Jazz for Humanity
Jazz for Humanity is a collaborative performance and artist development outreach initiative between ATX Artists for Social Impact and the Austin jazz community.
Through this initiative, we bring together the next generation of Austin-based professional jazz musicians and talented student musicians, using the music of America to support local nonprofits that serve Austin’s most vulnerable communities.
Our founding Artist in Residence, the ATX Jazz Orchestra, provides opportunities for jazz musicians from across the Austin jazz community to unite in service of compassionate causes.
Proceeds go toward reinvestment in our outreach initiatives, such as Dance for All, and into donation pools for local nonprofit organizations, such as Casa Marianella, that provide direct aid to our most vulnerable neighbors in the City of Austin.
Programs
The Duke Ellington Nutcracker Suite: A Jazz Ballet Benefit Performance
Recurring community jazz jams and benefit performances that support local causes
Paid commissions opportunities for artists to create new mission-driven jazz works
Outreach programs at nonprofit community events, care centers, and schools
Intended Outcomes
Increased paid commission and performance opportunities for Austin jazz musicians and their artistic collaborators
Increased public awareness of our community partners’ missions and a deeper connection between the Austin Jazz Community and the broader Austin Community
New funding opportunities at the intersection of the performing arts and social impact, such as combined donation pools and expanded grant eligibility.
Background
Jazz for Humanity takes direct inspiration from John Coltrane’s 1966 interview with Frank Kofsky of KPFK Pacifica radio, roughly eight months before the legendary saxophonist’s death. In that interview, Coltrane, known for a level of musicianship only rivaled by his sense of spirituality, famously says:
“I want to be a force for real good. In other words. I know that there are bad forces, forces that bring suffering to others and misery to the world, but I want to be the opposite force. I want to be the force which is truly for good.”
-John Coltrane
Almost sixty years later, ATX Artists for Social Impact is committed to inheriting the late Coltrane’s will by using this uniquely American genre of music as a vehicle to serve the Austin community.
Community Need
As funding for nonprofits and social services dry up, community organizations need creative new ways to source funding. Local jazz musicians are equally in need of paid opportunities to showcase their craft and connect with a wider audience.
Jazz for Humanity presents a unique opportunity to attract supporters of various backgrounds: Supporters of the performing arts as well as supporters of charitable causes that serve the most vulnerable members of the Austin Community. Any contribution towards Jazz for Humanity would simultaneously support both charitable causes and artistic creation.
Connection to a Global Movement
Jazz for Humanity aims to align with the mission of Jazz at Lincoln Center, the world's premiere jazz institution. We seek to take the JLC’s global mission and apply it on the local level by amplifying the voices of Austin’s most vulnerable communities through performance, outreach, and creative advocacy.
Together, ATX Artists for Social Impact, the Austin Jazz Community, and their community partners will represent the best aspects of democracy, celebrate personal freedom and individual expression, find common ground in serving the marginalized, and tackle these unprecedented and tumultuous times with persistent optimism.