A lovely FREE concert, under the stars, was just announced, put is on your agenda: Opening Carlos Bislip’s Jazz Appreciation Month 2023, on Sunday, April 30th, with a performance better known as JAM Jazz, highlighting WOMEN IN JAZZ.
The event is FREE of charge, to be held on the square at Culture cafe in San Nicolas. The night will feature entertainment by students of the Caribbean Combo, the Granadillo Quartet, pianist Reno Steba with his quintet, and Carlos Bislip with his quintet.
Five is a lucky number.
Under the auspices of the UN and the Smithsonian Institute, the full month of April became Jazz Awareness month, globally. Jazz is celebrated worldwide for its groundbreaking effect on all music genres. Talented musicians and jazz enthusiasts from around the world come together to celebrate Jazz’s legacy, also in Aruba. While it was born in the 20th century in the USA, influenced by the abstract art movement, it can trace its true roots to New Orleans, from where it spread to the world.
Aruba is not left out. Under the baton of maestro of Carlos Bislip, local musicians, and artists, gather to put on a spectacular show in honor of the distinguished music genre.
JAM Jazz 2023 in St Nicolas promises to be fantastic.
Carlos started the Jazz promotion is 2006, and has consistently, except for the pandemic year, run a successful jazz program. It is the longest running program in Aruba, and it always involves young musicians, in fact many of those appearing for the first time in the Jazz concerts, went on to study music, professionally.
True, more men that women play instruments, especially sax and trumpet, but the Aruba Vocal Jazz Ensemble featured a group of female musicians that took music lessons via zoom every Saturday from a professor in North Carolina, so their ranks are growing. This year’s event is focusing on stimulating and attracting more female musicians.
Carlos explains that the music leans heavily on its African and African-Caribbean history, and because New Orleans was blessed with many Europeans piano players, mostly French, their music became creolized, influenced by the genres played by the ancestors of slaves, giving birth to Jazz, that maintained the color and the rhythm of its origins.
Jazz is a common denominator, Carlo adds, and it was officially recognized in 2011, for the connections it makes around the world bridging cultures and people together. We started in a small room at Cas di Cultura, we hope to fill the square this year.
