International Jazz Day 2020: History, Significance and Facts
International Jazz Day 2020: Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the 9th annual International Jazz Day celebrations will transit to a virtual format for this year. On 30th April, earlier it was planned in Cape Town, South Africa and other locations across the globe.
International Jazz Day 2020 because of COVID-19 will take place online and will be hosted by Herbie Hancock. It will be live on jazzday.com with several Global Concert featuring artists. The concert will begin at 3:00 pm US Eastern Time. Various artists will perform including Marcus Miller, Lang Lang, Charlie Puth, Cécile McLorin Salvant, John McLaughlin, Dianne Reeves, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Sibongile Khumalo, Alune Wade, John Beasley, Ben Williams, Lizz Wright, John Scofield, Igor Butman, Evgeny Pobozhiy, Youn Sun Nah, A Bu, Jane Monheit, and Joey DeFrancesco, among others.
Several other activities will be there with the virtual Global concert like there will be a free series of educational masterclasses, children's activities and discussions through web conference featuring renowned educators and jazz artists.
International Jazz Day: History
30 April was officially designated as International Jazz Day by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) General Conference in November 2011. The day highlights the importance of jazz and its diplomatic role for uniting people across the globe. The day is chaired and led by the Director-General of UNESCO Audrey Azoulay and legendary jazz pianist and composer Herbie Hancock. He is a UNESCO Ambassador for Intercultural Dialogue and Chairman of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz. It is a non-profit based organisation that plans to promote and produce the annual celebration.
International Jazz Day 2020: Significance
The day brings several communities, schools, artists, historians, academics, and jazz enthusiasts all over the world to celebrate the day and to learn about jazz. It is also important to know about the roots of jazz, future and impact. It raises awareness about the need for intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding. It strengthens international cooperation and communication. On 30 April every year International Jazz Day is celebrated to promote peace, dialogue among cultures, diversity, and respect for the rights of human and human dignity, it also helps in eliminating discrimination, focuses on freedom of expression, promotes gender equality, and not only this it also strengthens the role of youth for social change.
- Jazz promotes freedom of expression.
- Jazz generates opportunities for mutual understanding and tolerance.
- Jazz minimises tensions between individuals, groups and communities.
- Not only this Jazz encourages artistic innovation and improvisation.
- It also encourages new forms of expression and develops traditional music forms into new ones.
- Jazz empowers youth from marginalised societies.
A message from Herbie Hancock, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador "Now more than ever before, let’s band together and spread the ethics of Jazz Day’s global movement around the planet and use this as a golden opportunity for humankind to reconnect especially in the midst of all this isolation and uncertainty.”
Therefore we can say that jazz is the music of improvisation and collective creation. International Jazz Day is celebrated across the globe on 30 April to raise awareness about the immense history and heritage of Jazz. It also highlights the role of youth in enacting social change across the world.
Important Days and Dates in April 2020
Source: jazzday.com, unesco.org, un.org
