Mayor Moccia will proclaim the month of April as Jazz Appreciation Month. The Mayor has invited local jazz musicians Damon Grant and Jim Clark to provide some entertainment in celebration of Jazz Appreciation Month. Damon Grant’s jazz group is known as “The Damon Grant Project” and he is Vice President, Music Development and Artistic Director of DMG and Associates, LLC. Jim Clark’s organization is known as the “Norwalk Jazz Connection.”

Jazz Appreciation Month, created to be observed every April, encourages people to attend jazz concerts, listen to jazz recordings, support jazz programs, and simply enjoy the music's verve, pulse, and power.

"Jazz Appreciation Month seeks to raise public awareness of jazz as one of America's—and the world's—cultural treasures and to nourish an appetite for the music," said John Edward Hasse, curator of American Music at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History and one of the driving forces behind designating April as Jazz Appreciation Month. "It will provide teachers with added reason, opportunity, and ideas for teaching their students about jazz."

Jazz has always been a part of the Norwalk scene, and April marks the start of a very exciting season. Big names in jazz that count Norwalk as their home town include pianist Horace Silver, who in the 1950s is credited with creating the funky, percussive, blues-drenched style of jazz known as hard bop. Horace Silver is perhaps best known in connection with The Jazz Messengers, the band he helped create.

In keeping with the spirit of Jazz Appreciation Month, Norwalk and other tri-state music fans can look forward to the Norwalk Jazz Festival to be held on July 12, 2008 at Veterans’ Park in Norwalk, where a perfect blend of music greats and waterfront ambience will be served up in style. The line-up includes Grammy award winning artists, nominees and jazz and blues artists on the worldwide scene, who will perform from noon ‘til moon. A portion of the proceeds from the Norwalk Jazz Festival goes to the NJF Scholarship Foundation, Corp. that supports financially the music education of talented young Norwalk musicians. For more information, visit the NJF website norwalkjazzfestival.com.