Jazz Day A la Turk:UNESCO, the Republic of Turkey, and the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz join together to celebrate jazz as a universal language of freedom.

Istanbul, Turkey -- United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Director-General Irina Bokova, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Intercultural Dialogue Herbie Hancock, Turkey's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ahmet Davutoglu and its Minister of Culture and Tourism, Ömer Çelik, are pleased to announce that the main event for the second annual International Jazz Day will be hosted by Turkey in the city of Istanbul.

Held every year on 30th April, International Jazz Day brings together communities, schools and groups from across the world to celebrate jazz, learn about its roots and highlight its important role as a form of communication that transcends differences.

This year, the main concert for International Jazz Day will be held in Istanbul, Turkey. UNESCO's Director-General, Irina Bokova, stated, "I am delighted to announce that Istanbul will serve as the Host City for the 2013 International Jazz Day celebration on 30th April. A meeting place of global cultures, Istanbul is an ideal location to highlight the extensive influence of jazz. Official celebrations, concerts and educational programs will take place in Istanbul and around the globe, expanding on the tremendous success of last year's inaugural International Jazz Day."

Taken forward in partnership with the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, International Jazz Day was adopted by UNESCO Member States on the initiative of UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Herbie Hancock, in order to encourage and highlight jazz's unique power for advancing intercultural dialogue and understanding across the world. International Jazz Day is recognized on the official calendars of UNESCO and the United Nations. Its programs and events will be coordinated with all 195 Member States of UNESCO.

"International Jazz Day is a means to highlight, support, and leverage the unifying attributes of music through worldwide celebratory events and activities on 30th April each year," said Herbie Hancock. "On International Jazz Day, jazz is celebrated, studied, and performed around the world for 24 hours straight. Collaborations abound among jazz icons, scholars, composers, musicians, dancers, writers, and thinkers who embrace the beauty, spirit, and principles of jazz, freely sharing experiences and performances in our big cities and in our small towns, all across our seven continents."

Turkey's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ahmet Davutoglu and its Minister of Culture and Tourism, Ömer Çelik, stated: "Turkey welcomes the opportunity to host UNESCO's International Jazz Day on 29-30 April, 2013, in Istanbul. On this occasion we shall celebrate jazz music not only as a global language of the human soul, but also as that of more inclusive societies, mutually enhancing civilizations and UNESCO ideals."

Tom Carter, President of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, said, "The Institute is pleased to partner with UNESCO and the Republic of Turkey to present the second annual International Jazz Day. Last year's celebration reached more than one billion people through educational programs, performances and media coverage. This is a phenomenal figure that we believe will be surpassed in 2013."

Celebrations in Istanbul will kick off with a special early morning performance for high school students conducted by Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and others. The evening concert at Istanbul's famed Hagia Irene will feature performances by stellar musicians from around the world, including pianists John Beasley, George Duke, Robert Glasper, Herbie Hancock, Abdullah Ibrahim, Keiko Matsui and Eddie Palmieri; vocalists Al Jarreau, Milton Nascimento and Dianne Reeves; trumpeters Hugh Masekela, Imer Demirer and Christian Scott; bassists James Genus, Marcus Miller, and Ben Williams; drummers Terri Lyne Carrington and Vinnie Colaiuta; guitarists Bilal Karaman, John McLaughlin, Lee Ritenour and Joe Louis Walker; saxophonists Dale Barlow, Igor Butman, Jimmy Heath, Wayne Shorter and Liu Yuan; clarinetists Anat Cohen and Husnu Senlendirici; violinist Jean-Luc Ponty; Pedro Martinez on percussion and other special guests to be announced in the weeks ahead. John Beasley will be the event's musical director.

Dating back to the 4th century, the Hagia Irene, located in the outer courtyard of Topkapi Palace - a UNESCO World Heritage Site - is regarded as an international treasure for music lovers because of its brilliant atmosphere and enchanting acoustics. The concert will be streamed live on the internet via the UNESCO, U.S. State Department and Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz websites, and will be taped for future broadcast on public television stations around the world.

In addition, the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz will work with UNESCO and its 195 Member States, national commissions, UNESCO networks, UNESCO Associated Schools, universities and institutes, public radio, public television, and NGOs to organize and promote Jazz Day events worldwide. Libraries, schools, performing arts centers, artists and arts organizations of all disciplines throughout the world will be encouraged to celebrate the day through presentations, concerts, and other jazz-focused activities.

