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Arun Dias Bandaranaike[/caption]
Today marks International Jazz Day, officially designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in November 2011 in order to highlight jazz and its diplomatic role of uniting people across all corners of the globe.
International Jazz Day is the culmination of Jazz Appreciation Month, which draws public attention to jazz and its heritage throughout the month of April. In December 2012, the UN General Assembly formally welcomed the decision by the UNESCO General Conference to proclaim 30 April as International Jazz Day and the UN and UNESCO now both recognise International Jazz Day on their official calendars.
Speaking with veteran jazz pianist and award-winning composer Harsha Makalande, he shared that Sri Lanka held its very first International Jazz Day in 2016, which was organised by himself via Jazz Unlimited (a non-profit organisation jazz collective), held at the Lionel Wendt “emphasising the expression of freedom through the idiom of jazz”. It featured over 30 performers playing music together and demonstrating experiences of more than 60 years. It marked jazz and its impact on cultural and artistic expression celebrations with artistic, intellectual, and educational activities while also giving the floor to recognised local artists and intellectuals.
While conducted in a different country every year, in 2020, due to concerns about the spread of the coronavirus, the International Jazz Day 2020 Global Host Celebration in Cape Town and other cities across South Africa, including the All-Star Global Concert on 30 April, did not take place as scheduled. In its place, UNESCO and the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz presented a fully virtual celebration of International Jazz Day, with free online education programmes and a star-studded Virtual Global Concert dedicated to frontline medical workers and first responders.
This year, the 10th Edition International Jazz Day is being celebrated, largely on virtual spaces, all over Africa under the theme of “Arts, culture, and heritage: A lever for building the Africa we want”.
Renowned radio and TV presenter, writer, and emcee Arun Dias Bandaranaike, an ardent fan of jazz and a jazz musician himself, playing the saxophone and double bass, shared his thoughts on celebrating International Jazz Day in Sri Lanka and the history of jazz in the island and where it’s at in the present day.
“Musicians in Lanka who have a manifest interest in the realm of improvised music called ‘jazz’, have for some years, endeavoured to be part and parcel of a worldwide ‘sweep’ across territories, under the banner of ‘International Jazz Day’,” said Bandaranaike, adding that: “Harsha Makalande was who initiated a response to the efforts made by the now iconic American pianist Herbie Hancock to pay homage to this vital musical genre, which curiously has permeated widely into the world of musical entertainment, and yet, paradoxically, has only a minority that really have embraced the brilliance, excellence in instrumental performance, and the intellectual range and scope in spontaneous creativity in an inspired moment of time and space.”
He went on to further share that: “Rock and pop music have the ascendancy in the public reckoning, while jazz has been relegated to being an art music that is in the ‘other’ realm. From the 1950s at least, Ceylon had very competent and credible instrumental players and singers too, who clearly had mastery in the genre, were readers of music, knew their theory and structures in music, and were able to deliver both quality and the important emotional authenticity as would match with any of the world's well known exponents. My hope is that a contemporary generation will as seriously recognise the value, essence, and the sheer delight of truly inspired improvised music. There's so much to learn! And even more to listen!”
Unscripted jazz drummer Charith Fernando also shared his thoughts on celebrating International Jazz Day and the status of jazz music in Sri Lanka. He stated: “As we all know, jazz music is not the genre of music that most people listen to around the world. It's the same here too. The real jazz lovers are rare and it's mostly associated with the generations before us. However, it's not to say that musicians in our generation are not inspired by jazz. If you take our music, for instance, you could see some elements of jazz. May it be a vocal melody, a guitar chord, the sizzling ride cymbal, or a running baseline. I'm sure we've picked it up from a jazz record or an artist that is heavily influenced by jazz. Ask a few bands and artists actively creating their own original music here, I'm sure they'll also have something they owe to jazz music. Apart from that, we improvise a lot when we play live and I think that's the most 'jazz' we get. After all, jazz music is about improvisation and you could say we love to keep the structure of the song open and play it by ear,” he said, adding: “We believe if Sri Lankans start listening to more jazz music from an early stage, they will appreciate it more. It's really an interesting sound and with the various forms of jazz music, there's something for everyone.”
