Marshall Allen and Marilyn Crispell to be Honored as 2025 NEA Jazz Masters
BMI is proud to congratulate accomplished BMI composers, Marshall Allen and Marilyn Crispell, who will be honored as 2025 NEA Jazz Masters, the most prestigious accolade in the jazz community. BMI is pleased to be continuing its partnership with the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) in presenting a webcast of the special online concert in celebration of the 2025 NEA Jazz Masters, which you can watch here on Saturday, April 26.
Globally revered saxophonist Marshall Allen earned acclaim for his expansive, avant-garde approach to the alto saxophone, boldly pushing the instrument in unconventional new directions with an explosive style. Through his long collaboration with Sun Ra, Allen established himself as a titan of American free jazz, lending his distinctive playing to the Sun Rak Arkestra from 1958 until Ra’s death in 1993. Allen later took over as the Arkestra’s bandleader, celebrating his 80th birthday on stage with them. At age 101, Allen continues to write and record, releasing a new album as recently as this past February.
Classically trained American pianist and composer Marilyn Crispell launched her foray into music at the tender age of seven, seeking training at the Peabody Conservatory and later the New England Conservatory of Music in the finer points of composition and improvisation. But upon first hearing John Coltrane in 1975, she immersed herself in jazz, going on to work with the Anthony Braxton Quartet, the Reggie Workman Ensemble, the Barry Guy New Orchestra, the London Composers Orchestra and a wide host of others. Crispell has performed and recorded extensively as a soloist and with players from all over the global jazz community. She has been the recipient of three New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship grants, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust composition commission
This year’s iteration will mark the 43rd anniversary of the NEA Jazz Masters program. New inductees will be celebrated at the free and open-to-the-public concert on Saturday, April 26 at 8:00 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m. PT at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater at 2700 F Street, NW, Washington, DC, with a livestream at arts.gov, sfjazz.org on Facebook and on this page. An archive of the webcast will also be available following the event at arts.gov. Please visit the NEA website for additional information.
The concert will feature performances by 2025 NEA Jazz Masters Allen and Crispell, as well as their fellow inductees Gary Giddins* and Chucho Valdés*.
Since its formation, BMI has supported many of the most important composers in jazz. Including this year’s honorees, BMI is extremely proud that 103 of the NEA Jazz Masters are BMI affiliates, including such giants as Miles Davis, Betty Carter, Ron Carter, Percy Heath, Sonny Rollins, Ornette Coleman, Anita O’Day, Stanley Clarke, Terri Lyne Carrington and Billy Hart, among others.
BMI’s broad support for jazz creators and performers goes back decades and is perhaps best exemplified by the continuous presentation of the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop since 1998. Founded by acclaimed composer/trombonist Bob Brookmeyer, composer/educator Manny Albam and author and jazz authority Burt Korall, the BMI Workshop has mentored emerging jazz composers with an emphasis on “big band” (“jazz orchestra”/”large jazz ensemble”) composition for nearly 30 years.
*Not affiliated with BMI.
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