Jazz artist Muhal Richard Abrams performs during the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Jazz Masters Fellowships award ceremony and concert at Lincon Jazz in New York, the United States, Jan. 12, 2010. The NEA Jazz Masters awards are the highest honors that the federal government bestows upon jazz musicians. These fellowships are given in recognition that this magnificent art form, so profoundly based in American culture, is one of America's greatest gifts to the world. [Xinhua]