The title of the festival, "Jazz Is My Religion", is derived from a poem by American writer Ted Joans and, on its tracks, the festival wants to celebrate jazz as a great force that, according to UNESCO chief executive Irina Bokova, carries "a universal message of peace that harmonizes rhythm and meaning, which brings significant values ​​to every man and woman, providing unique opportunities for mutual understanding, through listening, reproduction, improvisation."
It is no coincidence that UNESCO has included jazz in the Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
A more urgent message in times like ours in which religion seems to have become synonymous with division rather than unity and hate more than universal love. At the same time, the program is also a commemoration of many significant dates in the history of this music: one hundred years after the release of the first jazz album, the centenary of the birth of Thelonious Monk, Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie, the fiftieth anniversary of the disappearance by John Coltrane.

"Spirituality is all," said pianist Chick Corea. "If you mean spirituality as a celebration of life then yes, I celebrate life ... because jazz is a joy to live."