Jazz Great Is Honored By Home Town

Thursday, September 28, 2006; Page DZ03

Jazz legend Billy Taylor, the Grammy Award-winning pianist, composer and Kennedy Center educator, was honored last week with a Duke Ellington Jazz Festival Lifetime Achievement Award. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus were on hand for the ceremony.

Taylor, who grew up in the District, founded the Kennedy Center's jazz program and retired as artistic adviser.


Billy Taylor, center, with festival executive producer Charles Fishman and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, adds a Duke Ellington Jazz Festival Lifetime Achievement Award to his Grammy, Peabodys and Emmy. The honor comes as the District readies for the festival, with performances next week.
Billy Taylor, center, with festival executive producer Charles Fishman and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, adds a Duke Ellington Jazz Festival Lifetime Achievement Award to his Grammy, Peabodys and Emmy. The honor comes as the District readies for the festival, with performances next week. (By Joel Richardson -- The Washington Post)

From the Extras

Want to learn more about your community? Experience events from our neighborhoods captured in photos, through the Washington Post Extras.

View this week's photos »

Archive: Previous weeks »

He is world-renowned, having performed with such fellow jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald and Miles Davis.

In 1958, he was music director of the first television show about jazz on NBC, "The Subject Is Jazz." He is a National Endowment for the Arts jazz master and a recipient of the National Medal of Arts, awarded by president George H.W. Bush. He also has received two Peabody Awards and an Emmy.

The Lifetime Achievement Award was timed to help kick off the second annual Duke Ellington Jazz Festival, scheduled for Wednesday through Sunday in the District. The festival will include performances throughout the city -- many of which are free -- by an array of artists, including Dr. John, Paquito D'Rivera, Roy Hargrove, Roy Haynes, Poncho Sanchez and Randy Weston.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), co-chairman of the Honorary Congressional Host Committee, said honoring Taylor will help elevate the stature of the festival.

For information about performances, visit http://www.dejazzfest.org .


© 2006 The Washington Post Company