Joanne Brackeen

When the National Endowment for the Arts contacted Joanne Brackeen to inform her that she was going to be inducted into the 2018 class of the NEA Jazz Masters, she was shocked. Why? Because so few women who were strictly instrumentalists and composers had gained that prestigious honor. Indeed, since the program started in 1982, the only other non-singing female musicians to be crowned NEA Jazz Masters had been trombonist/arranger Melba Liston (1987) and pianists Marian McPartland (2000), Toshiko Akiyoshi (2007), and Carla Bley (2015).

Few if any would argue that Brackeen belongs among that illustrious group. But she was still surprised, because of her idiosyncratic approach to piano improvisation and composing. “[The NEA] didn’t have any women who were into the music on piano like I was,” the 81-year-old explained in mid-September at