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A Celebration of Jazz, April 2007
A Celebration of Jazz Photo Gallery, April 2007: Legal adviser Michael Peay, Pianist Dado Moroni, U.S. Ambassador to UNESCO Louise V. Oliver, Saxophonist Jesse Davis, and Bassist Pierre Boussaguet, (center) Quartet Leader and Drummer, Alvin Queen
(Click here to enlarge)

The Alvin Queen Quartet at UNESCO Headquarters commemorating Jazz Appreciation Month:
The Alvin Queen Quartet on stage
© Monica Gibson
A Celebration of Jazz Photo Gallery, April 2007: Quartet Leader and Drummer Alvin Queen, Legal adviser Michael Peay, U.S. Ambassador to UNESCO Louise V. Oliver
(Click here to enlarge)

The Alvin Queen Quartet at UNESCO Headquarters commemorating Jazz Appreciation Month:
Quartet Leader and Drummer
Alvin Queen,
Legal adviser Michael Peay,
U.S. Ambassador to UNESCO
Louise V. Oliver
© Paul Brembly
Each April, the United States celebrates Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM), an opportunity to savor a quintessential American contribution to world culture. Initiated by the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, JAM aims to focus public attention on this uniquely American musical art form. It provides a special occasion each year to spotlight jazz’s many talented innovators, composers, musicians and other contributors to the music.

In honor of Jazz Appreciation Month for 2007, the U.S. Mission to UNESCO was proud to host “A Celebration of Jazz”. This year, we offered a concert by the “Alvin Queen Quartet” featuring Jesse Davis on Alto Saxophone, Dado Moroni on Piano, Pierre Boussaguet on Bass and band leader Alvin Queen, one of contemporary jazz’s most highly-respected and sought-after drummers.

Jazz traces its formative roots back to West African musical rhythms and traditions that were transplanted to the U.S. and given new expression by African-Americans, in the form of home-grown American blues and the syncopated rhythms of ‘ragtime’, incorporating the rich embellishments of European musical scales, scoring, and instrumentation. Jazz displayed irrepressible determination to gain broader acceptance and validation in the U.S., and while doing so, won new generations of converts and enthusiasts worldwide, in part by maintaining a democratic openness to foreign musical influences.

In keeping with the true spirit of Jazz music, this evening’s program will consist of two improvised sets, with a brief intermission during which we invite you to join us in raising a glass of champagne, in celebration of Jazz.

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