Celebrating International Jazz Day: A Tribute To Legendary Black Musicians Who Broke Down Racial Barriers

Celebrating International Jazz Day: A Tribute To Legendary Black Musicians Who Broke Down Racial Barriers

By Rayna Reid Rayford ·Updated April 30, 2025 Declared by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) during its General Conference 14 years ago, International Jazz Day—celebrated every April 30—honors a genre that has long served as a force for social change. As the U.N. agency notes, “The story of jazz is written into the quest for human dignity, democracy and civil rights. It has given strength to the struggl…

#MutualNight: International Jazz Day

(Almost nine years ago, I started an occasional series I called “#MutualNight.” The idea was that at one point in history, Mutual, among other things, introduced Mormon kids to art and literature and music. So these posts were meant to do the same thing; there was nothing specifically Mormon about them except for the way Mormonism embraces all good things. And that’s what I’m going to do in this post.) Today was International Jazz Day. A celebra…