The city, bordered by the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, was designated host city for International Jazz Day by UNESCO.
Over the last century, iconic figures such as Randy Weston, Idrees Sulieman and Max Roach crossed the Atlantic to discover Tangier, which has become an essential location for great American jazz musicians.
This heritage will be celebrated during International Jazz Day in the northern metropolis of Morocco.
Philippe Lorin, founder of a jazz festival in the port city, underlines the power of attraction of Tangier on intellectuals and musicians, even evoking the image of a liner leaving for the city from New York.
This year, Tangier, bordered by the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, has been designated host city for International Jazz Day by UNESCO.
Open-air lectures and performances, leading up to a major global concert with artists including Herbie Hancock, Marcus Miller, Richard Bona and Romero Lubambo, will take place from Saturday.
Tangier’s cosmopolitanism draws its roots from its past as a former international zone, which has nourished its influence thanks to the passage of African-American writers, poets and jazzmen.
Key moments in this history include the presence of musicians like Randy Weston, who stayed in Tangier for five years after a tour of Africa organized by the US State Department, and the recording of a legendary music session in 1959 at the studio of Radio Tanger International.
The collaboration between Weston and Abdellah El Gourd pushed the boundaries of creation, merging jazz and gnaoua sounds.
This collaboration resulted in iconic albums and inspired the creation of the Tanjazz festival by Philippe Lorin.
With AFP
