$25 Charge applies to the LIVE STREAM ONLY. This concert will NOT be available after it has concluded.
On-Demand replays will be available within 48 hours and will be a SEPARATE TICKET.
The National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master is the nation’s highest honor for Jazz, and Flushing Town Hall is proud to continue a tradition we began twenty years ago: our NEA Jazz Masters Concert! Our 2026 concert will gather together a powerhouse of talent to pay tribute to one of the most innovative, influential, and acclaimed figures in the history of music: Miles Davis.
Led by trumpeter and 2012 NEA Jazz Master Jimmy Owens, the FTH stage will welcome pianist and 2010 NEA Jazz Master Kenny Barron, drummer and 2021 NEA Jazz Master Terri Lyne Carrington, bassist Kenny Davis, saxophonist and 2022 NEA Jazz Master Donald Harrison, and guitarist Michael Howell. This suite of brilliant, acclaimed musicians will champion Davis and his contributions to the field. Get ready for one unmissable night of Jazz!
About the Artists
Jimmy Owens
(2012 NEA Jazz Master)
This talented jazz artist has more than forty-five years of experience as a jazz trumpeter, composer, arranger, lecturer, and music education consultant. His career includes a wide range of international musical experiences as a studio musician, soloist, bandleader, and composer of orchestral works, movie scores, and ballets. Owens is one of the few trumpeters of his generation who performed with many extraordinary jazz leaders, including sitting in with Miles Davis at age 15 and playing with Kenny Barron, Count Basie, Kenny Burrell, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Golson, Lionel Hampton, Charles Mingus, Max Roach, Archie Shepp, Billy Taylor, and Gerald Wilson.
Donald Harrison, Jr.
(2022 NEA Jazz Master)
As a saxophonist, Donald Harrison, Jr.—recipient of the 2022 A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship for Jazz Advocacy—is known for his hard-swinging improvisational style and the creation of “Nouveau Swing,” a blend of jazz with R&B, Hip Hop, Rock, and Soul. Following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Harrison increased his activism, creating employment opportunities in his own bands for young musicians who had remained in the city when many others had left. He also mentored now-world-renowned jazz artists from New Orleans and beyond, including Jon Batiste, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Trombone Shorty, and Esperanza Spalding. His dedication to preserving the music and culture of New Orleans has been crucial to assuring its important legacy survives.
Kenny Barron
(2010 NEA Jazz Master)
With more than 40 albums to his name, and scores more he has appeared on, Kenny Barron's imprint on jazz is large. The pianist has been recognized worldwide as a master of performance and composition. Barron’s own recordings have earned him nine Grammy nominations, and he has won numerous jazz critics and readers’ polls from DownBeat, JazzTimes, and Jazziz magazines; and is a seven-time recipient of the Jazz Journalists Association's “Best Pianist” honors. As a composer, Barron’s works have been featured in film and documentaries, and he most recently scored the film Another Harvest Moon. In 2009, he was named a Living Legacy by the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation and was inducted into the American Jazz Hall of Fame in 2005. He continues to tour internationally solo and with his trio.
Terri Lyne Carrington
(2021 NEA Jazz Master)
Terri Lyne Carrington is an NEA Jazz Master, Doris Duke Artist, and four-time Grammy award-winning drummer, composer, producer, and educator. She serves as founder and artistic director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, as well as artistic director for both the Next Jazz Legacy program, a collaboration with New Music USA. She has performed on more than 100 recordings and has toured and recorded with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Stan Getz, Esperanza Spalding, and many others. Carrington holds honorary doctorates from York University, Manhattan School of Music, and Berklee College of Music. The 2019 release Waiting Game from Terri Lyne Carrington + Social Science earned the Edison Award for music and a Grammy nomination.
Michael Howell
Born in Kansas City, Michael Howell was inspired and taught by his father and noted KC guitarist Herley Dennis in his youth. He later studied classical guitar at the Music and Arts Institute of San Francisco and received a degree in Music from Lehman College in New York. Michael has performed and recorded with his own group as well as other musicians such as Bobby Hutcherson, Hampton Hawes, Art Blakey, George Duke, Gene Ammons, and Woody Shaw.
Kenny Davis
Kenny Davis is a Chicago native whose musical journey began with R&B legends Earth, Wind & Fire. Self-taught at first, he studied theory with David Holder Sr. and earned a Music Education degree from Northeastern Illinois University. He moved to New York in 1986 and joined Out of the Blue and quickly became a fixture on the scene—playing with Freddie Hubbard, Cassandra Wilson, and Abbey Lincoln, while studying under Ron Carter. A career highlight came as music arranger on Cassandra Wilson’s Grammy-winning Blue Light ’til Dawn. Throughout the 90s, Davis toured with Herbie Hancock and Dianne Reeves. From 1999 to 2002, he was a bassist for The Tonight Show Band with Kevin Eubanks. After returning to New York in 2002, he taught at UCONN (2003–2009), earned a Master’s in Music from Rutgers (2006), and released his debut album as a leader, Kenny Davis, in 2009.
This program is generously supported by the National Endowment for the Arts Celebrating America250: Arts Projects Honoring the National Garden of American Heroes.
