HOSTED BY LAURENCE FISHBURNE AND FEATURING WYNTON MARSALIS, HARRY BELAFONTE, TERENCE BLANCHARD, KEN BURNS, SHIRLEY CAESAR, CYRUS CHESTNUT, PETER CINCOTTI, BILL COSBY, ROBERT DENIRO, RENEE FLEMING, DANNY GLOVER, HERBIE HANCOCK, JON HENDRICKS, NORAH JONES, DIANA KRALL, ABBEY LINCOLN, JOE LOVANO, IRVIN MAYFIELD, BETTE MIDLER, TONI MORRISON, AARON NEVILLE, DIANNE REEVES, MARCUS ROBERTS, PAUL SIMON, MERYL STREEP, JAMES TAYLOR, MCCOY TYNER, ROBIN WILLIAMS, CASSANDRA WILSON, JEFFREY WRIGHT, BUCKWHEAT ZYDECO AND MANY MORE!
On Saturday, September 17 at 8pm ET, BET Jazz will broadcast in its entirety the Jazz at Lincoln Center-produced Higher Ground Hurricane Relief Benefit Concert, to be held at the Rose Theater in Jazz at Lincoln Center's home, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Broadway at 60th Street in New York City. The Higher Ground Hurricane Relief Benefit Concert and Auction also will be televised live nationally on Live From Lincoln Center on PBS, hosted by Beverly Sills at 8 - 11pm ET. XM Satellite Radio will carry this concert live on their network from coast to coast on channel 70, the Real Jazz channel at 7pm. The Higher Ground Hurricane Relief Benefit Concert will also be broadcast live via radio partner WBGO Jazz88.3FM in the New York City area at 8pm - 12am ET, on WNYC, New York Public Radio 93.9FM in the New York City area at 8pm - 12am ET, and offered nationally and internationally via NPR and its 780 member stations in the U.S., NPR Worldwide at 8pm and streamed live on www.npr.org, www.wbgo.org, www.xmradio.com. VH1 Classic and VH1 Soul will air the special on Friday, September 23 at 8pm ET.
The Benefit Concert and Auction will raise funds for the Higher Ground Relief Fund established by Jazz at Lincoln Center and administered through the Baton Rouge Area Foundation to benefit the musicians, music industry related enterprises and other individuals and entities from the areas in Greater New Orleans who were impacted by Hurricane Katrina and to provide other general hurricane relief. The Baton Rouge Area Foundation, a non-profit community foundation, is working with organizations in the Greater New Orleans region to assure that services and resources directly reach those most affected.
“New Orleans is the birthplace of jazz. The city's diverse population of Spanish, French, British, West Africans and Americans created an original music that embodies the fundamental principals of democracy. Jazz at Lincoln Center was established to celebrate jazz and so we are particularly moved to action by the destruction visited on the Crescent City by Katrina," said Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, Wynton Marsalis.
“The focus of the Fund will be to help those individuals and families evacuated from the greater New Orleans area as they address immediate concerns related to housing, food, education, health care and basic survival necessities. The Fund will also provide resources to assist individuals over time to rebuild their homes and livelihoods," said Derek E. Gordon, President and CEO of Jazz at Lincoln Center.
States Paxton Baker, Executive Vice President and General Manager of BET Jazz: “We have been a long time partner with Jazz at Lincoln Center and Wynton has been a long term friend and supporter. We look forward to airing this extraordinary concert event on BET Jazz, in support of New Orleans, the home of jazz."
“We are proud to support Jazz at Lincoln Center in its efforts to assist the music community devastated by Hurricane Katrina. This tremendous gathering of artists and the message of hope will appeal strongly to viewers of both VH1 Classic and VH1 Soul," said Eric Sherman, Senior Vice President, General Manager, VH1 Classic and VH1 Digital Television.
The concert, hosted by Laurence Fishburne, will feature Wynton Marsalis, Harry Belafonte, Terence Blanchard, Ken Burns, Shirley Caesar, Cyrus Chestnut, Peter Cincotti, Bill Cosby, Elvis Costello, Paquito D'Rivera, Robert DeNiro, Renee Fleming, Danny Glover, Herbie Hancock, Jon Hendricks, Norah Jones, Marlon and Kent Jordan, Diana Krall, Abbey Lincoln, Joe Lovano, Irvin Mayfield, Bette Midler, Toni Morrison, Aaron Neville, Arturo O'Farrill, Dianne Reeves, Marcus Roberts, Paul Simon, Meryl Streep, James Taylor, McCoy Tyner, Robin Williams, Cassandra Wilson, Jeffrey Wright, Buckwheat Zydeco with many more special guests to be announced.
The event will be recorded by Jazz at Lincoln Center and a CD will be produced and released by Blue Note Records with all profits going to relief fund efforts.
