Jazz News: 5 Points Jazz Hop; Doris Duke awardees; Brandee Younger next release
This is Jazz News, a look at what’s news in jazz, music, and the arts.
Call it a mini-festival on Five Points, starting last Friday. The First Friday Five Points Jazz Hop is coming on pretty strong, with live music and DJs, and local artist exhibitions at eight different venues on the historic Welton Street Corridor. And they’ve got the same thing planned every First Friday through December.
Each First Friday on the Five Points line-up is posted by the sponsoring Five Points Business Improvement District. (SOURCE: Five Points Business Improvement District)
The Doris Duke Foundation has launched a national coalition to protect workers in the performing arts. Yes, making art is work, so the campaign called “Creative Labor, Creative Conditions” includes $3 million in grants to launch the effort.
The project includes the Doris Duke Artist Awards, and the 2025 recipients include two artists we play on KUVO, harpist Brandee Younger and drummer-producer-vocalist Kassa Overall (who was in town just last week with Gary Bartz). Other honorees are choreographers Trajal (TRAH-gel) Harrell and Raja Feather Kelly, playwright Aya Ogawa, and director Kaneza Schaal (kah-NAY-zah SHAWL).
The Doris Duke Artist Award’s $525,000 unrestricted grant, allocated over seven years, is the largest prize in the U.S. specifically dedicated to individual performing artists, specifically those in theater, jazz, and dance.
The Duke Foundation says this award and their other grants in this campaign recognize the role of artists in protecting a free and open society. (SOURCE: Doris Duke Foundation)
By the way, GRAMMY-nominated harpist Brandee Younger’s next release, called “Gadabout Season,” will drop in June via Impulse! Records. Contributors include bassist-producer Rashaan Carter, vibraphonist Joel Ross, reed-man Shabaka, and others. (SOURCE: Brandee Younger)
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