For its 20th anniversary, the annual JazzReggae Festival is
going back to its Bruin roots.
Sponsored by the Cultural Affairs Commission, the two-day
concert takes place Sunday and Monday. For the past 20 years, the
festival has united tens of thousands of students, community
members and music enthusiasts with its synthesis of great food,
international vendors, ideal Los Angeles weather and prominent jazz
and reggae artists. However, this year the lineup may look more
familiar than usual.
“We felt that our festival should go back to the roots of
when this festival began,” said Todd Hawkins, executive
producer of the JazzReggae Festival. “We wanted to reach
within the university and within the students, because this show
was originally created as a jazz festival and it was not only to
bring great music to the Los Angeles community, but also to
showcase the talent of the students and faculty that create the
community of culture and music here at the university.”
For Reggae Day, Monday, the commission has assembled a wide
variety of international reggae artists ““ including natives
of Kingston, Jamaica such as modern reggae-dancehall queen Tami
Chynn and legendary DJ Buju Banton. Also performing will be
Hawaiian R&B-reggae singer Irie Love and local Los Angeles club
artists Reggae DJ Fyness and MC Lightfoot.
Despite the diverse international focus for Reggae Day, much of
the emphasis for Jazz Day takes root in the university community,
with performances by musicians including Kenny Burrell, the
director of the Jazz Studies program and the founder of the Jazz
Heritage Foundation at UCLA. Graduate and undergraduate students in
the UCLA Jazz Studies program will also be performing.
Although Jazz Day also includes nationally acclaimed artists
such as Dianne Reeves and soul duo Floetry, the emphasis is clearly
on UCLA.
“(The) JazzReggae (Festival) has always been a place where
people from our community gather to chill out and listen to some
great music from around the world, but this year we also wanted to
show people great music from people and professors in our own
community” says Osa Omoruyi, a second-year student and
committee member for the festival. “I’m glad to see
that we are bringing light to the talents of the students and
professors in our jazz program.”
Professor Gerald Wilson, who is a three-time performer at the
festival’s Jazz Day, will return this year with the Gerald
Wilson Orchestra. At the VIP reception on Saturday night, Wilson
will be honored with the second annual lifetime achievement award
presented by the Cultural Affairs Commission. Last year, Burrell
became the first recipient of the award.
The Cultural Affairs Commission initiated the award as a means
of honoring a nominated performer’s commitment not only to
jazz and music as a whole, but also to musical education and the
greater community.
“To go back to the beginning of this festival, when it was
largely run by faculty and people in the jazz department, we
started getting some of the faculty involved again, particularly by
highlighting and honoring one of them. It’s about time that
we honor these individuals, these treasures, that rarely get enough
praise,” Hawkins said. “This year, we chose (Wilson)
and it was absolutely amazing because (many of us) did not quite
know of all of his wonderful contributions to the university that
he has yet to be publicly and formally acknowledged for.”
At 87 years old, Wilson has been teaching in the Ethnomusicology
Department at UCLA since its inception. He is celebrated for
bringing an infectious zest and a genuine love of music to all of
his students, never allowing his work with prominent artists such
as Duke Ellington, Ray Charles, Bobby Darin and Ella Fitzgerald to
affect the humble manner in which he teaches his classes.
“He has not allowed his being a legend in the industry to
faze his contribution to the university,” Hawkins said.
“Everything that he does aligns right along with our mission
this year to bring culture, music and art to the city and to the
university. He is an individual who has made countless
contributions to the arts and entertainment industry, but he takes
what he has learned and contributes that right back to the UCLA
community.”
Despite his age, Wilson continues to energetically tour the
nation with The Gerald Wilson Orchestra, a 19-piece orchestra, and
continues his dedication to spreading jazz music in the greater Los
Angeles community by playing events such as the JazzReggae
Festival.
“I’ve been a citizen of Los Angeles for over 60
years, and I’ve been teaching at this school for 16 wonderful
years so I’m just about as involved in the community as I can
be,” Wilson said. “I play music all over the city here,
and I think being in this festival is just wonderful because
it’s all about communities and families enjoying music, and
these are the things that are so valuable to me.”