Free Tickets Are Now Available for the NEA Jazz Masters Awards Ceremony & Concert At Jazz at Lincoln Center on January 12, 2010

National
Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman and Jazz at Lincoln
Center announced today that free tickets will be distributed for the
January 12, 2010 NEA Jazz Masters Awards Ceremony & Concert.
Tickets are available for the general public at jalc.org/concerts or at
the Jazz at Lincoln Center Box Office, located at Broadway at 60th
Street, ground floor, open Monday through Saturday, 10am to 6pm, as
well as Sundays, 12pm to 6pm. Limit two tickets per person.

The
2010 NEA Jazz Masters are Muhal Richard Abrams, Kenny Barron, Bill
Holman, Bobby Hutcherson, Yusef Lateef, Annie Ross, and Cedar Walton.
The A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Award for Jazz Advocacy is awarded
to George Avakian.

The 2010 NEA Jazz Masters Awards Ceremony
& Concert will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Rose Theater at Frederick
P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center at Broadway at 60th Street
and feature the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis
in a program dedicated to the honorees’ works. Joining them will be the
many of the honorees themselves including Mr. Abrams, Mr. Barron, Mr.
Holman, Mr. Lateef, and Ms. Ross. More than 25 living NEA Jazz Masters
will be present, including Toshiko Akiyoshi, Ornette Coleman, Paquito
d’Rivera, Ramsey Lewis, and Dr. Billy Taylor, among others. The evening
will also feature video tributes to each of the 2010 NEA Jazz Masters.
Additionally, the event will be broadcast live on Sirius XM Satellite
Radio and WBGO.

“As the nephew of jazz lyricist Fran
Landesman, it is especially meaningful to me that the National
Endowment for the Arts can partner with Jazz at Lincoln Center to once
again present our nation’s top honor in jazz, ” said NEA Chairman Rocco
Landesman. “Jazz only exists in the interactions between musicians and
audiences, so I am thrilled that we are able to present a free concert
and awards ceremony to connect these Americans legends with the broad
audience these deserve.”

“Jazz at Lincoln Center is honored to
produce the concert to celebrate the great American Jazz Masters with
the National Endowment for the Arts, ” said Adrian Ellis, Executive
Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. “The contributions of the 2010 NEA
Jazz Masters to the art form have been invaluable to the vibrancy of
the music and we look forward to bringing this concert to jazz fans and
newcomers alike.”