Jazz Goes Global in Sao Paulo

Sao Paulo | July 5, 2011

PAO TJ Dowling, opening remarks at the 21st meeting of the International Association of Schools of Jazz

Souza Lima director Antonio Mario da Cunha, DCM Todd Chapman, musician Dave Liebman, PAO TJ Dowling and Cultural Affairs Specialist Maria E. Correa

Jazz great Dave Liebman joined Brazilian artists Guinga and Marcelo Coelho in a pre-workshop concert July 2 that truly set the tone for the weeklong workshop of the International Association of Schools of Jazz being hosted for the first time in Brazil by the Souza Lima Conservatory.  The huge response for the program of Brazilian jazz from the 600 aficiandos in attendance, including newly-arrived DCM Todd Chapman, set the stage for the workshops and clinics offered by dozens of international artists and teachers from more than 30 schools in 19 countries. 

PAO TJ Dowling joined Dave Liebman, artistic coordinator for IASJ and Souza Lima director Antonio Mario da Cunha to officially welcome the artists and students to the program for  which the Consulate had sponsored the participation of Liebman.  The program celebrates the true internationalization of Jazz, one of America's most recognizable and enduring artistic gifts to the world.  While the number of schools and countries represented as well as the mix of dozens of Brazilian and other students of the music shows just how far the gospel of Jazz has spread around the world, the variations - and Jazz is all about variation - have been subject to cultural interpretation, assimilation and incorporation that have added immeasurably to the original legacy.