International Jazz Day is a yearly event on 30 April, organized by UNESCO to celebrate “the virtues of jazz as an educational tool, and a force for peace, unity, dialogue and enhanced cooperation among people." The Day was proclaimed during the UNESCO General Conference in November 2011. The first annual International Jazz Day was kicked off in Paris by UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Herbie Hancock.

Jazz began at the end of the 19th century with the advent of ragtime, a musical style made well known by piano player and composer Scott Joplin. Around this time people from different cultures were immigrating to American cities -- especially New York -- in search of fortune and a better life. With these immigrants came a variety of musical traditions that included Irish jigs, German waltzes and French quadrilles. Joplin and others combined these newly introduced European compositional styles with the rhythmic and melodic music of the black community and ragtime -- the written precursor to improvised jazz -- was born.