Former President Bill Clinton to Receive Founder’s Award for Jazz Advocacy

Bill Clinton to Receive Award for Jazz Advocacy

Former President Bill Clinton will get a chance to play his saxophone when the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz honors him with its Founder’s Award.

The Monk Institute announced Monday that Clinton will receive the award at a Nov. 9 concert at Los Angeles’ Dolby Theater featuring Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Dianne Reeves, Dee Dee Bridgewater and others. The proceeds will support the institute’s free jazz education programs worldwide.

Hancock, the institute’s chairman, says Clinton honed “his creativity on the tenor saxophone” in public school music programs and has been “a jazz advocate for decades.”

The concert will include the finals of the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, which this year is devoted to trumpeters.

Source: Nestor