No fooling, in the U.S. April 1st denotes the start of Jazz Appreciation Month (aka "JAM"), where the art form born out of Congo Square in New Orleans became a unique and true African American and American musical expression that continues to evolve across the decades and centuries.
Started by the Smithsonian Museum of American History in 2001, "JAM is intended to stimulate and encourage people of all ages to participate in jazz - to study the music, attend concerts, listen to jazz on radio and recordings, read books about jazz, and more."
To learn more about the history of jazz, read Jazz: A History of America’s Music, watch the 10-part documentary miniseries Jazz on PBS, read Downbeat Magazine’s The Great Jazz Interviews – A 75 Year Anthology, check out jazzinamerica.org’s timeline and the 1987 album from Smithsonian Folkways The History of Jazz by Mary Lou Williams.
There's also Herbie Hancock’s MasterClass in Jazz online.
