“Jazz is about the future,” the impassioned pianist portrayed by Ryan Gosling in the Oscar-nominated musical “La La Land,” proclaims. That future is yours for the hearing at the Elmhurst College Jazz Festival, running Feb. 23-26.
This is the festival’s golden anniversary. The format remains the same — high school and college bands from across the country performing in the afternoon and professional ensembles performing at night — but to honor the festival’s 50th, there will be an opening night concert on Feb. 23 for the first time. The concert will feature three-time Grammy-winner Dee Dee Bridgewater, who in April will receive a Jazz Masters award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
On Feb. 26, another Jazz Masters honoree, Bill Holman, with his big band, will perform a piece commissioned by the college to commemorate the festival’s 50th.
The festival is an opportunity to hear where jazz has been and where it’s going. “It’s an art form and always trying to break new boundaries,” noted Doug Beach, the director of jazz studies who also has overseen the festival for the last 24 years (he has been with Elmhurst College for 39 years). “It is very aware of its history, but also looking to see what can develop from what hasn’t been done yet. Jazz is inclusive; it’s looking around to see what else can be brought to it. Miles Davis was a leader in bringing contemporary and rock and roll rhythmic approaches.”
The festival evolved from the former American College Jazz Festival, a nationally organized event for which Elmhurst College was one of the regional sites. Winning ensembles and vocalists from each site would get an all-expense paid trip to the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. for a finals competition. “There was some pretty big corporate money behind it in the beginning,” Beach said.
Not as much these days, but when the national organization folded in 1973, Elmhurst College administrators such as former Dean of Students Jim Cunningham, lobbied to pick up the torch, which it has carried ever since. Elmhurst College’s own jazz program has also grown apace. The college now offers a jazz studies major. The Elmhurst College Jazz Band has toured internationally and in 2014 was a Downbeat magazine Student Music Awards winner in the large jazz ensemble category.
In addition to Bridgewater, the festival’s featured performers include on Feb. 24 the Grammy-winning Vanguard Jazz Orchestra (an outgrowth of the former Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra), the Patrick Williams Big Band on Feb. 25, and on the afternoon of Feb. 26, the Bill Holman Big Band.
“I’m amazed at the creativity these bandleaders bring to the music,” Beach said. “Patrick and Bill and the members who compose for the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra write everything their ensembles play. These three groups present in many ways some of the cutting edge music bring written for a large ensemble.”
But the raison d’etre for the festival remains its young performers. The opening day of the festival, as per tradition, is dedicated to high school jazz ensembles. “I’m so impressed with the dedication of the musicians and the seriousness with which they take the music,” Beach said. “They are not fooling around, they really care about it.”
This is especially meaningful at a time when there aren’t as many venues for jazz as there once were.
Beach is a firm believer that, to paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of jazz’s demise are greatly exaggerated. “The festival provides a place for these students to perform, to be heard, and to develop their craft. It also gives them the chance to hear other musicians. You always learn from listening to someone else.”
For the past 50 years, Beach said, the festival has helped to nurture jazz’s next generation. “A lot of the pros who have performed here over the years played (at the festival) when they were in college.”
So while he is charged with staging the festival, he is also a fan. “I just can’t wait to hear the music,” he said.
Elmhurst College Jazz Festival
When: Feb. 23-26
Where: Elmhurst College, 190 Prospect Ave.
Tickets: $10-$36 for individual events; $110 for full weekend package
Contact: 630-617-5534; www.elmhurst.edu/jazzfestival
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