International Jazz Day
In November 2011, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) officially designated April 30 as International Jazz Day to celebrate jazz as a universal language and tool for diplomacy. International Jazz Day is chaired and led by Irina Bokova and jazz pianist/composer Herbie Hancock, who serves as a UNESCO Ambassador for Intercultural Dialogue, and also as Chairman of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. The Institute is the lead nonprofit organization charged with planning, promoting and producing this annual celebration, which began in 2012.
International Jazz Day was founded to bring together communities, schools, artists, historians, historians, academics, and jazz enthusiasts all over the world to learn about jazz and its roots. This day seeks to raise awareness of the need for intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding; and also to reinforce international cooperation and communication. Each year on April 30, International Jazz Day will celebrate jazz as symbolic for promoting peace, fostering dialogue among cultures, allowing freedom of expression, and reinforcing the role of youth for social change.
UNESCO and United Nations missions, U.S. embassies and government outposts around the world hosted events for the first annual International Jazz Day on April 30, 2012. Venues and organizations in more than 100 countries marked the day with concerts, educational events, film screenings, and performances featuring world-renowned artists.
On April 30, 2012, UNESCO and the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz jointly presented three concerts: a daylong celebration at UNESCO world headquarters in Paris; a sunrise concert in New Orleans’ Congo Square; and a sunset concert at the United Nations General Assembly Hall in New York City. Among the musicians that participated were John Beasley, Tony Bennett, George Benson, Terence Blanchard, Richard Bona (Cameroon), Dee Dee Bridgewater, Candido, Terri Lyne Carrington, Ron Carter, Robert Cray, Jack DeJohnette, George Duke, Sheila E., Herbie Hancock, Antonio Hart, Jimmy Heath, Hiromi (Japan), Zakir Hussain (India), Chaka Khan, Angelique Kidjo (Benin), Lang Lang (China), Joe Lovano, Romero Lubambo (Brazil), Shankar Mahadevan (India), Ellis Marsalis, Jr., Wynton Marsalis, Hugh Masekela (South Africa), Christian McBride, Marcus Miller, Danilo Pérez (Panama), Wayne Shorter, Esperanza Spalding, Treme Brass Band and Stevie Wonder. Hosts included Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman and Quincy Jones.
Istanbul, Turkey has been selected as the 2013 Global Host City for International Jazz Day. Istanbul will host a daylong series of jazz events including jazz workshops, roundtable discussions, film screenings, student master classes, and an evening performance that will be broadcast on public television stations worldwide.
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Famous quotes containing the words jazz and/or day:
“It seems to me monstrous that anyone should believe that the jazz rhythm expresses America. Jazz rhythm expresses the primitive savage.”
—Isadora Duncan (1878–1927)
“Now that is the wisdom of a man, in every instance of his labor, to hitch his wagon to a star, and see his chore done by the gods themselves. That is the way we are strong, by borrowing the might of the elements. The forces of steam, gravity, galvanism, light, magnets, wind, fire, serve us day by day and cost us nothing.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)