CONNECTIONS TO THE 2017 NEA JAZZ MASTERS

June 17, 2016 | by Rusty Aceves

Dee Dee Bridgewater

The National Endowment for the Arts announced its 2017 list of Jazz Masters. Considered the highest honor bestowed upon jazz artists in the U.S., the Jazz Masters Fellowship is awarded annually to legendary artists who have made exceptional contributions to the art form, and this year’s group includes musicians who have had long associations with SFJAZZ.

Dee Dee Bridgewater

Since she first gained recognition in the early 1970s with the great Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra she’s thrived wherever she’s landed, from Broadway, where she earned a Tony Award for her work in the original production of The Wiz, to Paris, where she spent more than a decade as France’s greatest champion of jazz. After moving back to the US in 1999 Bridgewater quickly regained visibility at home with a series of brilliant albums, while also hosting NPR’s syndicated radio show JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater. She’s performed five times on SFJAZZ stages since her debut at the 14th Annual San Francisco Jazz Festival in 1996 with the Jacky Terrasson Trio and the late Mark Murphy, and most recently presented music from her latest album, Dee Dee’s Feathers, in April during Season 4. She will return to perform in duet with bassist and SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director Christian McBride during Season 5.

Dave Holland

Emerging from the London jazz scene to replace bassist Ron Carter in Miles Davis’ working band, Dave Holland has carved out a place in the jazz pantheon as one of the most creative, prolific, and virtuosic instrumentalists in music history. His appearances on the concert stage with Davis and on the trumpeter’s landmark recordings Filles de Kilimanjaro, In a Silent Way, and Bitches Brew would be enough to merit legend status on their own, but Holland’s monumental career as a bandleader and sideman with Chick Corea, Sam Rivers, Anthony Braxton, Kenny Wheeler, Joe Henderson, Steve Coleman, and countless others speaks for itself. Holland has performed at SFJAZZ over a half-dozen times in varying configurations including both leader and sideman roles. He played solo, in duet with Kenny Barron, with his superb Sextet, and his rock-inspired Prism project during Season 1, and had to postpone his Season 5 appearances to accept the NEA’s honor. He will return with a multi-night residency in the near future.

Dick Hyman

Hyman is a versatile pianist and composer whose encyclopedic knowledge of early jazz styles has made him the foremost living master of swing, ragtime, and stride piano. He’s had an extensive career as a studio and session musician, arranger, and film composer most notably with Woody Allen. He wrote scores for a dozen of Allen’s films, including Hannah and Her Sisters, Zelig, Bullets Over Broadway, and Mighty Aphrodite, as well as the soundtracks for Moonstruck and Billy Bathgate. A master of musical diversity, he did arranging for Count Basie, orchestrated the Broadway burlesque revue Sugar Babies, composed for Twyla Tharp Dance, and accompanied Charlie Parker for his only television appearance in 1952. Hyman is a part of SFJAZZ history, taking part in a succession of “Stride Piano Summit” nights starting with the fifth Jazz in the City Festival in 1988, accompanying a screening of the 1925 silent film The Freshman on the Mighty Wurlitzer organ, and performing in tributes to Fats Waller and Benny Goodman.

Dr. Lonnie Smith

Hammond B-3 organist Dr. Lonnie Smith is a seminal figure in the soul-jazz movement who first gained widespread attention by putting the groove into Lou Donaldson’s classic 1967 Blue Note record Alligator Boogaloo. His own classic 1960s Blue Note sessions such as Think and Turning Point showcased some of the era’s most prodigious players, including Lee Morgan, David “Fathead” Newman and Bennie Maupin, and introduced the world to a singular musician who has mined the deeply funky potential of the Hammond organ more than anyone else. Following a decade-long break in recording, Smith released a series of acclaimed albums on Palmetto, leading the Jazz Journalists Association to vote him “Organ/Keyboardist of the Year” six times since 2003. The good doctor has graced various SFJAZZ stages seven times, including a pair of “B-3 Summit” double bills with organists Larry Goldings and Barbara Dennerlein, evenings with saxophonists Lou Donaldson and David “Fathead” Newman, and settings from trio to large group.