SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
Four living jazz legends will receive $25,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts. They're the latest class of the Endowment's Jazz Masters Fellowship, which, in the past, has honored Ella Fitzgerald and Herbie Hancock. NPR's Milton Guevara has More.
(SOUNDBITE OF SUN RA ARKESTRA'S "DISCIPLINE")
MILTON GUEVARA, BYLINE: The oldest fellow in this group turned 100 years old in May. Saxophonist Marshall Allen is best known for his work with Sun Ra Arkestra. They make music that draws inspiration from Egyptian mythology and science fiction.
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GUEVARA: Then there's Marilyn Crispell.
JASON MORAN: She is this incredible pianist that when I moved to New York, I rushed to see her playing.
GUEVARA: That's fellow pianist Jason Moran, who first saw her play in the '90s. He's now artistic director for jazz at the Kennedy Center.
MORAN: Following her playing all these years, watching also then all this kind of incredible lyricism flow from her hands, it's easy to say that she's a storyteller, but she also kind of, like, makes peace with the instrument. That's the kind of piano player she is.
(SOUNDBITE OF JOE LOVANO, MARILYN CRISPELL & CARMEN CASTALDI'S "OUR DAILY BREAD")
GUEVARA: The fellows aren't just musicians. Gary Giddins writes essays and books about jazz.
MORAN: It's a very difficult job that he has, but for all these years, he has been making sure that there was language attached to the sound.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARTURO O'FARRILL & CHUCHO VALDES FEAT. THE AFRO LATIN JAZZ ORCHESTRA'S "BEBOCHICOCHUCHOTURO")
GUEVARA: And finally, pianist Chucho Valdes.
MORAN: Chucho, coming from Cuba, brings so much of that - not only the folkloric history, but he also is trying to tell us about our future, too, so he's always finding a way to plant heritage and rhythm and the dance and the song onto the piano.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARTURO O'FARRILL & CHUCHO VALDES FEAT. THE AFRO LATIN JAZZ ORCHESTRA'S "BEBOCHICOCHUCHOTURO")
GUEVARA: Again, Jason Moran.
MORAN: Artists, and people who devote so much of their energy to trying to locate something that is not charted - it rarely gets the support, and it's an incredible moment to just - to honor people's work.
GUEVARA: Next year, the four fellows will be honored with a free concert at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Milton Guevara, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARTURO O'FARRILL & CHUCHO VALDES FEAT. THE AFRO LATIN JAZZ ORCHESTRA'S "BEBOCHICOCHUCHOTURO") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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