At “The Soul of Jazz: An American Adventure,” Joe Gardner, the musician, mentor and teacher from Disney and Pixar’s “Soul,” takes visitors on a tour as they discover the rich and surprising history of jazz.
The exhibit was first introduced at The American Adventure inside EPCOT – a celebration of the magic that happens when we create together – as a tribute to a musical art form that originated by African Americans and fuses influences from many different cultures. Starting December 10th, the American Jazz Museum is thrilled to bring this once exclusive EPCOT experience beyond Disney parks and into Kansas City, one of many cities where jazz took root and grew into the genre we know today.
Walt Disney Imagineering partnered with the New Orleans Jazz Museum, the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City, and The National jazz Museum in Harlem to recreate an EPCOT experience for visitors and residents to enjoy in their hometown – illustrating the legacy each region impressed upon jazz’s dynamic history and evolving culture. Musician and co-composer of Disney and Pixar’s “Soul,” Jon Batiste, hopes the takeaway from this exhibit is one that makes people want to sing, dance, and feel the transcendence that jazz evokes. Similar to the joy and deeply rooted nostalgia Walt Disney created in his theme parks, “jazz really has the ability to do that and add to that vision in a way that’s tremendous,” Batiste remarks.
Click the image below as John Dennis, executive creative director at Walt Disney Imagineering, and Jon Batiste dive into the history of jazz and its ability to bring us together.
