International Exchanges
December '11 - Cuba Nola Tour to Cuba
Video and Photos by Jason Patterson
August '11 - Guardians of the Flame & Mark Braud and the Jazz Giants travel to France for Musique de la Nouvelle Orléans à Périgueux Festival in Bordeaux!
Guardians of the Flame night concert at MNOP
Festival in Bordeaux, France
From Cherice Harrison Nelson, Queen of Guardians of the Flame and NOJC Board Member:
“It was a great honor and wonderful opportunity to perform and inform about New Orleans Mardi Gras Indian and second-line traditions at the MNOP festival in Bordeaux. We felt the audiences were very attentive, curious and interested in our work. Our traditions are very unique and so we had many discussions with our students in the residency workshops and with the general public at the festival. We also met the Consul for the U.S. in Bordeaux who had seen our performance in Abu Dabi in 2006 and enjoyed conversation with him and his wife. There were festival organizers and booking agents from various regions of France and Spain in attendance, and though we are not aware of any invitations at this time, we’re hopeful to have engagements in the near future as a result of our appearance.
Our aim is to give as much as possible to our audiences and to our students - working with children anywhere in the world is one of our most important passions and duties. After the workshops the students came on stage at the festival for a 10 minute show of what they learned from our musicians. They were dressed in costumes created before and during our visit and did an excellent job! They were then able to stay to see and enjoy our show since it was the first of the evening.
On Saturday morning, our group led the second line parade through the streets and markets of Perigueux. We were accompanied by many jazz musicians from New Orleans, Spain and France. It was a wonderful experience to interact with the local population in such a direct and up-close way.”
Travel partial funded by a grant from the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation
The language of music is universal. When artists from diverse cultures are able to communicate musically, cultural and liguistic barriers to understanding fall away. Music is a salve that can be applied to sooth strains in international cooperation and communication. In line with our mission, New Orleans Jazz Celebration strives to make International Musical Exchanges possible and to bring an understanding of Jazz to the world!
New Orleans Jazz Celebration works to both bring international artists to perform in New Orleans and to bring New Orleans artists to perform internationally. We often partner with other organizations to make international cultural and musical exchanges possible, or to simply bring a taste of New Orleans musical history to jazz enthusiasts far far away.
International Exchanges allow New Orleans artists cultural and educational collaboration with international artists. The language of music is universal. Cultivating creative artistic exchange enhances the collective musical fabric and improves international goodwill as musicians, that may not speak the same language, are able to communicate through music.
NOJC has traveled to locations as diverse as Cape Town, South Africa, bringing the Satchmo exhibit to the
Cape Town International Jazz Festival
and Shanghi, China with the Original Royal Players Brass Band and Donald Harrison's Congo Nation.
In conjunction with the French Consulate of New Orleans, NOJC has traveled to Nantes, France with the Guardians of the Flame and the New Orleans Nightcrawlers for festival
Most recently New Orleans Jazz Celebration traveled to Essaouira, Morrocco, again with Donald Harrison's Congo Nation, for the
