True Blue Jazz celebrates local offerings April 29-30 for International Jazz Day
In 2001, John Edward Hasse, curator at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, founded Jazz Appreciation Month, now celebrated each April in the U.S. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization officially designated April 30 as International Jazz Day in 2011 in order to highlight jazz and its diplomatic role of uniting people across the globe. International Jazz Day is chaired and led by UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay, and legendary jazz pianist and composer Herbie Hancock, a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master.
International Jazz Day is the world’s largest annual celebration of jazz as a force for peace, intercultural dialogue and international cooperation. It brings people together through independently organized performances, educational programs, radio and TV broadcasts, and community outreach initiatives in more than 190 countries to communicate and share the positive values and legacy of this special music.
Hancock said, “Jazz has always been about expanding boundaries – inspiring musicians toward the future and its infinite possibilities.”
True Blue Jazz, an independent jazz education and performance organization, is honored to be the Cape Region’s official partner with International Jazz Day and The Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz. As a sanctioned partner since 2016, True Blue Jazz toasts its seventh annual offering for IJD with a weekend-long celebration, presenting two concerts, The Legends of Jazz Saturday, April 29, and The Stars of Tomorrow Sunday, April 30, at Nassau Valley Vineyards in Lewes. Both concerts benefit the True Blue Jazz Scholarship Fund.
True Blue Jazz co-founder Peggy Raley said, “It’s pretty amazing every year to receive the personal outreach from Herbie Hancock asking what we’re bringing to the global family for IJD. Our relationship with the IJD family propelled our Virtual Festival in 2020 to be seen in 26 countries.”
True Blue Jazz will host tenor sax master Houston Person from 7 to 9 p.m., April 29, joined by his trio, Matthew Parrish on bass, Jim Ridl on piano and Vince Ector on drums. Tickets for The Houston Person Quartet show are $50, available online at truebluejazz.org. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Person is known as a master of popular songs played in a relaxed, highly accessible style reminiscent of the great Ben Webster. He built his reputation as a leader with a series of renowned recordings for Prestige in the 1960s that showcased his soulful, hard-bop style. However, for a large part of his career he was best known for his legendary partnership with the great vocalist Etta Jones, which lasted over 30 years until her death in 2001. Person has recorded more than 150 albums as a leader on Prestige, Westbound, Mercury, Savoy and Muse, which became HighNote Records.
Education is central to the International Jazz Day mission, so schools, educators and students make up an indispensable component of IJD celebrations every year. Among the many programs that make up its True Blue Jazz Kids! – Youth Jazz Initiative, TBJ awards scholarships to graduating seniors going on to study for professional careers in music.
For International Jazz Day, from 1 to 3 p.m., April 30, True Blue Jazz will present The Stars of Tomorrow, celebrating young local musicians. Tickets are $20 adults, $10 students, and free for attendees 13 and under, available online at truebluejazz.org.
The TBJ All-Star Alumni Band will reunite former scholarship recipients and their bandmates from across the last decade for an afternoon of big, swinging fun. The Cape Henlopen High School Jazz Ensemble will open the show led by band director Chris Burkhart.
Featured players confirmed thus far include: Morgan Hurlock, Will Warick, Ben Koley, Marcus Gromofsky, Elliott Bastian, Jacquelyn Johnson, Josh Turk, Isaac Weathersby, Brendan Groll, Lee Hoffman, Noah Sutton and Liam Weidmann. Several others are expected.
Event sponsor Lee Ann Wilkinson of The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices PenFed Realty said, “We are always delighted to be a sponsor of the True Blue Jazz Festival and their year-round events. We love supporting our local community organizations, especially those supporting our children. True Blue Jazz brings talented musicians from all over the world to coastal Delaware, which is an essential part of the growing cultural landscape and changing place we are lucky to call home.”
Nassau Valley Vineyards is located at 32165 Winery Way, Lewes. For more information call 302-645-9463 or go to truebluejazz.org.
