National Endowment for the Arts Announces Jazz Masters


The National Foundation for the Arts announced Jazz Masters class of 2022 – and represents a wide field of blues-based, pushing the boundaries that have been made under the jazz label in the last 50 years.

The NEA said Tuesday that the new Jazz Masters consists of bassist Stanley Clarke, drummer Billy Hart, vocalist Cassandra Wilson and saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr. These names will be honored at a ceremony to be held at the SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco in April 2022. . The Jazz Masters award is the highest national honor given to living American jazz musicians and comes with a $25,000 cash prize.

Clarke, 70, is best known as a founding member of the groundbreaking jazz-rock fusion band Return to Forever, but has also had an eventful career as a solo artist. The 80-year-old Hart can be heard on timeless recordings by Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and others. In recent years, the quartet has often been hailed as one of jazz’s leading bands.

Wilson’s husky, confident vocal style and passion for mixing genres made him one of the leading jazz vocalists of the 1990s. Both Wilson and Clarke, now 65, are multiple Grammy winners.

Harrison grew up in New Orleans, immersed in the city’s Black music heritage, and after gaining national recognition in the 1980s and 1990s, he decided to re-develop his hometown scene through activism and education work. Harrison will be this year’s recipient of the NEA’s AB Spellman Jazz Advocacy Fellowship, which is mostly awarded to non-musicians.



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