FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
First-Ever Jazz Music Awards Adds Performers Dee Dee Bridgewater, Dianne Reeves, Ledisi, The Baylor Project, Kenny Garrett, Somi, Lizz Wright, Jazzmeia Horn, Brian Bromberg and Lindsey Webster Event Celebrating the Spirit of Jazz to Be Hosted by Delroy Lindo and Dee Dee Bridgewater with Musical Direction by Terri Lyne Carrington Purchase tickets here. (Atlanta, GA – October 3, 2022) – The Jazz Music Awards: Celebrating the Spirit of Jazz, the first awards celebration to exclusively focus on Jazz announces a star-studded lineup of acclaimed artists who will perform live under the musical direction of NEA Jazz Master and three-time Grammy Award-winning musician, composer, and educator Terri Lyne Carrington. Grammy and Tony Award-winning artist Dee Dee Bridgewater and multiple award-winning British-American stage and screen actor Delroy Lindo will serve as co-hosts for the Jazz Music Awards, set for Saturday, October 22, 2022, at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre in Atlanta, Georgia. |
Confirmed as musical performers are a cast of multiple Grammy Award winners, including NEA Jazz Masters Dianne Reeves, Kenny Garrett, and Dee Dee Bridgewater, vocalist Ledisi, husband-and-wife team Marcus and Jean Baylor of The Baylor Project, and preeminent jazz, gospel, and blues vocalist Lizz Wright. Also confirmed to perform are Jazz Music Awards nominees: vocalists Jazzmeia Horn, Somi, and Lindsey Webster, guitarist Brian Bromberg, harpist Brandee Younger, and pianist Orrin Evans.
Among the musical highlights of the inaugural awards presentation – with the theme “Jazz Is The Culture” – will be an opening performance by The Baylor Project, which led the Jazz Music Awards with three nominations. They will be joined by five-time Grammy winner Dianne Reeves and three-time Grammy-nominated vocalist Jazzmeia Horn. The celebration will also include a musical tribute, “Songs of Social Justice,” featuring Reeves and Horn, along with Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ledisi, and Lizz Wright. |
Two-time Jazz Music Award nominees Kenny Garrett and Orrin Evans are also featured performers during the evening, honoring McCoy Tyner, who is posthumously receiving the Jazz Legend Award, and there will be a tribute to Lifetime Achievement honoree Wayne Shorter. Ray Angry, Mark Whitfield, and Marcus Strickland will perform in a special medley in honor of the late Joey DeFrancesco (a Jazz Music Awards nominee), Ramsey Lewis and Pharoah Sanders. In addition to other performances, Lizz Wright will perform a beloved classic to close this unique program.
The Jazz Music Awards Musical Director Terri Lyne Carrington put together some of the best of the best jazz musicians including bassist James Genus, trumpeter Milena Casado, drummer Nikki Glaspie, pianist Orrin Evans, organist Ray Angry, guitarist Mark Whitfield, and DJ and percussionist Kassa Overall. |
As previously announced, the Jazz Music Awards will present awards in eight competitive categories as well as six special honors. For the three Awards of Distinction categories, modern jazz trumpeter and composer Ambrose Akinmusire will receive the Jazz Innovator Award; vocalist and composerDr. Lenora Helm Hammondswill receive the Jazz Educator Award; andsaxophonist, woodwinds player, and composerHenry Threadgillwill be honored with the Jazz Composer Award. The Jazz Impact Award will be given to veteran musician and educator James H. Patterson. |
ABOUT THE HOSTS Dee Dee Bridgewater is a veteran actor, vocalist, and broadcaster. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, and raised in Flint, Michigan, she was inspired by listening to Ella Fitzgerald to pursue a musical career. She launched a successful jazz vocal career in New York, singing with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra and then with a series of notable jazz bands before landing a recording contract. She migrated to musical theater, earning a Tony Award in 1975 for her portrayal of Glinda the Good Witch in the Broadway musical The Wiz. The cast album of the show also earned Bridgewater her first Grammy Award. She performed as part of the international touring company of Sophisticated Ladies and earned accolades for her performance in the Off-Broadway production of Lady Day, the story of Billie Holiday at the Little Shubert Theatre, in New York City, as well as performances of Lady Day in Paris and London. She also had a starring role in Cabaret. She recorded a series of tribute albums through the 1990s, earning another Grammy Award for Dear Ella in 1997 and her third Grammy Award in 2010 for Eleanora Fagan (1915-1959): To Billie with Love from Dee Dee Bridgewater. Among her many honors are a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, induction into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame, and the then Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Maria Fisher Founder’s Award. In 2017, Bridgewater was named a 2017 NEA Jazz Master.
Delroy Lindo is a critically acclaimed stage and screen actor. Born in London to Jamaican parents, he also lived in Toronto, Ontario, and San Francisco, California. He made his big screen debut in the 1976 comedy Find The Lady. He recently appeared as Bass Reeves in the 2021 western The Harder They Fall. Lindo starred in Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods, which earned him Best Actor awards from the Hollywood Critics Association, the New York Film Critics Circle, and the National Society of Film Critics. He also appeared in a trio of Lee’s other top grossing films: Clockers, Crooklyn, and Malcolm X. He had memorable film roles in Congo, The Cider House Rules, Get Shorty, and Heist, among others. He will star in the upcoming Marvel Studios’ reboot of Blade with Mahershala Ali. On the television side, Lindo appeared in four seasons of CBS’s “The Good Fight” as Adrian Boseman; as well as “Believe,” “The Chicago Code,” “Kidnapped,” and in films for TV, such as Soul of The Game, (playing baseball legend Satchel Paige); Strange Justice (winning a Peabody Award); and Glory & Honor (playing Arctic Explorer Matthew Henson). He won an NAACP Award for a guest appearance on “Law & Order: SVU.” He will also star in Neil Gaiman’s upcoming limited-series Anansi Boys for Amazon Studios. Lindo made his Broadway debut in Athol Fugard’s play Master Harold and the Boys with James Earl Jones. He received a Tony Award nomination playing Herald Loomis in August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. He directed the plays Blue Door and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone to critical acclaim at Berkeley Repertory Theater. Lindo has an Honorary Doctorate in Arts and Humanities from Virginia Union University; a BFA degree (cum laude) from San Francisco State University; and an MFA from New York University’s Gallatin School. For updates and information on the award ceremony, please visit jazzmusicawards.com. |