Just about anywhere you live in the Midwest, you are less than a day’s drive from one of the nation’s best-kept cultural secrets—the Iowa City Jazz Festival. Taking place annually over the first weekend of July, the Iowa City Jazz Festival celebrates the 22nd event June 29-July 1. Held on the famed (and shaded!) “Pentacrest” of the University of Iowa, this festival has been named one of the “top ten” in the nation by Downbeat, and is now a major component of the Iowa City “Summer of the Arts” program.

 

 

Main Stage Schedule: Friday, June 29:

 4:30 pm, United Jazz Ensemble (directed by Rich Medd and Ryan Arp). Combined band from Iowa City’s City High and West High, this 18-piece ensemble has performed at the Jazz Festival for 19 years.

 

 6:00 pm, Groove Theory. A contemporary high-energy jazz ensemble from Iowa City, Groove Theory includes Cassius Goens III on drums, Nathan Bogert on sax, Steven Wheeler on trumpet, Jon Snell on keys, and Karl McComas-Reichl on bass. Emphasizing the musicians’ original compositions, Groove Theory is heavily influenced by Hip-Hop, Rhythm and Blues, Funk, Motown, and Soul music, yet rooted in jazz traditions.

 

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8:00 pm, Kevin Mahogany with the Iowa Jazz Orchestra. Kansas City native Kevin Mahogany showed his early gifts on piano, clarinet, and bari sax, and was a member of Eddie Baker’s Orchestra while still in his teens. In high school he played in multiple concert and marching bands, finally discovering his vocal talents during his senior year after hearing Al Jarreau. His career took off in the early 1990s, with frequent comparisons to the great Johnny Hartman and Joe Williams. Newsweek described him as "the standout jazz vocalist of his generation;” he appeared in the Robert Altman film Kansas City, portraying a character inspired by Big Joe Turner; and along with Kurt Elling, Jon Hendricks and Mark Murphy, he toured extensively as “The Four Brothers.” His recent projects include leading a big band on his own label and recording the music of Coltrane and Hartman with saxophonist Tony Lakatos. He’s backed by the Iowa Jazz Orchestra, featuring U of I jazz faculty.

 

Main Stage Schedule, Saturday, June 30

 2 pm, North Corridor Jazz All Stars (directed by Steve Shanley and Brett Messenger). Returning to the festival for a second year, this big band includes some of the most talented high school jazz musicians of the “North Corridor” -- from Cedar Rapids to Cedar Falls. Directed by Steve Shanley, these “All-Stars” will explore the diversity of Big Band repertoire.

 

 4 pm, Marco Benevento Trio. Marco Benevento might be the Dave King of piano. Not satisfied by the arsenal of acoustic piano, Hammond organ and Wurlitzer electric piano, he is well known for employing the effects of amplification, circuit bent toys, Mellotron and Optigan. The New Jersey native graduated from the Berklee College of Music in 1999, soon becoming part of the jazz and experimental music scenes in New York. He has studied with jazz giants Kenny Werner, Brad Mehldau and Joanne Brackeen, and has played with such stars as Matt Chamberlain, Steven Bernstein, Wayne Krantz, Charlie Hunter and Stanton Moore. An actively touring artist, Benevento has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Montreal and Newport Jazz Festivals, and performs with his own trio, in duo with drummer Joe Russo, and with bands Garage a Trois and Surprise Me Mr. Davis. Noted All About Jazz, “Benevento's music is instantly appealing like the best pop, urgently pre-coital like the best rock, and possesses real substance like the best jazz. It has character and unpredictability--and it is ridiculously good fun."

 

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6 pm, Todd Sickafoose Tiny Resistors. Bassist/composer Todd Sickafoose’s Tiny Resistors blends elements of Miles Davis, Radiohead, Bill Frisell, and traditional New Orleans old-school jazz. Multiple horn parts and guitar lines swirl around a tonal center and over a calmly asymmetrical pulse. Although a major figure in the progressive jazz scene, Sickafoose is best known for his long-term association with Ani DiFranco. In addition to his work on bass, Sickafoose also performs on keyboard and mallet-percussion instruments. His ensemble features electric guitars, some woodwinds, overdubbing keyboards, accordion, and mallet instruments to achieve a unique blend.

