River Grove hosted “Unwined at the Gazebo,” its first wine festival, over the weekend.
The park, at 8679 Grand Ave., was filled with people who had brought blankets or folding chairs or sat at picnic tables under the trees while listening to George Aparo’s Monster Jazz Jam perform jazz standards such as George Gershwin’s “Summertime” from the gazebo.
“I was just driving down Grand Avenue and saw a bunch of people walking across the street. So I decided to stop and see what they were doing,” said Ed Roche, who was walking around the event with his two kids. “It’s really nice music, and I’m looking forward to checking out the food.”
Aparo said the event started “because Bobby Baglione, the guitar player, and I were born and raised in River Grove.”
“So we put this together for musicians who play professionally and are from the area,” Aparo said. “For the past seven years, we’ve held an annual play session in the park.”
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Aparo’s father was also a jazz musician and he played all over Chicagoland. Because of this, from a very young age, Aparo hung around his dad when he would invite singers and musicians over to his house.
“George was just 3 years old, when I remember he would start playing along with them using an oatmeal box,” said Jane Pierri, Aparo’s sister. By the time her brother was 10, she said he began playing the drums with his dad’s band at gigs in the city. “He grew up with music in our family.”
Ahead of this year’s jam session, the village reached out to Aparo to see if his annual jazz event could be combined with wine, food and mixed media art.
“I’m very good friends with a couple of the musicians on stage, and they tend to do their own jazz sessions with their family and friends. So we thought it would be cool to build an event around what they do naturally,” acting River Grove Village President Lynn Bjorvik said. “So they took care of the music, and we secured the art vendors and the local restaurant, Mia Passione, which has a wine distributor here, too. So it all worked out.”
Opposite the gazebo stage, handcrafted jewelry, canvas paintings and other art was available for sale. One of the booths at the wine festival was being run by Andrea Reyes, the owner of Scamp Studio at 8221 W. Grand Ave.
“We’re mainly focused on teaching, and we do programs like parent child classes and a bunch of independent programs like painting, sculpting and mixed media,” she said. “We also do wine and paint nights, but our biggest focus is teaching.”
The booth for her studio was filled with art that had been created by her students, and she said that the way Scamp Studio works, all profits from the art go back to the student without a commission. Reyes said the village reached out to her to attend, and she liked the opportunity to meet neighbors and other crafters and artists in the area.
“Hopefully, we’ll be doing this now every year,” Aparo said.
Alex V. Hernandez is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.