Molly Ryan and Dan Levinson welcomed a daughter - Aven Yetive Levinson - into their family on June 3. According to Dan, Aven is a Gaelic name and is pronounced like "Raven." Yetive (ye-TEEV) was the name of Molly's great grandmother. They are given to understand that there has not been anyone born in the United States by that name since 1921. Congratulations!
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The National Endowment for the Arts has announced four musicians and one advocate as the 2017 NEA Masters Fellows, the nation's highest honor in jazz, recognizing their lifetime achievements and exceptional contributions to the advancement of the genre. Each will receive a $25,000 award and be honored at a tribute concert on April 3, 2017 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
The 2017 NEA Jazz Masters are vocalist-producer Dee Dee Bridgewater, keyboardist-composer-arranger Dick Hyman, bassist-composer-bandleader Dave Holland, organist-composer Dr. Lonnie Smith and journalist-author-historian Ira Gitler.
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It seems that hardly a month goes by when some new honor or accomplishment involving Bria Skonberg comes to our attention. Following seven months of negotiations, she has signed with SONY Records, and her first album with this new affiliation will be released in September via SONY's Masterworks/Portrait Division. (Read: Bria Skonberg: Three Albums Compared) She is also included in a list
