Wine and all that jazz

For Monika Herzig, jazz musician and IU professor, Tutto Béne has all the right ingredients for a peformance venue.\n"It's an ideal place for me to play my music because jazz and wine are a perfect pair," Herzig said.\nThis Wednesday's jazz night opened the café's doors to the Monika Herzig Acoustic Project. Different from other nights, this was a CD Release Concert for Herzig's new album "In Your Own Sweet Voice - A Tribute to Women Composers." Herzig, who plays the piano, is originally from Germany, but she and husband Peter Kienle, the bass player in the project, moved to Bloomington in 1991 for the IU School of Music's graduate program. Herzig is also currently a professor at IU teaching Intro to Music Business.\nHerzig's current group includes herself on piano, Kienle on bass and two other males, Tom Clark on sax and Danny Deckard on drums. \nHerzig is a minority in jazz: she is a female jazz instrumentalist, and she makes it clear.\n"I am not a singer," she said.\nAside from being an instrumentalist, Herzig also makes her project individual by simply being female.\n"Female jazz players are underrepresented in the jazz community," she said. \nFurthermore, this is not Herzig's first project. Before "In Your Own Sweet Voice," she had produced "Melody without Words" and "Melody with Harmony" through her and Kienle's ten-year-old and locally established record label, Acme Records. The new album has songs that are written by Herzig and other female composers. Herzig shared her hopes about the album. \n"The point isencouraging other female jazz players," she said.\nSome of the songs Herzig chose even surprised her husband.\n"Some of the tunes she brought I didn't know they were by female composers," Kienle said.\nHerzig's unique image in the jazz community shares a similar role to Tutto Bène in Bloomington. Both share the same goal of offering Bloomington something a little bit different. With artists like Herzig, Tutto Bène hopes to create a place for the music to be enjoyed along with the wine.\n"Tutto Bène is a beautiful place," Herzig said.\nThis was not the couple's first time playing at Tutto Bène, but before the opening of the wine cafe Kienle stated that most of their shows have been in Indianapolis.\n"This is the first place in over 10 years that has gigs that we can play," Kienle said.\nTutto Bène, a wine café at the corner of Third and South Rogers Streets, has been offering wine, food and art to Bloomington for more than a year now. For one night during the week, however, there is a special coupling: Wednesdays are all about jazz. \nStarting with complimentary wine tasting from 6 to 8 p.m., the restaurant offers patrons the chance to enjoy fine wines while listening to local artists play their music in what Joel Pietropaolo, the café's general manager, describes as a "laid back and cool environment"