There was a little twist in last Wednesday’s announcement of next year’s National Endowment for the Arts’ Jazz Masters Award recipients. Not only was pianist Dr. Billy Taylor on hand to perform at the announcement ceremony performing with a group of young prodigies from NYC’s La Guardia High School for Music and Art, but the awards themselves have been expanded to include not three, but six masters of jazz.
The 2004 honorees will be pianist Herbie Hancock (pictured), guitarist Jim Hall, rhythm instrumentalist Chico Hamilton, vocalist Nancy Wilson, arranger-composer Luther Henderson and-here’s the twist-JazzTimes‘ own back-page columnist, Nat Hentoff.
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