Jazzanooga, kicked off April as Jazz Appreciation month on Sunday in Coolidge Park with a free, family-friendly event which featured Sweet Georgia Sound. A full listing of 2016 Jazzanooga Music Festival events hosted this month can be found on their website, jazzanooga.org, and all proceeds from festival events go to support Jazzanooga’s year-round programming for the community.
Created in 2011 as a citywide celebration of jazz, Jazzanooga is now a cultural arts and education nonprofit that offers year-round programming and a month-long celebration during April in honor of Jazz Appreciation Month. Festival events include large shows, intimate performances, food events, educational activities and more. The final week in April brings national and international jazz headline acts to perform in Chattanooga, and 2016’s lineup features multiple Grammy award winners Aturo O’Farrill and the Afro-Latin Jazz Octet and the Christian McBride Trio.
"In our fifth year, we wanted to make sure that we had artists at the top of their game, masters of their craft," said Shane Morrow, co-founder of Jazzanooga. "The musicianship this year is going to be amazing and there is truly something for everyone. Those attending won’t just enjoy themselves, but will also feel good about supporting an organization that continues to preserve arts and culture in our community."
Some highlights of the festival are performances by former students of the Jazzanooga Youth Music Academy, one of the programs that the festival supports. Other initiatives supported by the Jazzanooga Music Festival include The UrbanArts Youth Collective, JAZZ: The Next Generation Project, Animate MLK/Live on the Big Nine, the Jazzanooga Experience radio show, and the Jazzanooga community Arts SPACE on MLK Blvd.
The UrbanArts Youth Collective Project is a summer arts education program for youth that exposes participants to spoken word and storytelling, DJ skills, urban dance, and instrumental and vocal instruction. Founded in 2014, Animate MLK/Live on the Big Nine’s goal is to engage performance artists, musicians, businesses and residents of the neighborhood to promote the Boulevard as a cultural, artistic and historic destination for both locals and visitors. The Jazzanooga Experience radio show airs every Sunday at 7 p.m. on WMPZ Groove 93.5 and is one of Chattanooga’s only locally produced jazz, blues and world music shows. Jazzanoogas Arts SPACE opened in December 2015 and seeks to be known as a community space that offers an array of educational, arts and cultural events.
For more information about festival events or community programming, please visit www.jazzanooga.org, like Jazzanooga on Facebook, or follow Jazzanooga on twitter.