On April 27, UNESCO Paris will open its doors to the public for the first time to mark the launch of the first ever International Jazz Day. The Montreux Jazz Festival is to welcome visitors to its Montreux Jazz Lounge.

It is with honour and enthusiasm that the Montreux Jazz Festival is to participate in the launch of “International Jazz Day”, announced during UNESCO’s most recent General Conference. During the event, a Montreux Jazz Lounge reflecting the image of the Festival is to be especially set up in the Salle des Pas Perdus at UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris. As well as providing a user-friendly space, the lounge will also feature an exhibition of photographs retracing its history. As for other exhibits, themed audiovisual projections taken from the Montreux archives will allow 4,500 visitors to become familiar with the diversity of the Montreux Jazz Festival’s projects. Also featured as part of the Lounge’s official activities is the showing of Nina Simone’s 1976 concert at the Festival, a video archive that will be specially presented by Claude Nobs.

This yearly event aims to highlight the virtues of jazz as a force for freedom of expression, of coming together and of dialogue within the international community. UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova and good will ambassador Herbie Hancock will kick off this first day on April 27 with a series of events including shows, master classes, concerts, as well as debates featuring Marcus Miller, Barbara Hendricks, Hugh Masekela, or even Dee Dee Bridgewater to name but a few.

In conjunction with this event, the Montreux Jazz Festival has made a request to UNESCO to have its archives added to the organization’s “Memory of the World”, which aims to protect the world’s intangible heritage. This project is part of the Festival’s endeavour to digitise and preserve its archives with the help of Lausanne’s National Institute of Technology (EPFL).