April 27: International Jazz Day in Paris

April 26, 2012. Posted by Becca Pulliam.

Add new comment | Filed under: herbie hancock, International Jazz Day, Jazz Alive

UNESCO -- the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization -- has named April 30 as International Jazz Day. And festivities begin on Friday, April 27, in Paris. For more information, visit the UNESCO web page.

UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Herbie Hancock spoke with Alex Dutilh of France Musique yesterday about the pianist's involvement in International Jazz Day, as well as changes in jazz worldwide since Herbie started to play the music as a teenager in the mid 1950s. Herbie says,

. . . my experience [then] was that for the most part, the best jazz musicians were Americans. I can’t say that these days. I can’t say that today because, in my experience traveling around the world and hearing jazz musicians from different countries and seeing also jazz musicians that have moved to the United States and gotten experience working with great world class musicians in America and taken that back to their home countries, it’s expanded the professional level of jazz musicianship. Exponentially. So now it truly is an international music.

At sunrise on Monday, April 30, there will be a worldwide hookup of young players in New Orleans, Rio, Cape Town and Paris on a synchronized live version of Herbie's "Watermelon Man!"

Check out the April 30 events at UN headquarters in New York here.

And Monday night at 6:30, we'll broadcast the New Orleans concert as a special. Listen to WBGO and wbgo.org for more info.

© 2012 WBGO

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Notes From The SS WBGO

September 14, 2008. Posted by Amy Niles.

Add new comment | Filed under: cruise, herbie hancock, IAJE 2008, jazz, Jazz Education, Masters, Members, membership, oscar peterson, pancho sanchez, playboy, public radio, Real Life Stories, Riff, tea for two, tito puente, zenph

Ahoy readers. Josh Jackson sends posts from the Village Vanguard so I have decided to do the same from the co-anchor chair during the drive. Read more

© 2008 WBGO

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WBGO and NPR at the 2008 JVC Newport Jazz Festival

July 31, 2008. Posted by Joshua Jackson.

Add new comment | Filed under: concerts, esperanza, festival founder, george wein, guillermo klein, guitarist, herbie hancock, howard alden, Jazz Alive, jazz stars, jvc jazz festival, jvc jazz festival newport, legendary pianist, live jazz, music, new york city, param name, Places and Spaces, spalding, stage acts, Video, village vanguard, wbgo, www youtube

Earlier this summer, WBGO launched NPR's first concert series of live jazz webcasts, "Live at the Village Vanguard," which offers monthly shows from the legendary New York City venue. Next weekend, August 9 and 10, WBGO and NPR Music are teaming up to live webcast main stage acts from the JVC Jazz Festival Newport. On the bill are legendary pianist Herbie Hancock; producer, performer and Jazz Festival founder George Wein; guitarist Howard Alden; along with rising jazz stars Esperanza Spalding and Guillermo Klein y Los Guachos. I'll be your host. Should be fun.

Check out one of my favorite performances captured at Newport.

© 2008 WBGO

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