2024 Nea Jazz Masters Tribute Concert at John F. Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts

Join us for a concert honoring the esteemed recipients of the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Fellowship, our nation’s highest honor in jazz. The 2024 NEA Jazz Masters include virtuoso vocalist and pianist Amina Claudine Myers, prolific saxophonist Gary Bartz, Grammy-winning trumpet player and composer Terence Blanchard, and writer and Artistic Director of the DC Jazz Festival Willard Jenkins.

Hosted by NPR Music’s Felix Contreras, the concert will feature performances by 2024 NEA Jazz Masters Gary Bartz, Terence Blanchard, and Amina Claudine Myers, remarks by the honorees, and video tributes to their lives and careers....

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Join us for a concert honoring the esteemed recipients of the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Fellowship, our nation’s highest honor in jazz. The 2024 NEA Jazz Masters include virtuoso vocalist and pianist Amina Claudine Myers, prolific saxophonist Gary Bartz, Grammy-winning trumpet player and composer Terence Blanchard, and writer and Artistic Director of the DC Jazz Festival Willard Jenkins.

Hosted by NPR Music’s Felix Contreras, the concert will feature performances by 2024 NEA Jazz Masters Gary Bartz, Terence Blanchard, and Amina Claudine Myers, remarks by the honorees, and video tributes to their lives and careers.

Joining Bartz will be members of his band—Paul Bollenback, James King, Kassa Overall, and Marc Cary. Blanchard will perform with the E-Collective: Charles Altura, Taylor Eigsti, David Ginyard, and Jaylen Petinaud. Myers will perform with her trio made up of Thurman Barker and Jerome Harris. In honor of Willard Jenkins, the African Rhythms Alumni Quintet will perform, featuring Alex Blake, T.K. Blue, Chief Baba Neil Clarke, Ku-umba Frank Lacy, and Sharp Radway.

Lakecia Benjamin, Katie Ernst, Camille Gainer, REDWOOD, and Charenée Wade close the concert with a tribute to jazz icon Duke Ellington, who was born 125 years ago in Washington, D.C.

The NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship is the nation’s highest honor in jazz. Each year since 1982, the program has elevated to its ranks a select number of living legends who have made exceptional contributions to the advancement of jazz.

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