A windy Wednesday night in downtown’s CityScape would not usually attract so many people. But tonight, not even the wind could stop a crowd full of jazz lovers from celebrating the International Jazz Day along with the rest of the world.
The second annual International Jazz Day brought the greater Phoenix area’s jazz lovers together to celebrate jazz through a local festival, “Real Jazz.” Musician William “Doc” Jones put the event together. He is also the founder and director of the Next Student Academy of the Arts, the nonprofit program that the International Jazz Day event benefits.
Smooth jazz music played by respected musicians such as Carlos Rivas and Azar Lawrence reverberated through CityScape from 4-9 p.m. on Wednesday. The smells of tobacco and food filled the air with the sounds of funky percussions, saxophone and a chattering audience.
Next Student Academy of the Arts and Jones aim to inspire kids and show them the beauty of music, said Tracy Hannah, a “Real Jazz” coordinator who works with Next Student Academy of the Arts. The nonprofit sees music not only as a tool to teach kids the discipline of playing an instrument but also as a way to help them get to college by keeping them out of trouble and off the streets.
“With music in their mind, there is no time for crime,” which is the motto of the Next Student Academy of the Arts, was plastered on big banners around CityScape. Events such as Wednesday’s help raise money and awareness of the program in hopes that one day they can soon build a school. While the event was free, attendees could donate money to the nonprofit.
This is Hannah’s first time helping Jones with the festival, but she said now she wants to be involved with the event every year.
“It’s an incredible school that he has been working on for 10 years now,” she said. “The nonprofit sector went bad when the economy went bad in 2008, but now we’re back on track and back on our goals.”
The event attracted people of all ages and different backgrounds, coming together to groove to the same music.
“Jazz is music with diversity and there’s no color,” said Herbert Perry, who attended “Real Jazz.” “Everybody can come in and express themselves, that’s what I love about it.”
Perry is a Kansas City native but has been living in Phoenix since 1974. An avid attendee of music events held at CityScape, he said the International Jazz Day is his favorite one. Perry said he attended the previous event and does not plan on missing any future ones.
Alex Michel is part of the El Caribe percussion group that performed Wednesday night. Even though he’s a Dominican Republic native, Michel said he loves the jazz culture in Phoenix and the growing diverse audience.
“The jazz scene is building up and there’s more and more people coming,” Michel said. “It’s very ethnical now and we have a lot of diversity mixed into it also, which is great, because that is what jazz is all about.”
Hannah said Jones plans to have at least five events a year. Jones is planning a summer event that will help musicians be more aware of their health and wellness, she said. He also wants to do a Christmas event and showcase the jazz culture of Phoenix during the Superbowl in February, Hannah added.
Through these events, Hannah said, she wants people to remember that it’s about the kids and music, the importance of music to our culture and how crucial it is for our generation to keep the music alive. Michel agreed with the sentiment.
“I think it’s important for kids to learn instruments. It’s important that we do not lose these instruments — these are acoustic instruments and it’s easy for it to be computerized,” Michel said. “So what are musicians gonna do? It should be kept up.”
Contact the reporter at Nainapryanka.Tugung@asu.edu.
