The holiday season just got a lot more expensive for jazz legend Chuck Redd.
After the 67 year old musician decided to pull the plug on his long standing Christmas Eve concert, the Kennedy Center is hitting back with a massive lawsuit.
On Thursday, December 26, the Trump-appointed president of the center, Ambassador Richard Grenell, fired off a letter notifying Redd that the institution is coming for $1 million in damages. The drama stems from Redd’s decision to walk away from the gig in protest of the building being rebranded as the “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”
In the letter, which was first caught by the AP, Grenell didn’t mince words about the last minute cancellation. He called the move “classic intolerance” and claimed it was a direct hit to the non-profit arts organization.
“Your decision to withdraw at the last moment — explicitly in response to the Center’s recent renaming, which honors President Trump’s extraordinary efforts to save this national treasure — is classic intolerance and very costly to a non-profit Arts institution,” Grenell wrote.
He also took his frustrations to X, telling followers that “the Left is mad” and insisting that shows shouldn’t be canceled without serious consequences.
Redd, who has been leading the free Christmas Eve Jazz Jam since 2006, made it clear that the new signage was the breaking point. After workers added Trumps name to the building facade on December 19, the vibraphonist decided he couldn’t take the stage.
“When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert,” Redd told the AP.
For a musician with a resume that includes touring with the Charlie Byrd Trio and 15 years with the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, this was a major stand against the center’s new direction.
While the board of trustees, now packed with Trump allies, voted “unanimously” for the rebrand, legal experts and politicians are crying foul. U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty has already sued the board, arguing that a 1964 federal law explicitly keeps the name dedicated solely to the slain President Kennedy. She insists that adding any other names to the exterior requires a full act of Congress, not just a board vote.
As the center trades jazz for depositions, it’s clear the “Trump-Kennedy” era is starting off with a loud and very expensive bang.
