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Jazz News: NEA grants come to Colorado, Downbeat updates fire toll on jazz musicians, Allen Toussaint stamp released Jan. 30

This is Jazz News, a look at what’s news in jazz, music, and the arts.

The National Endowment for the Arts announced 22 grants for Colorado projects, including

  • Aspen Santa Fe Ballet’s after-school program is based on Mexican Folklórico dance.
  • Gift of Jazz NextUp Jazz Concert Series and their Jazz for the School educational program.
  • New Dance Theatre, Inc. (aka Cleo Parker Robinson Dance), to support the creation and presentation of “Legacy,” a collection of dance works featuring choreography by Cleo Parker Robinson, Kathryn Dunham, Winifred Harris, and Hope Boykin.
  • Su Teatro Cultural & Performance Center, to support the presentation of "Yankee Bajan" by Linda Parris Bailey.
  • And the UNC/Greeley Jazz Festival.

The NEA costs each American around 54 cents a year, about .003 percent of the federal budget. (Find the full list of State-by-State grant allocations at this website: Arts.gov / 2025 NEA Supports Arts)

UPDATE 1/29: Since the initial publication of this post, President Trump instituted a pause on federal grants. Though a federal judge temporarily blocked the freeze late in the day on 1/28, as of the morning of 1/29 the status of recently announced NEA grants remains unclear. The judge’s pause on the order is in effect until Monday, February 3. KUVO will follow this ongoing story and its impact on Colorado’s arts and culture community.

DownBeat reports on exactly how hard the jazz community was hit by the LA fires, especially the community of Altadena, next to Pasadena., Writer Gary Fukushima says Altadena was “home to jazz musicians for many, many decades, dating back to the 1960s and ’70s, when the remnant effects of discriminatory redlining laws in the Los Angeles area led to many Black families being drawn to this quaint mountain town.”

We know that bassist-composer-bandleader John Clayton lost his home and almost everything in it, including the bass that Ray Brown bequeathed to him. Clayton and his wife happened to be in New York to receive the Bruce Lundvall Visionary Award from the Jazz Congress. He called it “a day of simultaneous celebration and grief.”

Reedman Bennie Maupin lost his home. He told Downbeat, “Tell everybody thanks for their heartfelt feelings.” 

Drummer Roy McCurdy’s home was somehow spared by the encroaching flames.

Reedman Louis Van Taylor of Kool & The Gang fame was playing a gig on the night of the fire. He got home just in time to be evacuated, getting out with only the horns he had for the show that night.

Younger artists suffering lost in the Eaton Fire included saxophonist Hailey Niswanger.

The Pacific Palisades fire took composer Vince Mendoza’s home, and those of saxophonists Dale Fielder and Steve Lehman, pianist Jeff Lorber and others.

Funds are being raised via GoFundMe pages, and organizations MusiCares, the industry trade group NAMM, and the California Jazz Foundation. Jazz clubs and pop-up events are also raising funds.(SOURCE: https://DownBeat / California Fires)

The Allen Toussaint stamp and digital postmark are being released this week. The launch ceremony for the legendary singer-songwriter is on Thursday, January 30 in his native New Orleans at the George and Joyce Wein Jazz & Heritage Center. (SOURCE: USPS / Allen Toussaint Stamp)