Jazz and Regional Integration
After recently writing about how culture — and music in particular — was being used to promote regional integration in the South Caucasus, I today received news that a jazz performance will be staged to tomorrow with the same intended objective. It’s no surprise to learn that the Open Society Institute is sponsoring the event and to realize that it comes less than two weeks since OSI sponsored the Rock Without Borders concert in Yerevan.
However, while only groups from Armenia and Georgia took part in that concert, what might make this jazz performance different is the fact that the flyer I have appears to imply that musicians from each of the three South Caucasus Republics including Azerbaijan as well as the disputed territories of Nagorno Karabakh, Abkhazia and South Ossetia will be playing. I’ll be going along to take some pics tomorrow, and will post something later in the day.
Well, I went to this event at the Conservatory and was told that maybe some Azerbaijani musicians were invited, but didn’t attend. Can’t confirm this as I didn’t stay around when it turned out to be more big band jazz than small groups doing something which I personally find a little more interesting.
Comment by Onnik — February 1, 2006 @ 5:30 pm