The 2024 Kennedy Middle honorees, clockwise from left, The Apollo theater; the Grateful Lifeless (Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart and Billy Kreutzmann); jazz trumpeter, pianist and composer Arturo Sandoval; blues rock singer-songwriter and guitarist, Bonnie Raitt; and director and filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola.
Apollo Theater / Jay Blakesberg / Jeremy Lock / Ken Friedman / Chad Keig/The Kennedy Middle Honors
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Apollo Theater / Jay Blakesberg / Jeremy Lock / Ken Friedman / Chad Keig/The Kennedy Middle Honors
The recipients of the forty seventh Kennedy Middle Honors have been introduced.
The award for lifetime creative achievements will acknowledge director and filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola; blues singer-songwriter and guitarist Bonnie Raitt; jazz trumpeter, pianist and composer Arturo Sandoval; the Apollo Theater; and the 4 surviving members of countercultural rock band the Grateful Lifeless.
Guitarist Bob Weir, who collaborated with the Nationwide Symphony Orchestra to deliver the Lifeless’s catalog to the Kennedy Middle in 2022, informed NPR he was speechless — and profusely thanked the devoted Deadheads who’ve sustained the band for practically six a long time, in addition to his late bandmates Jerry Garcia and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan.
“Not so way back, we had been kind of outsiders. Now all of that is form of modified,” Weir stated. “We have been accepted into the American musical custom, which is the place we have all the time been.”
The Honors elevate cash for the Kennedy Middle whereas recognizing artists who’ve performed a key position within the growth of American tradition. The annual ceremony is slated for Sunday, Dec. 8 and can air on CBS on Dec. 23.
“An excellent and masterful storyteller with an unrelenting modern spirit, Francis Ford Coppola’s movies have change into embedded within the very concept of American tradition; a social and cultural phenomenon since 1965, the Grateful Lifeless’s music has by no means stopped being a real American unique whereas inspiring a fan tradition like no different,” stated Kennedy Middle Chairman David M. Rubenstein in a press release asserting the winners.
“Bonnie Raitt has made us love her many times together with her inimitable voice, slide guitar, and infinite musical vary encompassing blues, R&B, nation rock, and folks; ‘an envoy of each music and humanity,’ Arturo Sandoval transcended literal borders coming from Cuba 30+ years in the past and immediately continues to bridge cultures along with his intoxicating mix of Afro Cuban rhythms and trendy jazz; and on its ninetieth anniversary, The Apollo, probably the most consequential, influential establishments in historical past, has elevated the voices of Black leisure in New York.”
