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local Monday 24 april 2023
International Jazz Day to be celebrated in San Nicolas on April 30th
and the Groove Hunters
will be giving their perfor-
mance playing Jazz Funky.
The third group includes
Carlos Bislip with his quintet.
Then, Reno Steba with his
band Oruba will take the
mic. Reno and his band
experiment with traditional
Aruban music and Jazz.
Lastly, the Franklin Grana-
dillo Band will close the
show.
Bislip shares with our report-
er that he learned about
the Smithsonian Institute in
Washington in 2006, when
he went to an international
conference of jazz teach-
ers held in New York. The in-
stitute dedicates the entire
month of April to Jazz, call-
ing it “Jazz Appreciation
Month”. During April, they
(Oranjestad)—Interna- celebration with a show- encourage international
tional Jazz Day is a day in case including several jazz members and jazz teachers
which jazz is celebrated to groups. to share their knowledge
promote peace, freedom Falling on a Sunday, this and talent with their home
of expressions, respect for celebration will take place countries.
each other, human right in San Nicolas at Kulture When Bislip arrived back
and to further develop un- Café from 7pm to 11pm, Aruba, he started organiz-
derstanding and accep- and will include a musical ing events for International
tance across different cul- band of students called Jazz Day on Aruba, which
tures. Caribbean Combo. Join- at that time took place in
ing the students will be two Cas di Cultura in the down-
In an interview with Aruba American musicians who town area.
Today, musician Carlos Bis- just graduated from Jazz The following years, he
lip informed that on April studies. held events in front of the
30th, the world celebrates The showcase will be open- National Library, where he
International Jazz Day. Aru- ing with Caribbean Com- gathered young artists with
ba is also preparing for this bo. Next up, Eric Jan Eman professional musicians to
play.
“I kept organizing showcas- see both young local art-
es for International Jazz Day ists and foreign profession-
at different locations. This als play Jazz together. This
year will mark 18 years that year, our lineup is going to
I’ve done this, not including very diverse; it will be an
the pandemic years,” Bislip exciting evening for music.
stated. Entrance is free, and if any-
On Aruba, there are differ- one would like to reserve
ent Jazz musicians, and the their table at Kulture Café,
idea for this yearly event is they most certainly can get
to actually stretch this out in contact with the café,”
for two days, but Bislip ex- Bislip assured.
pressed that they have yet
to acquire enough funding UNESCO officially estab-
to make this happen. lish International Jazz Day
He expressed that Jazz is back in 2011, with the
the internal language that goal to promote a musical
connects different com- movement with a high ed-
munities with each other. ucational value as well as
For this reason, UNESCO being a valuable resource
declared Aril 30th to be that contributes to cul-
International Jazz Day: tural exchange, dialogue
“UNESCO realized that and cooperation between
Jazz, in particular, is one of people worldwide.
the few musical genres that Jazz is a musical genre that
really connects people. includes African-Ameri-
This is why I invite the Aru- can melody and a mix of
ban public and our visitors other rhythms, based on
to attend this once-a-year improvisation and free
event, where you will get to interpretation.q
