Jazz Appreciation Month (fondly known as "JAM") was created right here at the museum in 2001 to recognize and celebrate the extraordinary heritage and history of jazz for the entire month of April.
JAM is intended to stimulate and encourage people of all ages to participate in jazz - to study the music, attend concerts, listen to jazz on radio and recordings, read books about jazz, and more.
Jazz Appreciation Month 2023: Jazzed about Art “Miles Davis”
This year’s poster artwork comes from the museum’s LeRoy Neiman collection and is a sketch of trumpeter Miles Davis created during or soon after Davis’s July 5, 1981, performance at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, New York. In addition to this sketch of Miles Davis, one can also enjoy seeing Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, and a whole host of legendary jazz musicians depicted in LeRoy Neiman’s “Big Band” painting online and on display at the museum.
Download the 2023 JAM poster featuring Miles Davis
Artifacts and Resources Around the Smithsonian Institution
LeRoy Neiman
Big Band
- LeRoy Neiman's "Big Band" now on display
JAM 2017-2019 Posters
- 2017 JAM Poster: Big Band Part 1
- 2018 JAM Poster: Big Band Part 2
- 2019 JAM Poster: Big Band Part 3
"The Artist Critics Love to Hate"
- Listen to the Sidedoor podcast episode
- Read more the Smithsonian publication The Torch
Miles Davis
Trumpet part to Gil Evans arrangement of “Summertime”
- Miles Davis Music Manuscript
Custom jacket was made by Versace in Italy, circa 1991, for American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer Miles Davis
- Jacket, worn by Miles Davis
Photos of Miles Davis
- Miles Davis archival collection
- Miles Davis, Hollywood, California, 1957
- J.J. Johnson and Miles Davis at Davis's session of April 20, 1953 for "The Miles Davis All Stars" (Blue Note) at WOR Studios, New York City
Recordings
- Miles Ahead
- Miles & Monk At Newport
Blog
- Miles Davis, Rudy Van Gelder, and a living room recording studio
Jazz Oral History Interviews Audio Clips
- Ron Carter
- Jimmy Cobb
- Jack DeJohnette
- Dave Liebman
- Jackie McLean
Hold your own JAM event with this handy list of ways to celebrate jazz.
Everything else you might need for your own JAM events – including the JAM logo, and radio announcements.
Support for jazz programming is made possible by
LeRoy Neiman and Janet Byrne Neiman Foundation
The Argus Fund
Ray and Vera Conniff Foundation
Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation
founding donor of the Smithsonian Jazz Endowment
David C. Frederick and Sophia Lynn
Goldman Sachs