The annual UNESCO International Jazz Day will be celebrated here in Urbana-Champaign from 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday, April 16, with three local trumpet artists showing how they’ve fallen in love with the instrument and its jazz repertoire.
Tito Carrillo, Saori Kataoka, and Jeff Helgesen, each accompanied by a rhythm section, will perform songs by one of their first “jazz crushes” and talk about how those influenced their lifelong love of the American art form. The performance/discussion, Jazz Trumpet Legacies: In the Footsteps of Louis, Miles and Wynton*, will be from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at the Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., U. After that, the musicians will meet at the Rose Bowl Tavern, 106 N. Race St., U, for an afterglow performance from 4:30 to 6 p.m.
Accompanying the featured players will be David McEathron, piano, Eli Naragon, bass, and Maxwell Osama, drums.
The event sponsors include the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music, the UNESCO Center for Global Citizenship, the Spurlock Museum of World Cultures, The Conservatory of Central Illinois, The Rose Bowl Tavern, and the U of I School of Music jazz program. The Conservatory of Central Illinois and the Spurlock Museum acknowledge support from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.
Both events are free and open to the public. For more information, email Scott Schwartz at the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music at schwrtzs@illinois.edu or call 217-333-4577.
International Jazz Day falls on April 30 of each year. In 2011, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) officially designated that date to highlight jazz – called America’s classical music – and its diplomatic role of uniting people worldwide.
*These are the first names of legendary jazz trumpet players Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, and Wynton Marsalis.