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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Edward Helmore

More musicians drop out of Kennedy Center shows after Trump name change

the exterior of a building
The facade of the recently renamed Donald J Trump and John F Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington DC, on 29 December 2025. Photograph: Tyrone Siu/Reuters

A second jazz band has pulled out of performing at the controversially renamed “Trump-Kennedy” center in Washington DC, giving just two days’ notice before their New Year’s Eve gig was set to take place.

The Cookers, described as a Grammy-nominated, all-star septet of legendary post-bop jazz musicians, have not given an explicit reason for their decision but in a statement posted on their website said: “Jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice.”

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