Amman Jazz Festival to kick off on November 5

AMMAN — Celebrating nine years of jazz from around the world, this year’s Amman Jazz Festival  (AJF) is going local and online from November 5-10 with a special homegrown line-up that encourages creation in Jordan, according to a statement from the organisers.

Concerts of both AJF and its parallel event “Musiqa 3al Daraj”, will be streamed from the heart of Amman and shared with the whole world digitally for free, the statement said.

AJF is the only major event dedicated to jazz in Jordan, which has succeeded in gathering local and international professionals, attracting a wide audience over the years and expanding globally, while creating opportunities for sustainable cultural exchanges. 

The festival is known to celebrate diversity, cultural fusion, creativity, unity and dialogue by featuring international, regional and local jazz musicians, the statement said.

This year’s special ninth edition presents exclusively Jordanian musicians to an international audience online, switching the cultural exchange around with an approach that is novel to the acclaimed festival, according to the statement. 

AJF is creating a persistent digital stage in the times of COVID-19, serving the Jordanian independent music scene to connect beyond borders, initiate new projects and productions, to start new musical conversation and to introduce fresh sounds, read the statement.

“What we are aspiring for is to re-think the new now, the new tomorrow, and come up with alternative solutions in these challenging times, rooted in our mission to move the industry forward by supporting the local independent music scene, through providing the opportunities needed for the musicians to flourish”, Lama Hazboun, founder of AJF was quoted in the statement as saying.

Additionally, the festival is hosting the second edition of “Musiqa 3al Daraj” realised by Orange Red and the Goethe-Institut Jordan; a special concert series which has proven popular since last year, bringing Jordanian indie music to the public staircases of Amman, away from classical locations and closer to the hearts of people. 

Abiding by safety measurements, this second edition will be realised on different staircases of the MMAG Foundation in old Amman, where concerts will be filmed to be streamed online to an international audience; in collaboration with the Greater Amman Municipality and supported by the European Union and EUNIC.

“Together with our partners, the Goethe-Institut Jordan seeks to make music accessible to people from all walks of life, and to endorse Jordanian artists from various musical backgrounds. Opening public spaces for art and culture has been a focus of our work for the past years. I am excited to see the second edition of ‘Musiqa 3al Daraj’ come to life under these strange circumstances we are all facing this year,” Laura Hartz, director of the Goethe-Institut Jordan, said in the statement.