April is Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM), an annual event created by the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History "to draw greater public attention to the extraordinary heritage and history of jazz and its importance as an American cultural heritage. In addition, JAM is intended to stimulate the current jazz scene and encourage people of all ages to participate in jazz — to study the music, attend concerts, listen to jazz on radio and recordings, read books about jazz, and support institutional jazz programs."To promote the event, the Smithsonian has once again commissioned a poster of a jazz legend, this year featuring singer Ella Fitzgerald as illustrated by artist Jeffrey Fulvimari. The museum has printed 250,000 posters for free distribution to music and jazz educators, librarians, music merchants and manufacturers, radio stations, arts presenters, and U.S. embassies worldwide. To request a copy, send an email to jazz@si.edu. You can also download the poster in PDF format.
In addition, to help celebrate this year's JAM, the NEA Jazz Masters program and the producers behind the PBS series Legends of Jazz have collaborated on a video special for the online jazz community that honors the NEA 2007 Jazz Masters. The 45-minute program is hosted by pianist Ramsey Lewis, and features profiles of and music from the 2007 honorees, including saxophonist, arranger and composer Frank Wess, pianist and composer Toshiko Akiyoshi, trombonist Curtis Fuller, saxophonist Phil Woods and singer Jimmy Scott, plus a special appearance from singer Nancy Wilson.
I'd hoped to be able to offer the video as an embed right here on StLJN, but there were some technical issues with the code provided to me, and so for now, you can see the program, either in its entirety or a series of clips focusing on the individual artists, by going here.
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