NY jazz group cancels New Year's Eve shows 'last minute' at Trump Kennedy performing arts center

New York jazz group the Cookers have canceled their two New Year's Eve shows at the Trump Kennedy Performing Arts Center – the latest in a series of cancellations since President Trump took control of the venue's leadership board. 

The group said in a statement on its website members “understand how frustrating last‑minute changes can be."

The group did not specifically say the cancellation was related to Trump.  However, Saxophonist Billy Harper, said in an interview quoted on the Facebook group Jazz Stage that "would never even consider performing in a venue bearing a name (and being controlled by the kind of board) that represents overt racism and deliberate destruction of African American music and culture.” 

Richard Grenell, the center’s president, said on X the artists who recently canceled were “booked by the previous far left leadership.”

“Their actions prove that the previous team was more concerned about booking far left political activists rather than artists willing to perform for everyone regardless of their political beliefs,” he also wrote. “Boycotting the Arts to show you support the Arts is a form of derangement syndrome. The arts are for everyone and the left is mad about it.”

The Cookers' cancellation came days after musician Chuck Redd pulled out of his annual Christmas Eve jazz concert at the center, and after folk singer Kristy Lee announced she had canceled a concert scheduled for mid-January, according to The Washington Post.

The center's board of directors voted earlier this month to rename the institution the Trump Kennedy Center. Trump’s name was added to the exterior of the building a day after the vote. This changes follow Trump vowing in March that he would revamp the center. 

The Cookers' performances were supposed to be a part of the center's "A Jazz New Year's Event." the center's website on Tuesday did not appear to show that event is still on its schedule.