JazzArtSigns
JazzArtSigns provides a universally accessible, cross-disciplinary concert experience that redefines the way audiences interact with live performances.  Founded in 1999 by veteran jazz vocalist and educator Lisa Thorson, JazzArtSigns features a group of world-class jazz musicians, an improvisational painter, American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters, live audio description and text captioning, and program information in braille, large print and on tape.  This interactive fusion of improvisation, music, visual art, and language encourages all audiences to participate in the spirit of acceptance, innovation and cooperation.  JazzArtSigns was developed in collaboration with VSA Arts Massachusetts¹ National Cultural Arts Initiative, with support from the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).

QUOTES

    I felt priviledged to have been an audience member at Jazzartsigns - all my senses were stimulated as I felt a communal experience take place. As an artist and trained musician, I cherish those rare opportunities.

Luciana Souza
New York, NY

    I attended JAZZARTSIGNSin the spring of 1999 at the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center. It was the most extraordinary experience I've ever had with Jazz. It left me feeling incredibly happy and with a sense of freedom that I don't often feel because I am deafblind. As a savvy Jazz patron (I can feel the low tones of tenor and alto sax, the bass of the vile, the drums' pulse and the piano melodies if I am sitting close to the stage) I've attended numerous Jazz performances over the years, and this one was incredibly thrilling. As I was sitting with my back to the stage where I could turn around and view the musicians as well as Lisa singing, I could feel the music vibrations through my chair and when I say "see" it means whatever fragments or bits of light I can tap into, and with the skills of my American Sign Language Interpreters, who would describe to me what the artist was drawing (the Interpreter was able to utilize the audio descriptive component as a medium); as well as interpret the music and the lyrics. The fullness of this experience was a first time ever, it captured every aspect of sound, sense, visionary collections, musical lyrics, movement, color, details, contrast and on and on.....it brought together every one of us with any kind of sensory deprivation, and the experience of all of us together was extraordinarily unique, something that never happened before, nor since in my life and I cannot wait to experience it again. 

    Now two years later, I can still recall the full impact of the sensory exposure, the feeling it gave me of being so included, so a part of the intricate depths of the artistic world. I was completely enthralled by the improvisational artist, how she moved with the music to create the colors and shapes was exhilarating for me. I just "flew to the sky" with enjoyment, and it gave me a rare moment of pure hope that I could fully experience once again, the joys of music and art in a way I cannot on my own anymore. I love music performances (once having been a dancer), and if I could, I would follow this performance wherever it went; because its powerfully positive strength pulled all the missing sensory pieces together and produced a masterpiece beyond anything anyone could possible imagine could be created.

I am honored to have been given this opportunity to express my support for JAZZARTSIGNS. 

Janet K. Marcous, Educator

(Janet K. Marcous is on the faculty at Northeastern University in the American Sign Language Department)

Painting live to jazz and working in multimedia collaborations for 25 years, my first performance with Lisa Thorson and Co. under Very Special Arts, I experienced something rather unique. On stage and quietly ready to perform, my paints uncapped, the brushes in reach, waiting and taking in the ambience of this large room, tastefully decorative with very high ceilings, when suddenly the large parlor doors opened, and in walked a number of seeing eye dogs with their blind owners.

At that moment I knew it was going to be an evening where everyone in the whole room was to exchange special gifts. I was deeply moved by the whole experience performing with the multi-talented ensemble and this incredible audience;

I felt all evening strongly both physically and spiritually, the whole time I was performing.

At the end of the performance, a woman who was legally blind, seeing only blurred shapes about 2 inches in front of her and was also deaf, (she put her hands on the large speakers at the foot of the stage to feel the vibrations of the music), wanted to come on stage to see my painting up close.