Jazz Marathon 2019

Come “Swing” by! It's a Global Music Party!

While it is a known fact that jazz originated from the United States and boasts a long line of all-time greats as well as classics from its home base, its influence on music circles of the world is also a given. In this age of globalization, the number of jazz musicians and fans has grown by leaps and bounds. And with the ongoing crossover attempts, jazz music has also evolved from its niche status to becoming a genre that is entering the mainstream and the academy．

As a cosmopolitan city, Hong Kong offers the best setting to explore the international jazz scene. To tie in with the International Jazz Day 2019, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department is presenting another edition of the popular Jazz Marathon. There will be non-stop programmes that run for two days, with the purposes of exploring the limits of jazz music, demonstrating the interactions between the mainstream and the niche, and showcasing the unique character as well as brilliant expressions of jazz music from different parts of the world. It will bring together renowned jazz players of all nationalities to jam and create “all that jazz”: bebop, fusion, big band sounds; variants like ethnic jazz, gypsy jazz, tango jazz, flamenco jazz, and more. The overseas artists will join with local musicians to create a borderless soundscape through jazz. They can be fittingly described as “médecins sans frontières” of the heart and the soul with their music.

The Leisure and Cultural Services Department cordially invites all of you to embark on this borderless journey of jazz music at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium on 27th and 28th April. Let us all take part in this global extravaganza that truly knows no boundaries and celebrate “the music that unites us all”.