A music association entity remains a new concept for Egypt, which is what Mr. Amro Salah wanted to change; He created an association which aims to educate and to enhance culture. Let’s know more…
First, tell me more about the story of Jazz with you.
Amro: I was attracted by the sound of Jazz on the radio. They used to play some Jazz tunes from time to time, and through a colleague who made me listen to an album by Chick Corea. The sound of Jazz touched me deeply, I started looking for more sources and wanted to experience playing that style for myself, especially that I started to understand that Jazz is more of a life mode and deep thought than mere music style. I found freedom, individuality and self expression in that style.
How did the idea of The Jazz Society of Egypt come up?
Amro: The Jazz Society of Egypt was founded in March 2009 with the birth of the 1st edition of Cairo Jazz festival. The aim of the society is to popularize the jazz culture among the Egyptian community and to offer a non-profit service for young Egyptian musicians and jazz students through organizing workshops, master classes, events, lectures and other educational material in order to help elevating the level of Jazz knowledge and education in Egypt and to create qualified high level music production.
Is your aim to make it an Association?
Amro: I don’t know the difference between an association and a society. The most important aim for me is to accomplish its mission.
Who are the leaders of The Jazz Society of Egypt?
Amro: All the Jazz lovers, artists, fans, and friends.
What projects is the Association working on right now?
Amro: We’re interested in popularizing Jazz among the Egyptian society regardless of its categories; we’d like to see different classes of Egyptians having at least an idea about Jazz. We started our program last March and in 4 months we did 3 workshops and 2 lectures, we’ll continue offering this service to Jazz lovers and we’ll start a school program to introduce Jazz to school students and to give them brief introductions about Jazz.
What are you trying to accomplish through the goal of this Association?
Amro: We believe that Education and Culture is the only way to create a civilized society which by turn will respect other aspects of life such as Nature, science, Human studies etc…And so we concentrate on popularizing the society, we know that this may take many years to happen but we’re sure that we’ll get somewhere. Our society needs some balance through art, culture and education.
I noticed that the Jazz Festival was a project of the Society, are you aiming to make it annual?
Amro: Yes it’ll be an annual festival held in March.
A lot of people criticize the existence of Wust El Balad band in the Jazz Festival, what is your comment on that?
Amro: Wust el Balad is a band that combines many styles together and is classified as World Music or fusion, and that is normally included in any Jazz festival. I have given some examples of many world famous Jazz festivals including DJs, and pop groups in their programs.
What are the benefits does being on Jazz Society’s mailing list offer?
Amro: You’ll receive news about the activities of the society, some links to useful educational material, articles, videos, etc…
Are you going to depend on the Facebook group as the official page, or are you going to make an official website?
Amro: A website will be created soon, we also use other internet tools and sites.
