Two uptown organizations celebrating important milestones this year, the twenty-year-old Jazz Power Initiative (JPI), and the sixty-year-old Harlem School of the Arts (HSA), come together to honor two distinctly American music genres. Jazz and Hip-Hop are two of America’s biggest exports, embraced by international audiences and adopted by a global community of artists.

Both musical forms are rooted in the stories and experiences of America’s Black community, steeped in ancestral African, Afro-Latin, and Eurocentric rhythms and culture.

On Saturday, April 27th from 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm in honor of what would have been Duke Ellington’s 125th birthday, and as part of the continued celebration of Hip-Hop’s 50th, an exciting program has been curated by Eli Yamin, JPI co-founder/Managing and Artistic Director, and Lee Hogans, HSA Chief Education Officer. Featured performers include the spectacular Award-winning vocalist and educator Charenee Wade, first runner-up in the 2010 Thelonious Monk competition; as well as Brooklyn’s own Jason Fraticelli, best known as Silent Knight, indie hip-hop artist, and Ambassador at the Innocent Project.

Other performers rounding out the celebration include the All City High School Jazz Ensemble, under the direction of Paul Corn; the ensemble is the product of the highly regarded Department of Education’s arts offerings. Also, Zah! Jr., Jazz Power Initiative’s advanced youth ensemble; the HSA Dance Ensemble and HSA Advance Jazz Band; the Dorothy Maynor Singers and Nat King Cole Trio.

This important collaboration and program is being held during Jazz Appreciation Month, which was created in 2001 in acknowledgment and as a celebration of the contributions “jazz has made to society”.

The event will be held at the Harlem School of the Arts, Dorothy Maynor Hall located at 645 St, Nicholas Avenue, on Saturday, April 27th from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm. For more information visit www.jazzpower.org or www.hsanyc.org.