Jazz legends to lead fight against AIDS

The below article is interesting and we at SAHAYA maybe can aim to organize something like this. Anyone we know attending?

NEW DELHI: Two of the world's best known jazz artists will join the planet's fight against AIDS. Miles Davis's close friends and bandmates pianist Herbie Hancock and saxophonist Wayne Shorter are coming to India to create
and improve HIV-AIDS awareness.

The duo, along with students from the world famous Thelonius Monk Jazz Institute, will perform in New Delhi and Mumbai from January 15. They will also hold master classes for young Indian musicians. The Mumbai concert is sponsored by the Economic Times.

On January 15, the artistes and Indian musicians will perform in a special concert in Delhi in honour of the birth anniversary of American civil rights leader Martin Luther King and the 100th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's Satyagraha
movement.

Shorter is known to be a master writer and one of the few people who brought music to Davis that didn't get changed. He is a six time Grammy award winner.

Hancock, on the other hand, is a one-time Oscar winner and 10-time Grammy winner, who brought elements of rock, funk and soul into jazz. Both were part of Davis's Second Great Quintet in the mid-1960s.

Robin Diallo, first secretary, cultural affairs, US embassy, told TOI,"It can't get bigger than this. These two are the greatest living musicians of our time. This is the third consecutive year in which the US government has brought leading jazz stars to India. Renowned jazz singer Al Jarreau, guitarist Earl Klugh and Grammy-nominated saxophonist Kenny Garrett have toured India as part of this programme. When in India, Wayne and Herbie will create awareness on AIDS, and will visit the AIDS Healthcare Foundation to interact with HIV positive patients."

Anti-AIDS campaigns have excited several global celebrities to join the fight against the disease. These include the world’s richest man Bill Gates, former US president Bill Clinton, super model Claudia Schiffer, British high society regular Jemima Khan, actors Ralph Fiennes, Roger Moore and Richard Gere, actresses Salma Hayek, Ashley Judd and Elizabeth Taylor, footballers Rio Ferdinand and David Beckham, singers Robbie Williams, Bono and Alicia Keys.

The year 2006 marked the 25th anniversary of the first reported cases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Since then, nearly 65 million people worldwide have been infected with HIV and AIDS has killed more than 25 million. An estimated 40 million people are living with HIV. By Kounteya Sinha [ 5 Jan, 2007 TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]