Arun Dias Bandaranaike[/caption]
Today marks International Jazz Day, officially designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in November 2011 in order to highlight jazz and its diplomatic role of uniting people across all corners of the globe.
International Jazz Day is the culmination of Jazz Appreciation Month, which draws public attention to jazz and its heritage throughout the month of April. In December 2012, the UN General Assembly formally welcomed the decision by the UNESCO General Conference to proclaim 30 April as International Jazz Day and the UN and UNESCO now both recognise International Jazz Day on their official calendars.
Speaking with veteran jazz pianist and award-winning composer Harsha Makalande, he shared that Sri Lanka held its very first International Jazz Day in 2016, which was organised by himself via Jazz Unlimited (a non-profit organisation jazz collective), held at the Lionel Wendt “emphasising the expression of freedom through the idiom of jazz”. It featured over 30 performers playing music together and demonstrating experiences of more than 60 years. It marked jazz and its impact on cultural and artistic expression celebrations with artistic, intellectual, and educational activities while also giving the floor to recognised local artists and intellectuals.
While conducted in a different country every year, in 2020, due to concerns about the spread of the coronavirus, the International Jazz Day 2020 Global Host Celebration in Cape Town and other cities across South Africa, including the All-Star Global Concert on 30 April, did not take place as scheduled. In its place, UNESCO and the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz presented a fully virtual celebration of International Jazz Day, with free online education programmes and a star-studded Virtual Global Concert dedicated to frontline medical workers and first responders.
This year, the 10th Edition International Jazz Day is being celebrated, largely on virtual spaces, all over Africa under the theme of “Arts, culture, and heritage: A lever for building the Africa we want”.
Renowned radio and TV presenter, writer, and emcee Arun Dias Bandaranaike, an ardent fan of jazz and a jazz musician himself, playing the saxophone and double bass, shared his thoughts on celebrating International Jazz Day in Sri Lanka and the history of jazz in the island and where it’s at in the present day.
“Musicians in Lanka who have a manifest interest in the realm of improvised music called ‘jazz’, have for some years, endeavoured to be part and parcel of a worldwide ‘sweep’ across territories, under the banner of ‘International Jazz Day’,” said Bandaranaike, adding that: “Harsha Makalande was who initiated a response to the efforts made by the now iconic American pianist Herbie Hancock to pay homage to this vital musical genre, which curiously has permeated widely into the world of musical entertainment, and yet, paradoxically, has only a minority that really have embraced the brilliance, excellence in instrumental performance, and the intellectual range and scope in spontaneous creativity in an inspired moment of time and space.”
He went on to further share that: “Rock and pop music have the ascendancy in the public reckoning, while jazz has been relegated to being an art music that is in the ‘other’ realm. From the 1950s at least, Ceylon had very competent and credible instrumental players and singers too, who clearly had mastery in the genre, were readers of music, knew their theory and structures in music, and were able to deliver both quality and the important emotional authenticity as would match with any of the world's well known exponents. My hope is that a contemporary generation will as seriously recognise the value, essence, and the sheer delight of truly inspired improvised music. There's so much to learn! And even more to listen!”
Unscripted jazz drummer Charith Fernando also shared his thoughts on celebrating International Jazz Day and the status of jazz music in Sri Lanka. He stated: “As we all know, jazz music is not the genre of music that most people listen to around the world. It's the same here too. The real jazz lovers are rare and it's mostly associated with the generations before us. However, it's not to say that musicians in our generation are not inspired by jazz. If you take our music, for instance, you could see some elements of jazz. May it be a vocal melody, a guitar chord, the sizzling ride cymbal, or a running baseline. I'm sure we've picked it up from a jazz record or an artist that is heavily influenced by jazz. Ask a few bands and artists actively creating their own original music here, I'm sure they'll also have something they owe to jazz music. Apart from that, we improvise a lot when we play live and I think that's the most 'jazz' we get. After all, jazz music is about improvisation and you could say we love to keep the structure of the song open and play it by ear,” he said, adding: “We believe if Sri Lankans start listening to more jazz music from an early stage, they will appreciate it more. It's really an interesting sound and with the various forms of jazz music, there's something for everyone.”