Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame Inductees for 2008 Announced

Jazz at Lincoln Center announces the 2008 inductees into the Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame (NEJHF): free jazz pioneer, Ornette Coleman, jazz arranger, Gil Evans, blues singer, Bessie Smith and pianist and arranger, Mary Lou Williams.

The inductees will be honored at a private luncheon on November 20, 2008 at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, where each will be celebrated with their own video and web installation. The NEJHF is located in Frederick P. Rose Hall (FPRH), home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, on Broadway at 60th Street, New York City. It is free and open to the public Tuesday-Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and to ticket holders during evening performances.

The NEJHF honors the legendary musicians whose singular dedication and outstanding contribution to this art shaped the landscape of jazz. Through multimedia installations and as a space for lectures, workshops and special events, the NEJHF serves as a resource for music lovers, students, musicians and educators in FPRH to pursue their curiosity about jazz and to gather as a community in celebration of the inductees. As the "inner sanctum" of FPRH, the NEJHF embodies Jazz at Lincoln Center's enduring commitment to jazz music, to the musical community and to life-long learning and civic participation.

To date, Jazz at Lincoln Center has inducted 30 members into the NEJHF and will continue to induct four new members annually. These inductees are nominated by a committee of select musicians and scholars and voted in by an international voting panel comprised of more than 50 artists, journalists and scholars.

Inductees in the NEJHF are also celebrated throughout Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 2008-09 programming season in the Hall of Fame concert series.

ABOUT THE INDUCTEES:

Ornette Coleman
The pioneer of free jazz, alto saxophonist, trumpeter and violinist, Coleman liberated the improvising musician from the rhythmic and harmonic structures of jazz. His recordings of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s (including The Shape of Jazz to Come and Free Jazz) placed him at the forefront of the avant-garde, a position he retains five decades later.

Gil Evans
One of the most significant arrangers in jazz history, Gil Evans captured the popular imagination with his collaborations with Miles Davis. His own work transformed the jazz landscape just as powerfully, expanding the canon with arrangements of American masterworks from Leadbelly to Jimi Hendrix. Like Duke Ellington, he orchestrated not for specific instruments, but for his favorite instrumentalists and their unique musical personalities.

Bessie Smith
Best known as the Empress of the Blues, Bessie Smith was one of the greatest jazz singers of all time. No one has equaled her combination of vocal power, emotional projection and incomparable time.

Mary Lou Williams
The most important female musician of early jazz, she remained perpetually modern throughout a career that spanned over five decades, performing, composing and arranging blues, boogie woogie, stride, swing and bebop with equal mastery. Duke Ellington called her “soul on soul.”

The creation of the Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame was made possible by a generous gift from Mica and Ahmet Ertegun.

The United States Congress and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs support Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame education programs.