The National Endowment for the Arts Masters Fellowships are the highest honors that the United States bestows upon jazz musicians. The Jazz Master band have all won this prestigious award in their storied careers. This collective all star band features the following Jazz Masters:

Ramsey Lewis (piano) NEA Jazz Master and three time Grammy winner Ramsey Lewis has been an iconic leader in the contemporary jazz movement for over 50 years. He just released a new record, launched a new jazz record label (Ramsey's House-Sony/RED) and had his song The In Crowd featured prominently in the new Woody Allen movie Irrational Man proving there is no slowing down this legend.

Richard Davis (bass) NEA Jazz Master and Professor of Bass (European Classical and Jazz), Jazz History and combo improvisation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Downbeat International Critics Poll named him Best Bassist from 1967-74. Some of his performance/recording credits include Sarah Vaughan, Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand and .

Jimmy Cobb (drums) NEA Jazz Master Jimmy Cobb is the elder statesman of all the incredible Miles Davis bands. Jimmy’s inspirational work with Miles, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderly and Co. spanned 1957 until 1963, and included the masterpiece Kind Of Blue, the most popular jazz recording in history. He also played for Sarah Vaughan for nine years.

Jimmy Heath (horn) NEA Jazz Master has long been recognized as a brilliant instrumentalist, magnificent composer and arranger. He has performed with nearly all the jazz greats of the last 50 years, from Howard McGhee and to Miles Davis and Wynton Marsalis. During his career Jimmy has written more than 125 compositions, many of which have become jazz standards and have been recorded by other artists including Art Farmer, Cannonball Adderley, Clark Terry, Chet Baker, Miles Davis, James Moody, , Ahmad Jamal, Ray Charles, Dizzy Gillespie, J.J Johnson and Dexter Gordon. Contact info: Jack Randall The Kurland Agency 617.254.0007 [email protected] thekurlandagency.com