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Dallas Jazz Appreciation Month is Official

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APRIL IS D'JAM-DALLAS JAZZ APPRECIATION MONTH Area Destinations to Showcase Texas Jazz Legends and Contemporary Artists

Dallas-Fort Worth, TX: It's official. To celebrate the annual Smithsonian National Museum of American History's Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM), the whole month of April has been declared “Dallas Jazz Appreciation Month" (D'JAM), as proclaimed by Dallas Mayor Michael Rawlings as an official designation. Participating entertainment, cultural and educational institutions venues throughout North Texas are hosting a series of more than two dozen exciting live jazz music events from April 1 to April 30.

Music lovers of all ages will be able to hear live jazz performances in some of the most popular night spots and art institutions, like Sammons Center for the Arts, House of Blues, Dallas Museum of Art and Bishop Arts Theatre Center.

Dallas community cultural centers, museums, schools, clubs and other performing arts venues will feature Texas' most notable artists, including the award-winning jazz ensemble trained by Paris Rutherford, Regents Professor Emeritus in Jazz Studies at the University of North Texas. The growing April lineup of D'JAM events is posted at artandseek.org and uptownjazzdallas.com.

It was also announced today, as a dramatic visual kick off to D'JAM, on March 31, organizers will recreate the famous photograph shot by Art Kane in 1958 featuring 57 significant jazz musicians entitled “Harlem 1958." The original photo located at harlem.org pictured jazz greats like Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie and pianist-composer Thelonious Monk. Top jazz musicians from the area are invited to appear in this restaging of the historic portrait, which will be aptly named “A Great Day in Dallas." The image will be produced by photographer Jesse Hornbuckle.

D'JAM's mission is to inspire students, artists, educators and the public, from every generation, to engage in and appreciate jazz all month long as a national cultural tradition. Long time aficionados and newcomers to jazz will be treated to diverse performances including bop, fusion, big band, Dixieland and brisk improvisational sets.

Emphasizing the importance of supporting local area artists, participating Dallas organizations include Booker T. Washington High School for Visual and Performing Arts; Dallas Jazz Piano Society; Dallas Museum of Art-Jazz in the Atrium; KERA-Art & Seek; Sammons Center for the Performing Arts-Sammons Jazz; Sandaga Jazz; SMU, Meadows School of the Arts; South Dallas Cultural Center; Latino Cultural Center; South Side on Lamar-JK Gallery; St. Paul United Methodist Church; TeCo Theater-Bishop Arts Theatre Center Jazz Series; University of North Texas, College of Music; University of Texas Dallas, School of Arts & Humanities; Uptown Jazz Dallas.

About Smithsonian Jazz Appreciation Month

Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM), presented every year in April, is intended to inspire public interest in the glories of American jazz as both an historic and living treasure. JAM is designed to stimulate the current jazz scene and encourage people of all ages to participate in jazzto study the music, attend concerts, listen to the radio and recordings, read books and support institutional programs. The initiative is meant to encourage musicians, concert halls, schools, colleges, museums, libraries, presenters and public broadcasters to offer special programs featuring jazz each April. In August 2003, at the behest of the Smithsonian, the U.S. Congress passed legislation which was signed by the President, Public Law 108-72 declaring: “The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History should be commended for establishing a Jazz Appreciation Month; and musicians, schools, colleges, libraries, concert halls, museums, radio and television stations, and other organizations should develop programs to explore, perpetuate, and honor jazz as a national and world treasure." Initial funding for the establishment of Jazz Appreciation Month was provided to the Smithsonian Museum through a grant from the U.S. Department of Education and supplemented by the National Endowment for the Arts. The first public announcement of the U.S. Jazz Appreciation Month celebration came on July 20, 2001, in a national press conference featuring Quincy Jones.

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