Article Contributed by Gratefulweb
Published on 2026-03-04
The much-anticipated NEA Jazz Masters concert returns to Flushing Town Hall on Friday, March 20, with NEA Jazz Masters: A Tribute to Miles Davis. Led by the legendary Jimmy Owens, the evening will honor the jazz icon who would have turned 100 this year.
Owens, an NEA Jazz Master and a virtuoso on the trumpet and fugelhorn, will be joined by three other renowned NEA Jazz Masters: Donald Harrison (alto saxophone), Kenny Barron (piano), and Terri Lyne Carrington (drums), along with rising jazz talents Michael Howell (guitar) and Kenny Davis (bass). Being named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts is the nation’s highest honor in jazz.
“The concert tribute to Miles Davis is going to look at his early life and compositions, and compositions from his later performing life,” says NEA Jazz Master and concert leader Jimmy Owens. “Miles Davis set a pattern of creativity that affected all musicians. Many of the musicians who performed with him became established leaders in their own right after they left Miles Davis’ band.”
“We are thrilled to welcome the NEA Jazz Masters concert back to Flushing Town Hall and to Queens, where jazz has such a deep and meaningful history,” says Ellen Kodadek, Executive and Artistic Director of Flushing Town Hall. “This concert is always a highlight of our season, and we are deeply grateful to Jimmy Owens for our longtime partnership and for bringing so much musical talent together on our stage. It is an honor to present these outstanding artists and to share this special evening with our community.”
Flushing Town Hall launched a much-beloved tradition when it hosted the first-ever NEA Jazz Masters concert on November 17, 2006, showcasing three iconic NEA Jazz Masters: Jimmy Heath (saxophone), Clark Terry (trumpet), and Dr. Billy Taylor (piano). Over the decades, the historic venue has continued to dazzle jazz enthusiasts with a roster of luminaries who often perform in Manhattan’s prestigious jazz clubs, including Birdland, the Village Vanguard, and Blue Note. FTH’s NEA Jazz Master concerts have become a highlight for New York City’s many jazz aficionados, who know the venue to be among the city’s best locations for incredible live jazz in the heart of Queens, where so many jazz musicians have lived.
Among the jazz greats who have performed on the Queens stage are Earl May, Benny Powell, Albert “Tootie” Heath, Cándido Camero, Paquito D’Rivera, Reggie Workman, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Joey DeFrancesco, Dr. Barry Harris, Sheila Jordan, Antonio Hart, Bill Charlap, Gustavo Casenave, and Arturo O’Farrill.
Advance tickets are $45 for general admission and $40 for Flushing Town Hall members. Tickets purchased on the day of the performance are $50 for general admission and $45 for members. Tables for two are available for $150 for the general public, and $130 for FTH Circle of Friends members and include two tickets, a bottle of wine/sparkling water, and crudites. Tables are available by reservation only, on a first-come, first-served basis, and must be purchased in advance. Tables will not be available for purchase on the day of the event.
For more information and to purchase tickets for the 8 PM performance, visit www.flushingtownhall.org.
About the NEA Jazz Masters and Musicians
Jimmy Owens
(2012 NEA Jazz Master)
This talented jazz artist has more than forty-five years of experience as a jazz trumpeter, composer, arranger, lecturer, and music education consultant. His career includes a wide range of international musical experiences as a studio musician, soloist, bandleader, and composer of orchestral works, movie scores, and ballets. Owens is one of the few trumpeters of his generation who performed with many extraordinary jazz leaders, including sitting in with Miles Davis at age 15 and playing with Kenny Barron, Count Basie, Kenny Burrell, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Golson, Lionel Hampton, Charles Mingus, Max Roach, Archie Shepp, Billy Taylor, and Gerald Wilson.
(2022 NEA Jazz Master)
As a saxophonist, Donald Harrison, Jr.—recipient of the 2022 A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship for Jazz Advocacy—is known for his hard-swinging improvisational style and the creation of “Nouveau Swing,” a blend of jazz with R&B, hip-hop, rock, and soul. Following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Harrison increased his activism, creating employment opportunities in his own bands for young musicians who had remained in the city when many others had left. He also mentored now-world-renowned jazz artists from New Orleans and beyond, including Jon Batiste, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Trombone Shorty, and Esperanza Spalding. His dedication to preserving the music and culture of New Orleans has been crucial to assuring its important legacy survives.
(2010 NEA Jazz Master)
With more than 40 albums to his name, and scores more that he has appeared on, Kenny Barron’s imprint on jazz is large. The pianist has been recognized worldwide as a master of performance and composition. Barron’s own recordings have earned him nine Grammy nominations, and he has won numerous jazz critics and readers’ polls from DownBeat, JazzTimes, and Jazziz magazines; and is a seven-time recipient of the Jazz Journalists Association’s “Best Pianist” honors. As a composer, Barron’s works have been featured in film and documentaries, and he most recently scored the film Another Harvest Moon. In 2009, he was named a Living Legacy by the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation and was inducted into the American Jazz Hall of Fame in 2005. He continues to tour internationally solo and with his trio.
(2021 NEA Jazz Master)
Terri Lyne Carrington is an NEA Jazz Master, Doris Duke Artist, and four-time Grammy award-winning drummer, composer, producer, and educator. She serves as founder and artistic director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, as well as artistic director for both the Next Jazz Legacy program (a collaboration with New Music USA). She has performed on more than 100 recordings and has toured and recorded with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Stan Getz, Esperanza Spalding, and many others. Carrington holds honorary doctorates from York University, Manhattan School of Music, and Berklee College of Music. The 2019 release Waiting Game from Terri Lyne Carrington + Social Science earned the Edison Award for music and a Grammy nomination.
Michael Howell
Born in Kansas City, Michael Howell was inspired and taught by his father and noted KC guitarist Herley Dennis in his youth. He later studied classical guitar at the Music and Arts Institute of San Francisco and received a degree in Music from Lehman College in New York. Michael has performed and recorded with his own group as well as other musicians such as Bobby Hutcherson, Hampton Hawes, Art Blakey, George Duke, Gene Ammons, and Woody Shaw.
Kenny Davis
Kenny Davis is a Chicago native whose musical journey began with R&B legends Earth, Wind & Fire. Self-taught at first, he studied theory with David Holder Sr. and earned a Music Education degree from Northeastern Illinois University. He moved to New York in 1986 and joined Out of the Blue and quickly became a fixture on the scene—playing with Freddie Hubbard, Cassandra Wilson, and Abbey Lincoln, while studying under Ron Carter. A career highlight came as music arranger on Cassandra Wilson’s Grammy-winning Blue Light ’til Dawn. Throughout the 90s, Davis toured with Herbie Hancock and Dianne Reeves. From 1999 to 2002, he was a bassist for The Tonight Show Band with Kevin Eubanks. After returning to New York in 2002, he taught at UCONN (2003–2009), earned a Master’s in Music from Rutgers (2006), and released his debut album as a leader, Kenny Davis, in 2009.
This program is generously supported by the National Endowment for the Arts Celebrating America250: Arts Projects Honoring the National Garden of American Heroes.
For more upcoming events at Flushing Town Hall, visit:
https://www.flushingtownhall.
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