Guitar Virtuoso Les Paul, Kansas City Blues legend Jay McShann, and
Blue Note Records President Bruce Lundvall to be honored with
BEACONS IN JAZZ AWARD
Tuesday, April 1, 2003 at 6:30 p.m. at the Supper Club

Performers at the benefit for New School University's Jazz Program will include:
Bill Charlap, Joe Lovano, Pat Martino, Jay McShann, Jason Moran, and others!

(New York, NY – February 5, 2003) New School University's Jazz Program will honor guitar virtuoso Les Paul and Blues master Jay McShann in a gala evening on Tuesday, April 1, 2003 at 6:30 p.m. at Manhattan's Supper Club. Bruce Lundvall, Jazz visionary and President of Blue Note Records, will also receive a Beacons Award.

The Beacons in Jazz awards gala raises scholarship money for students in New School University's Jazz Program. The evening will begin with a cocktail reception at 6:30 p.m., followed by dinner at 7:30 p.m. and performances and presentation of the awards at Manhattan's Supper Club, located at 240 W 47th Street, NYC. Individual tickets are $250, with tables for ten available at $5,000 and $10,000.

Performers at the benefit will include Jay McShann, piano; Bill Charlap, piano; Joe Lovano, tenor sax; Russell Malone, guitar; Junior Mance, piano; Pat Martino, guitar; Jason Moran, piano; Bucky Pizzarelli, guitar, and many others. New School University President Bob Kerrey will welcome the audience.

To order tickets for the gala, call the Office of Special Events RSVP line at 212-229-5890. For information about special table purchases or to place an advertisement in the Beacons Journal, please call Gina Taglieri, Director of Development for New School University's Jazz Program, at 212-229-5896, ext. 309.

Since 1986, New School University's Jazz Program has recognized living Jazz musicians whose extraordinary talent has significantly contributed to the evolution of Jazz with the Beacons in Jazz award. Past recipients have included Phil Woods, Jackie McLean, James Moody, Cab Calloway, Milt Hinton, Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, Milt Jackson, Joe Williams, Benny Carter, Max Roach, Chico Hamilton, Wayne Shorter, and George and Joyce Wein.

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Jay McShann, one of the true legends of Jazz, began his professional career in 1931, playing with Don Byas. He studied at Tuskegee Institute, one of the leading black educational institutions in the United States. In 1936, he moved to Kansas City, Missouri, forming a sextet and later a big band. Jazz was thriving in Kansas City during this time. The Jay McShann Orchestra, which included saxophone legend Charlie Parker, toured extensively and recorded for the Decca label in 1941. McShann served in the armed forces from 1943 to 1944; after discharge he reformed his big band and worked in New York and California. He returned to Kansas City in 1950 and toured regionally with his trio and small groups. From 1969 to the present, McShann has toured extensively, appearing at music festivals worldwide. He was elected to the Kansas City Hall of Fame in 1971, and March 3, 1979 was declared "Jay McShann Day" in Missouri. He has received many other honors and awards and was the subject of a documentary film, Hootie Blues (1978). Recognized for his blues and boogie woogie-influenced percussive piano styles, McShann is a master of all Jazz piano styles.

Born June 9, 1915, in Waukesha, Wisconsin, Les Paul became one of the most popular guitar players in America in the 1940s and 1950s and was also a leading innovator in guitar and electronics design. He experimented with electric guitars and approached Gibson in the 1940s with his ideas for a solidbody electric guitar. He helped to launch a new model designed by Gibson in the 1950s, the Les Paul guitar, which debuted in 1952. Having changed little since its inception, the signature guitar has been the driving force behind many changes in popular music. It powered the blues rock sound of the late '60s and the southern rock of the late '70s. By the '90s the Les Paul was providing signature sounds for every genre of rock, from alternative to metal. In the 1950s, at the top of his career with his wife, vocalist Mary Ford, Les Paul's recordings of "Mockin' Bird Hill" and "How High The Moon" sold two million records. His classic "How High The Moon" was recently selected by the Library of Congress as one of the 100 most important American recordings of all time. Les Paul is also responsible for multitrack recording and overdubbing—the complex layering of sounds to create the illusion of many musicians performing at once. Recordings by artists including The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix wouldn't sound nearly as impressive or innovative without the techniques devised by the man regarded by many as the Thomas Edison of the recording studio.

Bruce Lundvall once said, "It I weren't doing what I'm doing, I'd be a failed saxophone player." Over the 30-plus years of his career in the recording industry, he has signed an amazing roster of artists. The list includes Herbie Hancock, Phoebe Snow, James Taylor, Paquito D'Rivera, Wynton Marsalis, Cassandra Wilson, and many, many others. Committed to musical quality and diversity, Lundvall worked at Columbia Records for 21 years. During this time, he built Columbia's Jazz roster into the largest of any major label, with a wide mix of artists including Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon, Chick Corea's Return to Forever, Wynton Marsalis, Bob James, and Al Dimeola. He moved to Elektra in 1982, where he became president of the newly created Elektra/Musician label, as well as senior vice president of Elektra/Asylum. In 1984, he created Manhattan, a pop music label based on the East Coast for EMI, and helped revive the legendary, long-suspended Blue Note Jazz label. Blue Note produced best sellers by the likes of Stanley Jordan, Cassandra Wilson, Dianne Reeves, and Joe Lovano. In 1988, Lundvall was appointed East Coast General Manager for Capitol Records and President of Blue Note Records, as well as starting an East Coast boutique label, Metro Blue. Lundvall has received many awards over the years including a NARM presidential award and three Grammy nominations.

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New School University's Jazz Program trains students for the artistic, technical and professional demands of employment and performance in the music world. The Program grants a B.F.A. degree in Jazz Performance and in Composition/Arranging. Students in the Program study with an internationally renowned artists faculty. The program encourages and nurtures each student's unique talents, to help cultivate the future generation of Jazz leaders. Founded in 1986, New School University's Jazz Program has produced some of the leading voices in Jazz today, including Brad Mehldau, Larry Goldings, Roy Hargrove, Peter Bernstein, and Susie Ibarra. For further information on the Jazz Program, call (212) 229-5896 or visit the Web site at www.newschool.edu/jazz/.

New School University, with 7,000 matriculated students and 25,000 continuing education students, is a New York City university committed to critical scholarship, artistic integrity, and ethical responsibility in the social sciences, humanities, the arts and design. It is comprised of a liberal arts foundation of three schools: The New School, Eugene Lang College and the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science, and five professional schools: Parsons School of Design, Mannes College of Music, Actors Studio Drama School, Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy, and the Jazz Program. New School Online University offers one of the largest selections of online courses in the nation. For further information about admission to New School University, call (877) 5Ave-321 or visit the Web site at www.newschool.edu.