Coming Soon to Cuba: International Jazz Day

By Maya Quiroga

HAVANA TIMES – The celebration of International Jazz Day 2017 takes place this year in Cuba with a program that will run from April 24 to 30 and bring together in Havana great musicians from around the globe.

From the USA alone, twenty jazz figures are expected for the event including Herbie Hancock, Unesco Goodwill Ambassador for Intercultural Dialogue.

The celebration is under the auspices of Unesco, The Thelonious Monk Jazz Institute in Los Angeles, California, and the Cuban Music Institute (ICM).

For the closing day, on April 30, a great concert is planned at the Havana Grand Theater sponsored by the Cuban Ministry of Culture, the ICM and the Cuban National Commission of Unesco. In charge of the artistic program are pianists and composers Herbie Hancock, from the United States, and Cuban maestro Chucho Valdes.

During the week-long event, members of Unesco and the Thelonious Monk Institute will visit ten Cuban art schools. The visits will include classes, improvisation workshops and live performances, which will also have as venues, community centers, clubs and parks.

Cuban jazz artist Bobby Carcasses told the press that during the event the musicians from the  different countries will collectively perform an arrangement of John Lennon’s work Imagine.

International Jazz Day took place last years in Washington D.C.