Jazz fest honors Hoagy

Indianapolis – The ninth annual Indianapolis Jazz Festival that took place June 15-17 drew nearly 30,000 attendees and several big-name artists.\nThe first day of the festival, “Women in jazz” day, was kicked off by IU’s own Monika Herzig, a school of music professor and renowned pianist. She and her band started the festival with some traditional jazz standards as well as original compositions. \n“I’ve worked with Monika a lot, and I’ve actually recorded two or three CDs with her,” Indiana-native bass guitarist Frank Smith said. “She’s a tireless composer and player, and I really enjoy working with her.”\nThe festival has grown in popularity over the years.\n“When you get on the scale of bringing in people like McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea, Bela Fleck and also the more pop-style acts, that’s definitely a national festival,” Smith said. Particularly special to the event was the unveiling of the world’s first life-sized bronze statue of Bloomington’s own jazz legend, Hoagy Carmichael. \nHoagy’s son, Randy Carmichael, gave an introduction before the unveiling and afterward spent time sitting next to the bronze statue of his father; talking with the statue and asking it for money. \n“Can you spare me 20 bucks, pop?” Randy asked, then paused to look at his father’s statue. After that, he turned back to the rows of media and said, “Yep, same answer.”\nAfter the statue tours the state of Indiana, it will settle at People’s Park in Bloomington.\nAttendees slowly filed in as the day progressed, independently forming a perfect semicircle of colorful folding chairs around the main stage with neat rows spanning across the entire arc.\nThe festival, sponsored by Kroger, has had to deal with uncooperative Midwestern weather in the past said Kim Lewis, a representative from the American Pianists Association. However, that problem did not present itself this year. The skies were clear, and the sun was shining.\nThe term “jazz festival” certainly did not limit performances to traditional jazz bebop. Fusion, Blues, African music, Smooth Jazz and Afro-Cuban jazz were all warmly welcomed by the Hoosier audience. \nAudience favorites included “Hiromi” and her jazz fusion band that blended electronics with complicated time signatures and melodies. “Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel” provided serious, hard-hitting blues guitar and vocals. Somi, who has her roots in Rwanda, featured Africa-based jazz pop tunes, with some sung in Swahili. McCoy Tyner gave the serious jazz bebop listeners in the crowd virtuosity in his jazz-piano playing. Al Green threw roses to the audience.\nFor more information about artists who played the Indianapolis Jazz Festival, visit the event’s Web site, www.indyjazzfest.net.