Facilitator of the Programme, Ms Khanyi Magubane
Fellow Panellists, the Responded Mr Koos Radebe
The organisers of The Standard Bank Joy of Jazz
Artists, Musicians and Jazz Lovers
The business sector
Our Friends from the media
Ladies and gentlemen
Thank you for inviting us to speak at this important colloquium themed; “Living Heritage and breathing into it”
We are pleased that the Joy of Jazz has been taking place in the month in which we are celebrating women’s month and as part of celebrating women the line-up continues to ensure that more women perform.
The colloquium takes place after we held a successful Inaugural Nelson Mandela Sports and Culture Day.
The aim of this day is to honour and celebrate the legacy of Tata Madiba and continue to work towards building a socially inclusive South African society, hence the main theme is UNITE!
Ladies and gentlemen, this colloquium indeed confirms that, it is that time of the year when Jazz lovers gather to enjoy the serenity of the beautiful music genre Jazz in Newton Johannesburg.
This genre of music has evolved over time and has contributed immensely to the development of other music genres.
In recent times we have outside of bebop we have since many new and upcoming musicians fusing it with their music.
We therefore have a responsibility to preserve and promote this type of music. This includes archiving the music and possible increasing investment in the development of this important music genre, Jazz.
One of the most interesting phenomena of Jazz is what many Jazz lovers call, the development of the ear.
This is an indication that time and indeed quality time is required in order for one to understand this type of music.
While this is true because of this very important phenomena we need to ensure that we teach as many people as possible about this genre of music, equally because it does provide the basic understand and appreciation of music in general and the development.
As we said before, this music genre has evolved over time. In South Africa alone we have seen many jazz musicians who have contributed towards the development and preservation of Jazz.
We have a a responsibility to ensure that we preserve and promote Jazz including honouring the heroes and heroines who have made us appreciate Jazz. We are pleased that despite the technological changes brought by both globalisation and the knowledge economy, the culture of appreciating jazz remains and in fact it is growing.
As government we will continue to invest in the preservation and the archiving of the work done by those who came before us and contributed towards the development of Jazz.
We must preserve our heritage because it is through culture that we can find one another and begin to appreciate each other’s strengths.
This is important because culture is critical towards the development of society. in fact at the recently held United Nations General Assembly debate on Culture and Development, there was consensus that culture post the 2015 Millennium Development Goals should be considered the fourth pillar of development.
Therefore music as a cultural artistic expression and indeed especially Jazz must be seen as a contributor in the development of society.
In fact we see the entire sector as the new gold, hence our new strategy Mzansi Golden Economy.
In realising this sector strategy we have committed to up scaling the events including the Joy Jazz and many others so that we can create much needed opportunities for Artists across the board.
In conclusion, we are confident that going forward this sector will grow and continue to contribute to the GDP and create work opportunities for Artists in a more sustainable way.
Thank you