Concert tickets are available at the Jazz at Lincoln Center box office at Broadway at 60th St., by calling CenterCharge at (212) 721-6500 or via www.jalc.org. CenterCharge service fees will be donated to hurricane relief efforts. Ticket prices are $50, $100, $500, $1000, $5000, $10,000. Those wishing to make donations to the Jazz at Lincoln Center Higher Ground Hurricane Relief Fund may also do so by mailing checks payable to: Higher Ground Hurricane Relief Fund to Jazz at Lincoln Center, 33 West 60th Street, New York, New York 10023.
The Higher Ground benefit event will include an auction. Items to be auctioned include a 000-28 Martin Eric Clapton model guitar, autographed by Eric Clapton and John Mayer; artwork by LeRoy Neiman; artwork by Peter Max and items from Miramax Films. Paul Rogers and Candlewick Press are pleased to donate ten pre-publication, first edition copies of Jazz ABZ: An A To Z Collection of Jazz Portraits by Wynton Marsalis that will be signed by the author and the illustrator. Each book will be accompanied by a special edition print (15" x 15" framed) that features one of the following ten artists portrayed in the book: Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Art Blakey, Jelly Roll Morton, Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, Fats Waller, Dizzy Gillespie. Beginning Friday, September 16, auction items can be viewed at www.ebay.com/higherground.
BET Jazz: The 24 Hour Jazz Channel, a subsidiary of BET and Viacom, Inc. (NYSE: VIA and VIA.B), is the principle location for the fulfillment of all jazz interests. The network is the first and only 24-hour television programming service dedicated exclusively to jazz music and culture. BET Jazz features many of the finest names in jazz through in-studio performances, festivals, concert coverage, and celebrity interviews. Many of the shows feature original programming, as well as historic footage, unavailable on any other television network.
Jazz at Lincoln Center is a not-for-profit arts organization dedicated to jazz. With the world-renowned Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra and a comprehensive array of guest artists, Jazz at Lincoln Center advances a unique vision for the continued development of the art of jazz by producing a year-round schedule of performance, education, and broadcast events for audiences of all ages. These productions include concerts, national and international tours, residencies, weekly national radio and television programs, recordings, publications, an annual high school jazz band competition and festival, a band director academy, a jazz appreciation curriculum for children, advanced training through the Juilliard Institute for Jazz Studies, music publishing, children's concerts, lectures, adult education courses and student and educator workshops. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Wynton Mars! alis, Chairman of the Board Lisa Schiff, President & CEO Derek E. Gordon, Executive Director Katherine E. Brown and Jazz at Lincoln Center board and staff, Jazz at Lincoln Center will produce hundreds of events during its 2005-06 season. In October 2004, Jazz at Lincoln Center opened Frederick P. Rose Hall - the first-ever performance, education, and broadcast facility devoted to jazz. For more information, visit www.jalc.org.
VH1 Classic
Launched in May 2000, VH1 Classic is a 24-hour network that presents music videos, concerts and music specials featuring classic rock, soul and pop artists from the 60s, 70s and 80s. Featured artists include The Beatles, The Stones, Tina Turner, Led Zeppelin, Marvin Gaye, The Who, Stevie Wonder, The Police and many more. Learn more at www.vh1classic.com.
VH1 Soul
Launched in August 1997, VH1 Soul is a 24-hour network that brings you the hottest music videos and special presentations featuring Soul, R&B and Hip Hop hits from today and the 90's. Featured core artists include Alicia Keys, Mary J. Blige, Outkast, Usher, India.Arie, The Roots, Jill Scott, D'Angelo and many more.
Wynton Marsalis, Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center makes a statement about the devastation in his hometown of New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina:
“New Orleans is the most unique of American cities because it is the only city in the world that created its own full culture - architecture, music and festive ceremonies. It's of singular importance to the United States of America because it was the original melting pot with a mixture of Spanish, French, British, West African and American people living in the same city. The collision of these cultures created jazz and jazz is important because it's the only art form that objectifies the fundamental principals of American democracy. That's why it swept the country and the world representing the best of the United States.
New Orleanians are blues people. We are resilient, so we are sure that our city will come back. This tragedy, however, provides an opportunity for the American people to demonstrate to ourselves and to the world that we are one nation determined to overcome our legacies of injustices based on race and class. At this time all New Orleanians need the nation to unite in a deafening crescendo of affirmation to silence that desperate cry that is this disaster.
We need people with their prayers, their pocketbooks, and above all their sense of purpose to show the world just who the modern American is and then we'll put our city back together in even greater fashion. This is gut check time for all of us as Americans.
In a country with the most incredible resources in the world we need the ingenuity of our best engineers to put the cultural heart of our nation back together. To put it together with 2005 technical expertise and with 2005 social consciousness, which means without accommodating the ignorance of racism and the deplorable conditions of poverty, and lack of education that have been allowed to fester in many great American cities since slavery.
We're only as civilized as our level of hospitality. Let's demonstrate to the world that what actually makes America the most powerful nation on earth is not guns, pornography and material wealth but transcendent and abiding soul, something perhaps we have lost a grip on, and this catastrophe gives us a great opportunity to handle up."
For more information contact All About Jazz.
