The Highest Honor
I think you basically hear music in your head...
Terri Lyne Carrington
Congress created the National Endowment for the Arts in 1965 as an agency that provides funding and support to the creative arts in the United States, through grants, projects, events, and partnerships. And in 1982, the NEA Jazz Masters was established as the highest award given to jazz artists. It recognizes legends of jazz who have made tremendous contributions to the art form, and it’s an award voted on by the public, including peers. Since 1982, 161 awards have been given. And of those, only 24 women in the field have been named*. Here are just a few of the fierce females who have achieved this amazing honor.
*as of March 2023, 169 awards have been given, with 27 of them to women
Terri Lyne Carrington (1965 - )
The 2021 NEA Jazz Masters class includes drummer, composer, educator, and producer, Terri Lyne Carrington. At the age of 10, she had started her professional career and was regularly drumming for Clark Terry. Then, she won a full scholarship to Berklee at the age of 11, after heard jamming with Oscar Peterson. Throughout her career, she’s worked with a number of jazz greats, mixing a range of genres and engaging in inventive musical projects, including re-imaginings of classic works.
While she has toured and recorded extensively, more recently, she has focused on helping and inspiring new generations of musicians in her role as educator. A professor at Berklee since 2007, she also founded the Berklee Institute of Jazz & Gender Justice, focusing on gender equity in the jazz field.
In 2011 she released The Mosaic Project, a collaboration of all female jazz powerhouses, including Dianne Reeves, Esperanza Spalding, Cassandra Wilson, Ingrid Jensen, Geri Allen, and many more. It won a Grammy for best vocal jazz album. Listen to Carrington talk about that album.
A couple years later, she released Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue, a reimagining of Money Jungle, by Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, and Max Roach. That album received a Grammy for best jazz instrumental album. From that album, here is “Very Special.”
Toshiko Akiyoshi (1929 - )
The 2007 class of NEA Jazz Masters includes pianist, composer, and bandleader Toshiko Askiyoshi. Born in Manchuria, she then moved to Japan after WWII. A piano student, she discovered jazz by listening to records and fell in love with the genre. But having no piano at home, she took a job playing in a dance-hall band, so that she could play. It was in a nightclub in 1952, while he was touring Japan, that she was discovered by Oscar Peterson and thus began her career.
Shortly thereafter, she moved to the States to attend Berklee, becoming the first Japanese student to study there. In the early 1970’s, she started a big band with her husband, saxophonist and flutist, Lew Tabackin, where she arranged and composed. Her composition skills have been compared to those of Duke Ellington, and she intertwines Japanese themes into jazz structures.
Let's listen to the title track from her 1975 album Long Yellow Road.
Dorothy Donegan (1922 - 1998)
Pianist, vocalist, and educator Dorothy Donegan was named a NEA Jazz Master in 1992. Donegan, a classically trained pianist, was discovered by the great Art Tatum in her teens, when she was playing in bars. He took her under his wing, and she became his protege. A few years later, she became the first African-American to perform at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall at age 19, where she presented a concert of “jazz meets classics.” A piano virtuoso with a flamboyant performing style - she would dance, move, stand, make faces! Because of this style, she was often referred to as a lounge entertainer, known for her live shows, where she’d play a wide range of music, catching the audience off guard. Among her peers, she was known for her chops, but was found intimidating, which led to her often performing solo or with a trio.
See her in action playing live at White House in 1993.
Cleo Brown (1909 - 1995)
In 1987, Cleo Brown (1909 - 1995) became the first female instrumentalist to become an NEA Jazz Master. A pianist and vocalist, Brown toured around the country with Decca Records, playing vaudeville shows, from the 1930’s - 50’s. Known for her stride playing and boogie woogie, many compared her style to that of Fats Waller. She led bands and had her own radio show, but in later life, she turned more to her religion, writing and performing hymns under the name C. Patra Brown.
From her earlier days, here she is performing “Breakin’ in a New Pair of Shoes.”
During her boogie woogie performance days, Dave Brubeck played during intermission for her shows and credits her for being an influence to him. He wrote “Sweet Cleo Brown” as a tribute to her.