Satchmo Festival August 3, 2013

    Here is a lovely Japanese Interviewer asking me about the "Swing Dolphins," a young group of Japanese musicians who experienced the devastation of the tsaunami in Northern Japan in 2011, and who played at the Louis Armstrong Festival yesterday. They were the second half of a musical exchange program that began in October.( See the video and information below for more info.) Many New Orleans' music students entertained in Japan as a result of a beautiful collaboration between Yoshio and Keiko Toyama and the Tipitina Foundation.

    Yoshio and Keiko Toyama established a gift-giving program to the children of New Orleans donating musical instruments to our city's youth! This generous and talented musical couple accompanied the youngsters yesterday.

    Enchanting, moving, entertaining, charming, and gifted are just a few descriptive terms to capture the moments of this monumental experience!

    Thank you Satchmo, the Toyamas,Tips, and musicians everywhere. Mr. Amrstrong was given an instrument by a kind mentor when he was a youth at the Milne Boy's Home. It is amazing what kindness and music can do!

    

Rosalynn Moore

http://www.wwltv.com/video/featured-videos/From-Tragedy-to-Triumph-A-Documentary-Special-217683041.html?fb_action_ids=588322994523753&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582

The New Orleans-Miyagi Youth Jazz Exchange is rooted in the aftermath of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that devastated large areas of Miyagi Prefecture in northeastern Japan. Touched by painful parallels following Hurricane Katrina, Tipitina’s Foundation turned sympathy into action with the help of long-time jazz advocates Yoshio and Keiko Toyama of the Wonderful World Jazz Foundation. Tipitina’s Foundation expanded the reach of the Instruments A Comin’ program with instrument donations to two young Japanese bands who had lost everything in the tsunami. One group was the Swing Dolphins. Only one month after losing their instruments and their hopes of playing music, they had new instruments in hand.

The Toyamas dreamed of developing the relationships that had been building through years of instrument donations from Japan to New Orleans, and now between New Orleans and Japan, by giving the students who received these instruments the opportunity to play together. In October 2012, this dream became a reality when Tipitina’s Foundation, Wonderful World Jazz Foundation, and Japan Foundation teamed up to make the New Orleans-Miyagi Youth Jazz Exchange a reality. The first portion of this program brought eight Tipitina’s Interns and eight O. Perry Walker students to Japan to share New Orleans’ music with Japanese audiences, immerse themselves in Japanese culture, and interact with Japanese students who had also experienced tragedy and found solace in music.

Now the Foundation will complete the New Orleans-Miyagi Youth Jazz Exchange by bringing all nineteen members of the Swing Dolphins to the United States to experience the unique music and culture of New Orleans and cultivate relationships with the students who travelled to Japan. In addition to public performances, they will participate in exchange workshops with Martin Behrman Charter School, Tipitina’s Interns and O. Perry Walker students, and peer musicians in Lafayette.

http://www.tipitinas.com/bands/s/swing-dolphins