The eighth annual International Jazz Day will be celebrated in more than 190 countries on April 29 and 30, with this year’s All-Star Global Concert set to take place in Australia.
Featuring an international roster of artists from more than a dozen countries, the concert will be held at the Melbourne Arts Centre’s Hamer Hall on April 30. The concert will be webcast via YouTube, Facebook, the United Nations, and UNESCO to millions of people worldwide.
Leading up to the concert, a series of jazz performances and outreach programs will also take place in Adelaide, Mount Gambier, Sydney, Perth and other Australian cities. In the week prior to International Jazz Day, the celebration will kick off with a jazz education program for student musicians in the indigenous community of Yarrabah in Far Northern Australia, to be followed by similar programs in Sydney for students from New South Wales public schools.
Pianist Herbie Hancock (USA) and trumpeter James Morrison (Australia) will serve as artistic co-directors of the concert.
Artists from every corner of the world, from Brazil to Iran to the Netherlands to China, are coming together for the show, which should result in some surprising improvisations, said All-Star Global Concert Music Director John Beasley.
“When you imagine these artists grew up listening to the same records, learning, practicing and performing the same standards, but being exposed to their local cultural sounds, rhythms, beats, then these composites become more interesting,” says Beasley. “Chicken soup has basic ingredients, but go to a dozen different countries and you will experience taste sensations that leaves you in awe.”
Confirmed artists include: Cieavash Arian (Iran), William Barton (Australia), Dee Dee Bridgewater (USA), Till Brönner (Germany), A Bu (China), Igor Butman (Russian Federation), Eli Degibri (Israel), Kurt Elling (USA), Matthew Jodrell (Australia), Ledisi (USA), Eijiro Nakagawa (Japan), Mark Nightingale (United Kingdom), Chico Pinheiro (Brazil), Tineke Postma (Netherlands), Eric Reed (USA), Antonio Sánchez (Mexico), Nathan Schreiber (Australia), Somi (USA), Lizz Wright (USA), and Tarek Yamani (Lebanon). More artists are expected to be announced.
The Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz is UNESCO’s official partner in the organization and promotion of International Jazz Day
To find out more about International Jazz Day, visit: www.jazzday.com or www.unesco.org/jazzday.
