NEC visiting
artist-in-residence, renowned jazz bassist/composer and bandleader Dave Holland
has earned the nation’s highest honor in jazz: a 2017 NEA Jazz Masters
Award. Holland is one of five
individuals recognized for their lifetime achievements and exceptional
contributions to the advancement of jazz. Each will receive a $25,000 award and
be honored at a tribute concert on Monday, April 3, 2017, produced in
collaboration with the Kennedy Center.
Other honorees include Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ira Gitler, Dick Hyman and
Dr. Lonnie Smith.
Over the
course of a nearly five-decade career, Dave Holland has never stopped evolving,
reinventing his concept and approach with each new project while constantly
honing his instantly identifiable voice. From the electric whirlwind of Miles
Davis’ Bitches Brew-era band to the elegant flamenco of his collaboration with
Spanish guitar legend Pepe Habichuela; accompanying the great vocalist Betty
Carter in her last years to forging a new sound with the pioneering avant-garde
quartet Circle alongside Chick Corea, Anthony Braxton, and Barry Altschul;
standing alongside legends like Stan Getz, Hank Jones, Roy Haynes, and Sam
Rivers to providing early opportunities to now-leading players like Chris
Potter, Kevin and Robin Eubanks, or Steve Coleman; Dave Holland has been at the
forefront of jazz in many of its forms since his earliest days. Outside the
jazz world, he’s collaborated with Bonnie Raitt, flamenco master Pepe
Habichuela, and bluegrass legend Vassar Clements. In 2013, the Wolverhampton,
England native unveiled Prism, a visceral electric quartet featuring his
longtime collaborator and Tonight Show bandleader Kevin Eubanks, along with
keyboardist Craig Taborn and drummer Eric Harland. In addition, Holland
continues to lead his Grammy-winning big band; his renowned quintet with
saxophonist Chris Potter, trombonist Robin Eubanks, vibraphonist Steve Nelson,
and drummer Nate Smith; and the Overtone quartet, with Potter, Harland, and
pianist Jason Moran.
Awarded an
honorary degree by NEC in spring 2004, that fall Holland began a series of
residencies at the school in which he shares the many dimensions of his
activities as soloist, composer, bandleader, and all-round musician.
Past NEA
Jazz Masters with NEC affiliations include Gunther Schuller, Bob Brookmeyer,
Ron Carter, George Russell and Cecil Taylor.
http://necmusic.edu/nea-jazz-masters
Each year
since 1982, the National Endowment for the Arts has conferred the NEA Jazz
Masters award. With this new class, the NEA has awarded 145 fellowships to
great figures in jazz. More information about the NEA Jazz Masters and the
agency’s collection of free jazz content is available here.
NEA Jazz
Master Fellowships are bestowed on living individuals on the basis of
nominations from the public including the jazz community. The NEA encourages
nominations of a broad range of men and women who have been significant to the
field of jazz, through vocals, instrumental performance, creative leadership,
and education. The NEA is currently accepting nominations for the 2018 NEA Jazz
Masters (deadline: December 31, 2016). Visit arts.gov/honors/jazz for more
information and to submit a nomination.
The NEA also
supports the Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program, an effort to document the
lives and careers of NEA Jazz Masters. In addition to transcriptions of the
comprehensive interviews, the website also includes audio clips with interview
excerpts. This project has transcribed the oral histories of more than 90 NEA
Jazz Masters.
NEC's Jazz Studies
Department was the first fully accredited jazz studies program at a music
conservatory. The brainchild of Gunther Schuller, who moved quickly to
incorporate jazz into the curriculum when he became President of the
Conservatory in 1967, the Jazz Studies faculty has included six MacArthur
"genius" grant recipients (three currently teaching) and four NEA
Jazz Masters. The program has spawned numerous Grammy winning composers and
performers and has an alumni list that reads like a who's who of jazz. As Mike
West writes in JazzTimes: “NEC's jazz studies department is among the most
acclaimed and successful in the world; so says the roster of visionary artists
that have comprised both its faculty and alumni.” The program currently has 95 students; 48
undergraduate and 47 graduate students from 13 countries.
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