NEA Jazz Master Ramsey Lewis introduces Legends of Jazz

The producers of the critically-acclaimed 2006-2007 Public Television series Legends of Jazz with Ramsey Lewis have captured another stellar group of artists in a brand new special, LEGENDS OF JAZZ presents The 2007 NEA Jazz Masters. More

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About the Artist Al Hirschfeld

Albert Hirschfeld (June 21, 1903 – January 20, 2003) is the creator of the Benny Goodman caricature featured on the 2009 JAM poster with permission from the Estate of Benny Goodman.

Mr. Hirschfeld was a caricaturist best known for his simple black and white satirical portraits of celebrities and Broadway stars. In a career spanning eight decades he gained fame by illustrating the entire casts of various Broadway plays. The images accompanied reviews in The New York Times.

Born in St. Louis, MO, as a teenager Hirschfeld lived in New York City and studied at the Art Students League of New York. He had an early career with Samuel Goldwyn Studios and joined Selznick Pictures as their Art Director at the tender age of 17. He had a short stint running his own art studio until Selznick went bankrupt. A job with Warner Brothers allowed Hirschfeld to pay off his debts. As a reward, his uncle bought him a ticket to Paris and gave him $500.

Traveling to Paris and London he studied painting, drawing and sculpture. When he returned to the United States a friend showed one of his drawings to an editor at the New York Herald Tribune which earned him commissions from that newspaper and The New York Times.

Though Broadway was his best known field of interest, Hirschfeld also drew politicians, TV stars, and celebrities. Subjects ranged from Cole Porter and the Nordsrom Sisters to the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. He caricatured Aerosmith and drew original movie posters for The Wizard of Oz and several Charlie Chaplin films. The “Rhapsody in Blue” musical segment of the Disney film Fantasia 2000 was inspired by his designs.

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JAM Program Manager

Joann Stevens is a seasoned communications strategist, program manager, writer, and public relations professional whose skills have helped propel diverse nonprofits to new levels of public recognition, capacity building, and financial sustainability.  She has held leadership positions with The Executive Leadership Council, a member organization of the most senior African-American corporate executives in Fortune 500 companies; Special Olympics International with Sargent and Eunice Kennedy Shriver; the National Urban Coalition; The George Washington University; the Association of American Colleges and Universities; the Washington Post; and the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday Commission.

A native of Brooklyn, New York, Ms. Stevens developed an early love for jazz, folk music and the arts participating in educational and cultural enrichment programs at school, the Police Athletic League, Lincoln Center and by performing with her brother, jazz trumpeter Eddie Gale.  Two albums they recorded on Blue Note Records—Ghetto Music and Black Rhythm Happening—have gained renewed interest.
 
She is the co-author of two books— Bind Us Together, the autobiography of Bishop John Meares; and In Goode Faith, the autobiography of Wilson Goode, Philadelphia’s first black mayor, winner of the Gustav Meyer Award as one of the nation’s leading books on intolerance—and a contributor to Sister to Sister: Devotions for and From African American Women.

Ms. Stevens earned a B.A. in sociology from Syracuse University and a M.A. in journalism, with concentrations in urban affairs and religion, from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

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