Female vocalist Eni Kumar. [Photo: FILE]

Five of Fiji’s biggest contemporary music artists will participate in a 24-hour radio marathon to mark World Jazz Day on Thursday, April 30, at the University of Fiji.

Powerhouse female vocalists Eni Kumar and Laisa Vulakoro, crooner Ken Janson, the inimitable Sailasa Tora and jazz guitar extraordinaire Tom Mawi will participate in the event by discussing their careers and the importance of jazz music on the university’s campus radio station, Vox Populi.

International Jazz Day was designated by UNESCO in 2011 to recognise jazz as a force for peace, intercultural dialogue and cooperation among people across the world. On 30th April every year, jazz musicians celebrate jazz’s role in promoting mutual understanding, diversity, respect for human rights, and freedom of expression.

University of Fiji Vice-Chancellor Professor Shaista Shameem will host the 24-hour marathon event with the university’s Music Director Sailasa Tora and Vox Station Manager Lawrence Singh, both established artists and music producers in their own right.

“Jazz music arose on the slave plantations, emerging from the musical traditions of enslaved Africans in the American South, fusing African rhythms, work songs, and spirituals with European harmonic structures.”

Professor Shameem says jazz developed as a means of survival and expression under oppression; these forms evolved into blues and ragtime, ultimately merging in New Orleans to create jazz.

She says jazz is more than music, it is about protest in a way that kept the scrutiny of rebellion under cover, at the same time sending the stark message of painful experiences, but also hope and a renaissance.”

Professor Shameem adds that UNESCO’s International Jazz Day highlights the strong link between jazz’s message and education.

The University felt that this link should encourage all educational institutions in Fiji to use jazz music as a vehicle for positive change in the national interest.