Jazz radio to play key role in JazzApril campaign

Jazz broadcasters will have a key role in JazzApril, a campaign to put jazz in the media spotlight during the month of April.

ja-ijd-jamLGThe Smithsonian National Museum of American History has designated April as Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM). The month will end on April 30 with  International Jazz Day celebrations around the world, including a live webcast from Istanbul, Turkey, featuring keyboardist Herbie Hancock and long list of other jazz luminaries and produced by UNESCO in partnership with the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz.

The JazzApril campaign, a project of the Jazz Journalists Association, aims to provide media support for both JAM and Jazz Day by informally “networking” existing media outlets and calling on them to tell their audiences about the national and international celebrations as well as the many local jazz events that have been planned for April.

“Jazz radio stations and programmers often have a closer relationship with jazz listeners than any other form of media,” said JJA President Howard Mandel, “and they often are the best source of information about jazz events in their communities. So the JJA wants to specially invite broadcasters to join our ‘JazzApril Media Network.’ We think they can help us, and we can help them, reach out to potential new jazz listeners. Together we can amplify the message that jazz is for everyone, everywhere.” More information about JazzApril and the JazzApril Media Network can be found at JazzApril.com.

There’s also a special page for broadcasters at the JazzApril site http://www.jazzapril.com/p/broadcasters.html

In another aspect of the JazzApril campaign, the Jazz Journalists Association is also working with local jazz organizations to name “Jazz Heroes” in some two dozen cities and regions around the U.S.  These Jazz Heroes — “activists, advocates, altruists, aiders and abettors of jazz who have had significant impact in their local communities”—will be announced on April 1 and honored at local celebrations.  A number of the Jazz Heroes are expected to be, as in past years, jazz programmers who have, says Mandel, “helped keep local jazz alive and thriving.”