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Durham Jazz Renaissance Foundation Celebrates International Jazz Day

@SpectacularMag

Durham, NC – The regular and forceful rhythms of the jazz diaspora…the uplifting improvisations…the dynamic syncopations. All were awesomely represented on Saturday, April 28, 2018, as the Durham Jazz Renaissance Foundation (“DJRF”) celebrated International Jazz Day with a free-to-the-public live music jam session performed by a 7-piece jazz ensemble and vocalist at the Millennium Hotel in Durham.

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Durham Jazz Renaissance Foundation
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DJRF’s mission is to revive the “art of jazz” by fostering understanding and appreciation of jazz through visual, auditory and performing artworks. (submitted)

No matter where you were in the Millennium Hotel that day, you could not resist being drawn to the hotel lounge to witness the sounds of piano, saxophone, drums, trombone, guitar, congas, bongos, percussions and vocals that were being played masterfully. It reminded all of us of the music genre of black American origin for, among other styles, swing, bebop, free jazz, traditional jazz and Latin jazz.

DJRF is a renaissance non-profit organization headquartered in Durham and its mission is to revive the “art of jazz” by fostering understanding and appreciation of jazz through visual, auditory and performing artworks, music, education programs and clinics, and entertainment. DJRF preserves jazz arts through, among other projects and activities, jazz education programs especially adapted to meet the distinctive needs for youth and young adults.

As DJRF Executive Director William McLaughlin explains, “The arts have been disappearing from schools throughout the nation and DJRF understands clearly that jazz empowers the human condition, enlightens the human spirit, and enriches the global community. Our DJRF jazz clinics and scholarship programs for youth and young adults provide empowerment, enrichment and enlightenment.”

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William McLaughlin (l) and Beverly McLaughlin

In 2011 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (“UNESCO”) declared International Jazz Day to highlight jazz for uniting people in all corners of the globe.

Dr. Charles Robinson, Chair for the DJRF Board of Directors, pledges that, “Our strategic goal at DJRF is to be at the forefront of developments for spearheading efforts for North Carolina to host Jazz Day for the international community, just as Havana, Cuba hosted it in 2017 and St. Petersburg, Russia will host it in 2018.” 

For more information on DJRF, contact William McLaughlin, Executive Director, at 252-908-7243 or william.mclaughlin@djrfo.org;  or Beverly McLaughlin, Executive Secretary, at 919-493-5129 or beverly.mclaughlin@djrfo.org.

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