Jazz musician Herbie Hancock was appointed a UNESCO goodwill ambassador, pledging to use music to cross cultural boundaries and promote literacy and creativity among youth around the world. The pianist and composer, who has won 14 Grammy awards and collaborated with artists like Christina Aguilera and seen many of his songs become standards during a career spanning five decades, threw his support behind a UNESCO project to declare an international jazz day on April 30 each year.”The idea is to have performances, but not just performances, to have discussions, to have dances to have perhaps even some fun games to do with the history of jazz that young people might be interested in,” Hancock said in an interview before his appointment at a ceremony at UNESCO headquarters late on Friday.The 71-year-old musician, who shot to fame in the 1960s playing with trumpeter Miles Davis, also hopes to use his celebrity to win inclusion for jazz on the list of intangible world cultural heritage of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). Hancock said he would lobby U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, for Washington to recognise the UNESCO convention on intangible cultural heritage. Hancock, who was acclaimed as a child prodigy after he started playing piano in 1947, believes that music can bring a wider educational message to many young people, particularly in developing countries.
