2009 JAM Launch

To mark the centennial of Chicago jazz-musician Benny Goodman, "The King of Swing," the museum will offer a variety of public discussions, tools and music oriented programs to highlight the life, times and cultural diplomacy of Goodman and jazz artists who performed with him. Goodman is also featured on the 2009 JAM poster, available free to the public.

Museum events will also commemorate the impending release of the new Smithsonian Folkways Recordings’ 110-track boxed set Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology. The anthology and accompanying book with photographs covers the history of jazz from its birth to its current place in global music.

The museum launched JAM in 2001 as an annual event that pays tribute to jazz both as a historic and living American art form. It has since grown to include celebrations in all 50 states and 40 countries. In celebrating JAM, the museum joins with a diverse group of organizations, institutions, corporations, associations and federal agencies that have provided financial and in-kind support, as well as organizing programs and outreach of their own.

"Jazz is a truly American style of music that has played an important role in our heritage," said Brent D. Glass, museum director. "Through the Smithsonian’s Jazz Appreciation Month activities, we will highlight jazz and its history and how the genre has an important function in global diplomacy."

The Smithsonian operates the world’s most comprehensive set of jazz programs and the National Museum of American History is home to jazz collections that include 100,000 pages of Duke Ellington’s unpublished music and such objects as Ella Fitzgerald’s famous red dress, Dizzy Gillespie’s angled trumpet, John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme manuscript and Goodman’s clarinet. The museum has reopened after a two-year renovation.

Jazz Appreciation Month poster features Benny Goodman

The National Museum of American History has developed a 2009 poster of Benny Goodman to celebrate Jazz Appreciation Month. The poster features the Al Hirschfeld caricature of Benny Goodman, “The King of Swing,” used with permission by the Benny Goodman.

The museum has printed 250,000 posters for free distribution to schools, libraries, music and jazz educators, music merchants and manufacturers, radio stations, arts presenters, and U.S. embassies worldwide. To request a copy, write jazz@si.edu. Or, you can download it in PDF format.

Meet the new 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. More