Wed | Oct 1, 2025

Unity and community for Int’l Jazz Day celebrations

Published:Saturday | April 22, 2023 | 12:09 AM
Pause
Jazz pianist, composer and arranger Orville Hammond.
File
Jazz pianist, composer and arranger Orville Hammond.
Edna Manley College second-year art student Shari-Joe Giscombe making magic on the canvas while jazz music wafted through the air on International Jazz Day.
File
Edna Manley College second-year art student Shari-Joe Giscombe making magic on the canvas while jazz music wafted through the air on International Jazz Day.
Jazz singer ALA.NI, musician and composer Mark Chillemi of the Alpha School of Music, and saxophonist Ben Roseth demonstrate a bit of improvisation on stage on International Jazz Day 2022.
File
Jazz singer ALA.NI, musician and composer Mark Chillemi of the Alpha School of Music, and saxophonist Ben Roseth demonstrate a bit of improvisation on stage on International Jazz Day 2022.
1
2
3

The Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sports has thrown its support behind the collaborative efforts of the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts and the Jamaica Music Museum (JaMM) as they join the world in celebrating International Jazz Day on April 30, at the Vera Moody Concert Hall at the college.

The events commemorating International Jazz Day include a tribute mural honouring women in music who have contributed to the development of the School of Music.

The concert, which is scheduled to start at 5 p.m., will feature the School of Music Faculty including Orville Hammond, Gerd Beyens, Ibo Cooper, Rueben Betty, Ruth Browne, Eljay Reid, Derek Been and Trevelle Clarke Whyne will perform a mixture of styles associated with the diverse characteristics of jazz.

The JaMM Repertory Quintet, specialising in Jamaican jazz composers and performers’ music, will pay tribute to the late tenor saxophonist Wilton Gaynair, the Jamaican international master. Students from the Edna Manley College and Alpha School Band will complete the musical offerings. As is customary, patrons will be able to participate through art as the School of Visual Arts will lead the painting of a mural at the School of Music in tribute to Jamaican Jazz musicians.

These events are part of the UNESCO global campaign to promote peace and dialogue through Jazz. They are also in keeping with the organisation’s requirement that Kingston, as a UNESCO City of Music, fulfil its mandate to offer a diverse palate of musical and cultural forms.

International Jazz Day was declared in 2012. The day is used to draw public attention to jazz and its extraordinary heritage and is a culmination of a month-long focus on jazz.

Director-general of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, said in her announcement that “jazz embodies the spirit of UNESCO”.

“It brings people together and builds peace, tolerance and understanding. It has been the soundtrack for positive social change, from the fight against racism to the struggle for democracy,” Bokova concluded.