To date, nearly 80 events have been organized in more than 30 countries, including Argentina, Australia, the Republic of Korea, France, Gabon, Malaysia and Trinidad and Tobago. In Armenia, the Municipality of Yerevan is organizing an open-air concert and will introduce jazz history and jazz performance in several schools around Yerevan. In Mexico, more than ten jazz concerts are scheduled throughout the country. Denmark will host "Jazz as a Verb" in Copenhagen, a day seminar and evening concert for both Danish and international musicians. In India, Jazz Goa in will celebrate the Day with a mega event featuring jazz artists from all over the world. In Swaziland, a special program "Jazz across Borders and Cultures" will include workshops, jam sessions, and concerts over three days. Additional events are being confirmed each day.

UNESCO, the Republic of Turkey, and the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz are pleased that the Istanbul Jazz Festival, organized by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV) is serving as the 2013 Host City Partner. The Istanbul Jazz Festival will play an integral role in the coordination and production of the all-star concert in Istanbul.

The objectives of International Jazz Day are to:

• Encourage exchange and understanding between cultures and employ these means to enhance tolerance;
• Offer effective tools at international, regional, sub regional and national levels to foster intercultural dialogue;
• Raise public awareness about the role jazz music plays to help spread the universal values of UNESCO's mandate;
• Promote intercultural dialogue towards the eradication of racial tensions and gender inequality and to reinforce the role of youth for social change;
• Recognize jazz as a universal language of freedom;
• Promote social progress with a special focus on developing countries utilizing new technologies and communications tools such as social networks;
• Contribute to UNESCO's initiatives to promote mutual understanding among cultures, with a focus on education of young people in marginalized communities.

For more information about International Jazz Day, please visit our websites at: www.unesco.org/new/en/jazz-dayand www.jazzday.com These sites will be re-launched today to reflect 2013 Jazz Day activities. Organizations that would like to participate can register their activities on each of them.

Resident Be-Bop Alien: Roberto Magris' latest

There's a whole lot to be said for consistency. Over the course of the last two decades (at least), piano man Roberto Magris has - across vastly changing line-ups, formats and styles - has presented a unified body of work that briliantly showcases the very vital links between conventional bebop and contemporary inventions. In other words, he's kept going forward, even when he reaches back.

this latest double-disc is no exception - brimming with a sense of adventure and delivered with uniform skill and passion amongst all the players.

Sam Reed
Kendall Moore
Dominique Sanders
Steve Lambert
Brian Steever
Pablo Sanhueza

Through his jovial andassertive yet inclusive leadership, the crew plays with clear relish in their jaunt across this supposedly "alien" landscape, gathering in the process a rich trove of bebop era classics.

As an ardent student of the idiom, Magris manages to not only inject new life into the established material, but even further he manages to make the genre itself breathe anew, as if drawing it out of some time capsule after generations of being lost to the listening public. 

Of course, Magris is never content to merely retread or rehash the works of other, so in addition to the Fats Navarro gem "Nostalgia" and John Coltrane's "Giant Steps"
there are whimsically titled Magris originals like "Blues Clues on The Lunar Sand" and "Cosmic Storyville"

Magris' pianism is no matter of whimsy however. As much as his playing hits new heights, he appropriately plumbs new depths, crossing bewtween lighter and darker motifs with signature dexterity. His take on "Giant Steps" is especially signal here - all that one can say is that you will be pleasantly surprised.

And that level of reward is typical for this entire double-disc - another home run for the Magris-Collins JMood camp. The audio notebook closing this disc promises more explorations and we can  hardly wait., .
Ready for Reed

Chairman's Choice: Piano Greats revisited, the Mu'tet and the latest "Grand Slam"

Roberto Magris - One Night In With Hope and More (JMood Records)
Relentless painistic explorer Roberto Magris has been putting out records at a pretty brisk clip - this disc follows his "Morgan Rewind Vol 1" tribute project (for which Vol. 2 has already been completed), and he has other projects either ready to hit or in advanced work.
In the interim, he's turned to the varied works of bop-Era pianists-composers and, as with all his projects, this record deftly combines a burnished technique with the trademark joie de vivre and seeming abandon that Italian-born Magris injects into all his playing.
Things start off in suitably joyous fashion with Elmo Hope's "Happy Hour" and the programme also takes in Tadd Dameron's gorgeous "If You Could See Me Now" and -expectedly, one supposes - Ellington's "I Didn't Know About You".
But its on Andrew Hill's " agile an angular "East 9th Street" that the group (bassist Elisha Pruett and Tootie Heath, returning form the Morgan project, join Magris)  burns brightest, though Mal Waldron's "Fire Waltz" is also beautifully rendered.
The album again smartly includes an audio notebook featuring JMood's Paul Collins expounding on the selections and the rationale. But even without this is an altogether delightful project, a timely reminder of why jazz is such good-time music.

