Jazz News: Dianne Reeves and Herbie Hancock in New Dehli; New Orleans Jazz Fest lineup

NEA Jazz Master and Denver resident Dianne Reeves spent Martin Luther King, Jr. week in New Dehli and Mumbai, India at the behest of the U.S. State Department.

Last weekend, the Global Music Diplomacy Initiative featured Reeves and Herbie Hancock in performances and workshops with music students.

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the venue was The Piano Man Jazz Club in New Delhi, where accompanists included guitarist Leonard Brown, the Hancock Institute of Jazz at UCLA Ensemble as well as U.S. Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti, who is a concert pianist.

Such tours were central to America’s quest for hearts and minds during the Cold War of the 50’s, when Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and Woody Herman traveled the world to show another side of the US.

It is widely known that Dr. King was greatly influenced toward non-violent protest by Mahatma Ghandi’s movement in India.

(SOURCE: State.gov/jazz-greats-herbie-hancock-and-dianne-reeves-travel-to-india/)
Pictures: Courtesy of Facebook/Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz

The music lineup for the annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival has been announced for two weekends in late April – early May. The show has long since been given over to the top names in rock and pop, surrounded by fantastic smaller stages and real New Orleans music styles.

Yes, headliners The Rolling Stones have a genuine respect for the blues, and who knows what guests they might have with them. Chris Stapleton, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Anderson .Paak and Queen Latifah are on the big stage. On the other stages, Big Chief Donald Harrison Jr., members of The Meters, Kingfish Ingram, Rockin’ Dopsie and the Zydeco Twisters, John Boutte, The Anointed Jackson Sisters, as well as Jon Batiste, Cha Wa and Big Freedia, and so many more. One of these days… (Source: New Orleans Jazz Fest)

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