All That Jazz

All That Jazz

The City of Joburg could play host to the 2016 Unesco International Jazz Day celebrations. This after a recently constituted coalition of key stakeholders announced both the bid to host next year’s event and revealed A series of gigs to mark this year’s big day locally.

The coalition is made up of a growing number of players including musicians, journalists, The City Of Joburg,  The Market Theatre, The State Theatre, Gauteng Department of Sports, Culture and Recreation, the South African Association of Jazz Appreciation Clubs, an organisation made up of grass roots clubs across the country and other jazz-related programs and organs. It is overseen by local jazz day patron, Hugh Masekela. Internationally, the Jazz Day Foundation is headed by pianist, Herbie Hancock, who along with the Thelonious Monk Jazz Institute worked to make this day a reality a few years ago.

The UNESCO International Jazz Day is celebrated on April 30 every year. It was proclaimed by the United Nations in November 2011, with the aim of “harnessing and celebrating the virtues of jazz as an educational tool, a force for peace, unity, dialogue and enhanced cooperation among peoples and nations.” The main events of the day are held at an annually selected global host city since it was first stabled in New York in 2011. Istanbul, Turkey was host in 2013 and Osaka, Japan hosted in 2014. This year the global host city is Paris, France. This owes in part to France being considered the birth place of Jazz in Europe.

As the main global event takes off in the Paris on April 30th, local jazz lovers will have already started making their own Whoopi in Joburg at The Market Theatre and at The State Theatre in Tshwane. This year’s local activities will include performances by top jazz musicians, exhibitions and seminars. The programme is said to start on the April 29 and continue to April 30.

Percy Mabandu