IU celebrates Jazz Appreciation Month

IU professor David Baker snaps in time: one, two, three, four. The drums pound out a beat, the bass starts walking and the trumpets go wild. That’s right, it’s Jazz Appreciation Month. \nThe month of April celebrates jazz internationally and in Bloomington.\n“April is a significant month in terms of birthdays of jazz musicians,” \nBaker said.\nBaker, the conductor and artistic director of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and leader of the jazz orchestra at IU, along with other local jazz lovers, is organizing several events around campus and Bloomington to celebrate Jazz \nAppreciation Month. \n“JAM was created seven or eight years ago by John Hasse,” Baker said. “He was the curator of music at \nthe Smithsonian.”\nSince then, Jazz Appreciation Month has grown in international attention. Only a few months ago Baker traveled to Egypt with his Smithsonian Orchestra. \n“Any place where there is jazz, John has encouraged it,” Baker said. “In Egypt, we were really pushing the idea.”\nIn Bloomington, jazz is no small thing with venues such as Jazz at the Station and the Jacobs School of Music. \nMonika Herzig, a jazz educator, supporter and musician, is part of the local Jazz Society, which puts together events for fellow \njazz enthusiasts. \nEvery year, this group sets up an event called “The Future of Jazz.” On April 11, the showcase of bright, young jazz musicians will take place at the John Waldron Arts Center.\n“All pre-college talents in the area are invited,” Herzig said. \nPatrick Harbison, conductor of the second jazz band at IU, said he is very impressed with the talent coming out of schools in \nthis town.\n“Bloomington is two steps ahead of any other town with appreciating jazz,” Harbison said. “It really encourages creativity.”\nWhile most people name off the greats of jazz, such as Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis as the most influential of this style of music, some choose to look more recently at the new talent of modern jazz.\n“(Modern jazz) ties a century of jazz tradition with an innovative approach,” Harbison said.\nHerzig said every time jazz evolves, prominent figures emerge. “It’s always a reflection of what’s going on \nin society,” she said.\nEvery year, in honor of Jazz Appreciation Month and in celebration of the talent on and around campus, IU hosts \nJazz Extravaganza. \nThis year’s theme is called “It Don’t Mean A Thing, If It Ain’t Got \nThat Swing.”\nEverett Greene and Dolores King Williams, two well-known jazz singers, will accompany the IU jazz bands.\n“For the Extravaganza, we are playing the kind of music a certain generation fell in love with,” Harbison said. “It’s neat going back to \ntheir youth.”