student Quintet, made up of pupils from the Institute’s Jazz in the Classroom and National Performing Arts High Schools jazz programs, included alto saxophonists Ebban Dorsey and Quinn Rehkemper from the Baltimore School for the Arts; tenor saxophonist Elijah Woodward and pianist José André Montaño from the Duke Ellington School of the Arts; and drummer Jillian Upshaw from Jackson Reed High School. Leading the performances was renowned jazz trumpeter and Peabody Institute professor Sean Jones.

In his remarks before taking to the bandstand with the Institute group, Secretary Cardona emphasized the centrality of students in the Department of Education’s activities. “You give us purpose,” he declared to the assembled young musicians. “We can’t thank you enough for brightening our lives with your talent–each of you is an inspiration.” The Secretary also touched on the valuable practical lessons jazz offers, noting that “jazz can teach us about ourselves, and how to overcome adversity. Watching a live jazz performance is a lesson in leadership–listening and collaborating, improvising and improving, recognizing and reimagining…it’s nothing short of enlightening.”

Watch the complete jazz informance below, including Secretary Cardona’s performance: