By Gall Mitchell; 04/2/2024
Legendary jazz painist Herbie Hancock will lead a U.S. contingment of fellow jazz stars including Dee Dee Bridgewater, Kurt Elling, Marcus Miller and Shemekia Copeland heading to Tangier, Morocco, to celebrate International Jazz Day 2024 (April 30). This marks the first time the event will take place on the African continent.
In a release announcing the annual celebration's programminmg and performer lineup, UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay stated, "The designation of Tangier marks the first time a city on the African continent will host International Jazz Day, the world's largest and most significant celebration of jazz."
A series of educational programs, highlighted by a presentation spotlighting the significance of Morocco's Gnawa music and its connection with jazz, will round out the earlier portion of the four-day event preceding the global concert. Tangie's rich jazz legacy includes such notables as jazz master Randy Weston, who lived in Tangier for many years and collaborated with Gnawa master Abdellah El Gourd to exlore the roots of jazz and African music. Weston also subsequently founded the African Jazz Festival in the '70s. Josephine Baker, Ornette Coleman, Herbie Mann and Archie Shepp are also amoung the renowned jazz artists who performed and slso spent time in Tangier.
