Arturo Sandoval has earned a special national honor…
The 74-year-old Cuban jazz trumpeter, pianist, timbalero and composer will be among this year’s Kennedy Center Honors recipients.
Sandoval will be recognized alongside director Francis Ford Coppola, rock band Grateful Dead, blues and rock singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt and the venue The Apollo.
While living in his native Cuba, Sandoval was influenced by jazz musicians Charlie Parker, Clifford Brown and Dizzy Gillespie. In 1977 he met Gillespie, who became his friend and mentor and helped him defect from Cuba while on tour with the United Nations Orchestra. Sandoval became an American naturalized citizen in 1998.
His life was the subject of the film For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story starring Andy García.
Sandoval has won 10 Grammy Awards, Billboard Awards and one Emmy Award. He performed at the White House and at the 1995 Super Bowl.
Mickey Hart, Billy Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh and Bobby Weir will be recognized for The Grateful Dead. Jerry Garcia, lead guitarist, songwriter and vocalist, died in 1995.
The ceremony will take place on December 8, for broadcast on December 23 on CBS.
This will be the 47th year of the honors, which started in 1978. It’s one of the premiere cultural events of the year in D.C., typically attended by the president and first lady, as well as the chief justice of the Supreme Court and congressional leaders. President Joe Biden has hosted the recipients at a White House ceremony and reception just before the Kennedy Center event. The night before, the State Department also hosts a ceremony for the honorees.
Done+Dusted will produce the ceremony for the third year, in association with ROK Productions.
The first Kennedy Center honorees were Marian Anderson, Fred Astaire, George Balanchine, Richard Rodgers and Arthur Rubinstein.