Project Grand Slam - Spring Dance (Cakewalk Records)
The fellows who make up project Grand Slam are each veterans of the live and recorded music scene, and the band took a further boost when five tracks from their previous disc, "Play" were featured on the NBC series "Lipstick Jungle".
The title track leads off this record and proves an engaging intro to those, like this writer, who are new to the group. They really get cookin' on the next track, "Joe Z" a tribute to late weather Report keyboard whiz Joe Zawinul
New Zealand vocalist Joye Hennessy handily breaks up the testosterone, putting in a sterling performance on "Remember" but especially on the Hollies' 70s classic "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother". Like that title, this group ain't heavy, in the nicest of ways. This is smooth jazz-pop that will enrapture the smooth fan without enraging the purist.

Jeff Coffin Mu'tet Live!

have developed a truly distinctive sound, whether with Bela Fleck or as a leader with his Mu'tet, as this compilation demonstrates. Funky and worldly and unrestrained, but at the same time imbued with a certain elegance, that certain seeking nature.

The group is set to release another studio album, Into The Air, but this 2-disc compilation, offered via Coffin's website (www.jeffcoffin.com) should fill in quite nicely till that one hits.

Move Your Body Like A ---

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf1Eo-6sDIE

Tragically shot by his live-in partner (though he frequently stepped out on her) either on the band stand or during a break between sets at NYC club Slugs, Lee Morgan had that combo of speed, rhythmic and melodic sensibilities  that balanced his music in a way that few of his peers really could.

My Jazz Passion - summarized

http://youtu.be/_V9OpanwyHo

Was feeling down last couple of days so reached for an old standby, the late, great Clifford Brown and max Roach.

if you're passionate about jazz as I am or if you evn know nothing about it, but something in this song jus moves you, then drop me a line at emxgroup@gmail.com

Blue Note gets "Fest-ive"

In honor of its 30^th anniversary, the institution will host the first inaugural Blue Note Jazz Festival during the month of June, the club announced this past week. Throughout the month, more than 80 shows featuring established jazz legends and rookie experimentalists will take place across the city.

The club is hosting the Festival to fill the void left by promoter and producer George Wein’s New York Jazz Festival, which usually occurs in June but which is on hiatus this year. Wein himself will perform at the Blue Note’s Festival in mid-June.

Programming runs the gamut from more traditional legends like Dave Brubeck and Chaka Khan to edgier picks like Duncan Sheik, The Roots, Igmar Thomas & the Cypher. The Harlem Gospel Choir will also perform. Blue Note hopes to promote cross-pollination of music by mixing different acts in hopes of appealing to varied demographics. Both Mos Def and Lupe Fiasco have hosted shows at the club, a testament to the gradual fusion of jazz with other genres and subsequent interest of younger audiences.

“Over the past five years, we’ve adapted to changes in music,” said Steven Bensusan, president of Blue Note.  “We’ve paired hip hop and jazz, for example. We want to mix up the elements.”

The Festival events will take place all over the city, including Highline Ballroom, B.B King’s, Terminal 5 and Mercury Lounge. There will also be an act at Central Park’s Summerstage, which has yet to be announced.

While Bensusan hopes to attract diverse audiences, he doesn’t believe jazz has been relegated solely to the milieu of the 50-plus set.

“This isn’t a dead industry,” he said. “Our audience is a mix of college students, people in their 30s, tourists and the 50-plus.”

If the Festival is successful this year, the Blue Note hopes to roll it out on an annual basis. You can see the show schedule here.

Jus a Quick peek @TEDx Irie

Reedman Damon Riley blew in for a quick but scintillating spell at the TEDx Irie event at the Courtleigh Auditorium on Saturday last. Check back on Jazz Bus and also on http://bizfinty.blogspot. com for more on the great TEDx Irie event.