EPCOT’s “The Soul of Jazz” Exhibition Opens at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem

A recent exhibition from EPCOT’s World Showcase is now traveling across the country, and its next stop is New York City!

“The Soul of Jazz: An American Adventure” was first displayed for Guests visiting the American Adventure pavilion in World Showcase throughout 2021, and since its departure from the park, the exhibit has already visited New Orleans and Kansas City. Now, the exhibition is open to Guests at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem.

The exhibition shares some background on the history of jazz and how this musical legacy was used to create the hit Disney and Pixar film, Soul (2020). Each stop on the exhibition’s tour is adding additional artifacts and historical context for jazz in the museum’s city, and we are excited to see what kind of spin Harlem’s National Jazz Museum adds to this outstanding exhibition.

In terms of the film, New York City is the home of Soul‘s Joe Gardner, so the exhibition in Harlem will showcase the location as the setting for the film as well as its own history through the Harlem Renaissance. Among new items added to the exhibition at the National Jazz Museum, Guests can expect to see a white grand piano belonging to renowned Jazz musician Duke Ellington, Samuel “Baby” Lovett’s bongos, and a signed photo of Louis Armstrong with his dog.

For Guests visiting EPCOT, the park’s curatorial team has included updates on the exhibition as it makes its tour around the country as part of “Celebrate Soulfully” at the American Adventure pavilion. Updates prior to the Harlem stop in the court included a look at Baby Dodd’s slide whistle, Dizzy Gillespie’s trumpet at the New Orleans Jazz Museum, and a profile of Jazz musician James “Count” Basie from Kansas City.

“The Soul of Jazz: An American Adventure” opened on February 10, 2022, in celebration of Black History Month at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, and it will remain on display through August 31, 2022. Tickets to see the exhibition in New York are available in advance online at jmih.org.