 

 8 pm, Cyrille Aimee and the Surreal Band. Vocalist Cyrille Aimée’s (pronounced Surreal M-A) combines Dominican rhythm, French gypsy swing and modern jazz. A winner of the Montreux Jazz Festival Vocal Competition in 2007 and runner-up in the Thelonious Monk Jazz Vocal Competition, Aimée will perform with her Surreal Band consisting of sax, guitar, piano, bass and drums. Ben Ratliff (New York Times) wrote, “One of those singers whom non-singing musicians call ‘a musician.’” Jonathan Schwartz said, "She is superb and is one of the greatest scat singers...on the level of Ella. She is electrifying! It's as simple as that."

 

Main Stage Schedule, Sunday, July 1

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2 pm, Al Naylor Group. A teaching artist in trumpet at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Al Naylor is a member of the popular group, “Bob Dorr and the Blue Band,” and the trumpet soloist for the Rodney Pierson Big Band. In addition to leading his own Al Naylor Group, he has performed or recorded with Orquesta Alto Maiz (of which he was a founding member), the Blue Band, and appears on Joe Price’s Rain or Shine, which was awarded the International Blues Album of the Year by the Independent Music Producers Association. Al has performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival, shared the stage with Aretha Franklin and The Temptations, and has played with Clark Terry, Sonny Stitt, Dick Oatts, Bob Shepherd, Victor Mendoza, John Pizzarelli, Bill Frisell, Brian Lynch, John Fedchock, Conrad Herwig, Wycliffe Gordon, and Steve Turre.

 4 pm, Ariel Pocock Trio. At 18, pianist/vocalist Ariel Pocock has already earned national and international recognition for her work, the youngest artist ever signed by Verve, which will produce her first CD this year. Winner of Downbeat student awards in both jazz piano and jazz voice, she earned the Outstanding Piano Solo Award and Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation Award at the 2009 “Essentially Ellington Jazz Festival” at Lincoln Center. She also won first place in the 2010 Kobe Jazz Vocalist Competition and the Outstanding Piano Soloist award at the 2008 Lionel Hampton International Festival. She is presently studying with Shelly Berg on a full scholarship at the University of Miami.

 

 6 pm, Heath Brothers Quartet. Long considered one of the “royal families” of jazz, the Heaths—Percy, Jimmy and Albert (Tootie)—came of musical age on the cusp of the bop era, and went on to distinguished careers in the company of the legends modern jazz, individually and together on stage with Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and more. And when oldest brother Percy was between gigs as the bassist for the Modern Jazz Quartet, and after the disbanding of the MJQ, the three performed and recorded as The Heath Brothers. With Percy’s passing in April 2005, saxophonist Jimmy and drummer Tootie established a new edition of the Heath Brothers, honoring Percy’s legacy and continuing the family tradition of soulful—and brotherly—jazz. Shortly before Percy’s death, Jimmy noted that, “Among us, we’ve got more than 150 years of experience and more than 900 recordings. We’ve played with jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, J. J. Johnson, Miles and the Modern Jazz Quartet. That seems to make us the elders of surviving families of jazz.” Jimmy and Tootie continue that legacy while mentoring a new generation, performing with the much younger Jeb Patton on piano and David Wong on bass. The Heaths were the subject of a 2006 documentary film, Brotherly Jazz.

 

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8 pm, Mumbo Jumbo: Tribute to Paul Motian. The jazz world recently lost one of its drum legends with the passing of Paul Motian. Motian built his reputation in the classic Bill Evans’ piano trio of the 1950s-1960s, as well as with Paul Bley and Keith Jarrett and his own trio. His energy, artistry and mentorship to future generations of musicians is perhaps best represented by his Electric Bebop Band, which pitted 2 guitars versus 2 saxophones, backed by drums and bass, and often featured two soloists at the same time and unique instruments such as the violin. Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Iowa City Jazz Festival performance of the Electric Bebop Band, former colleagues gather as “Mumbo Jumbo,” one of Motian’s favorite phrases. Taking the drum chair will be all-star, eclectic and very entertaining drummer/composer/bandleader Matt Wilson, whose credits include his own quartet, Arts and Crafts, and Trio M. He’s joined by former members of Motian’s Electric BeBop Band-- guitarist Steve Cardenas, saxophonist Chris Cheek, and violinist Mat Maneriand bassist Thomas Morgan.

 

The Iowa City Jazz Festival always features strong mainstream performers as well as genre-stretching innovators. Check your map—Iowa City is located in eastern Iowa right on Interstate 80, about half way between Minneapolis and St. Louis, Omaha and Chicago. Lodging is inexpensive and the music is free. There’s no better way to celebrate the holiday -- the fireworks are on the Pentacrest in Iowa City, June 29-July 1.

 

For full schedule and more information, visit http://www.summerofthearts.org/