Receive $100,000, no questions asked. Just be a jazz legend.

[Dr. Nelson Harrison]

February 21, 20254:17 AM ET

Heard on Morning Edition

By 

Phil Harrell

2-Minute Listen

Transcript

Drummer Herlin Riley, one of 20 inaugural recipients of the Jazz Legacies Fellowship

Skip Bolen/WireImage/Getty Images

A new fellowship announced this week gives 20 jazz musicians $100,000 each, no strings attached. Just one stipulation: They have to be at least 62 years old.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation came up with the idea of honoring elder musicians with the Jazz Legacies Fellowship, says president Elizabeth Alexander.

"Many of the folks who have been making the music forever were in need of support," remembers Alexander. "When we thought about what would the fellowship look like, what would it mean to really say 'We recognize your brilliance and we want, at this point in your lives, to be able to be as helpful as possible?' 

Mellon partnered with The Jazz Foundation of America, a group that regularly gives support to struggling musicians.

Executive Director Joe Petrucelli explains: "The life of a working jazz musician is a precarious one. They don't have adequate insurance, they really live gig-to-gig. And when you encounter a crisis, there's very little to fall back on."

The cash prize is just one part of the fellowship, which also includes a variety of personal and professional services.

The Jazz Foundation assembled a panel of luminaries — including Jason Moran, Terri Lyne Carrington, Arturo O'Farrill, esperanza spalding and Christian McBride — to come up with an initial list of 20 fellowship recipients, emphasizing mostly unheralded artists. Petrucelli says the panel asked: "Who are the artists who are so deserving of an honor like this but have never received anything like it?"

They're as young as 62-year-old drummer Shannon Powell — and as old as trumpeter Dizzy Reece, now 94.

At first, Petrucelli wondered what late-career musicians would do with $100,000. He notes, "Artists well into their 80s have these very rigorous and demanding travel schedules that are kind of a requirement, just in order to survive. So the financial security offered by the fellowship may give them an opportunity to slow down the pace where they want to."

Instead, what he heard over and over again was they want to use the money to continue their work. Petrucelli says these are "artists who have composed operas that are unfinished that will now have an opportunity to complete them. Musicians who have archives of unreleased recordings that they've never really been able to get around to evaluating and releasing."

68-year-old drummer Herlin Riley spent his career keeping the beat for greats like Wynton Marsalis, George Benson, Ahmad Jamal and Marcus Roberts. When he learned about winning the fellowship, he says he channeled comedian Redd Foxx.

"I felt like Fred Sanford when he fakes the heart attack: 'I'm coming to see you, Elizabeth!'," recalled Riley.

Riley appreciates that the honor is coming at this stage of his life.

"Oftentimes, it happens where you get your accolades after you pass away. It's so nice to get your flowers while you can still smell them," he adds.

Instead of investing in his continued work, Riley says he intends to give away his cash prize. "I try to be a giving and a sharing person," he says. "So I'm happy that I can help make a difference in some other people's lives."

The Jazz Foundation of America's Joe Petrucelli says the plan is to award 30 more Jazz Legacies Fellowships over the next three years, at least.

The 2025 Jazz Legacies Fellows are:

● George Cables, 80, pianist, Queens, N.Y.

● Valerie Capers, 89, pianist, Bronx, N.Y.

● George Coleman, 89, saxophonist, New York, N.Y.

● Akua Dixon, 76, cellist, Westchester, N.Y.

● Manty Ellis, 92, guitarist, Milwaukee, Wisc.

● Tom Harrell, 78, trumpeter, New York, N.Y.

● Billy Hart, 84, drummer, Montclair, N.J.

● Bertha Hope, 88, pianist, New York, N.Y.

● Roger Humphries, 81, drummer, Pittsburgh, Pa.

● Carmen Lundy, 70, vocalist, Los Angeles, Calif.

● Amina Claudine-Myers 82, pianist, New York, N.Y.

● Roscoe Mitchell, 84, multireedist, Fitchburg, Wis

● Johnny O'Neal, 68, pianist, New York, N.Y.

● Shannon Powell, 62, drummer, New Orleans, La.

● Julian Priester, 89, trombonist, Seattle, Wash.

● Dizzy Reece, 94, trumpeter, Bronx, N.Y.

● Herlin Riley, 68, drummer, New Orleans, La.

● Michele Rosewoman, 71, pianist, New York, N.Y.

● Dom Salvador, 87, pianist, Long Island, N.Y.

● Reggie Workman, 87, bassist, New York, N.Y.