Elmhurst Jazz Festival Features Over 40 Bands Over Four Days

Nearly 40 student jazz bands will have a chance to perform and be critiqued by professional jazz musicians at the 59th annual Elmhurst University Jazz Festival, Feb. 28-March 1, at the Hammerschmidt Memorial Chapel, 190 Prospect Ave. in Elmhurst. The four-day, student-run festival also features performances by professional musicians and master classes.

Director Chris Parsons said that the festival started as a regional event for a national competition.

“At the beginning of 1974, the national festival went defunct,” he said.

Jim Cunningham, who was then the university’s dean of students, saw the value of the festival but, “he changed the focus of the festival from it being competition to it being about education,” Parsons said. “That tradition continues to this day. You can have elite-level university bands or community bands from junior colleges.”

The festival begins with a two-day High School Invitational. “This will be the first year that we’ve expanded the High School Invitational from one day to two days,” Parsons said. “We’re bringing in 13 high schools and the first ever middle school.”

Following the High School Invitational, 22 university bands will perform and be critiqued.

Bands are chosen for the festival on a first come-first served basis.

The 17-piece Elmhurst University Jazz Band will perform half-hour concerts on Thursday and Friday afternoon, during the High School Invitational, with two guest artists and adjudicators: professional saxophonist and composer Denis DiBlasio and drummer Ulysses S. Owens Jr.

“Friday night, the Jazz Band will be playing a longer concert with the two guest artists again, opening for the featured performers that night, the Steve Kovalcheck Trio,” Parsons said.

DiBlasio has a long history with the Elmhurst University Jazz Festival. “This may be my tenth time coming out to do the festival,” the saxophonist said. He first performed and judged at the festival in 1989.

In addition to performing, DiBlasio listens to all the bands and provides feedback to them.

DiBlasio said the annual festival has “a great vibe to it. It’s all family. Everybody knows everybody. For me, it’s like old home week.”

For Friday night’s concert, DiBlasio will perform an original piece, “Sugar Buzz;” a Fats Waller tune, “Jitterbug Waltz;” “That’s All;” and another original piece, “Vita Bella.” Owens will also perform four pieces.

In terms of his adjudicating duties, DiBlasio said, “You listen to it, you fill out some forms, you make some suggestions. You handle a band like you’d handle an individual person. Sometimes it’s a matter of trying to set a different tempo. Sometimes it’s that particular song might be played too loud. You give some easy suggestions that hopefully help guide them. Sometimes there’s nothing to say. Sometimes they just sound great.”

The Steve Kovalcheck Trio will feature Jeff Hamilton and John Hamar.

Drummer Hamilton has performed at the festival with a number of different groups, including three times with his own group, the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra.

He has only adjudicated at the festival one time.

“It’s almost overwhelming to keep all the comments organized for the right groups,” Hamilton said. “But I found that the excitement from each group that participated was infectious to the adjudicators. It kept us listening to them and wanting to offer what experience we have had in the business to them. And they seemed very open to that.”

Hamilton defined the festival as “a jazz love-in.”

“Everybody’s there to have a great time and for the joy of the music,” he said.

The overall importance of a festival like this is “keeping the spirit of jazz alive for generations,” Hamilton concluded.

With the Steve Kovalcheck Trio, Hamilton will be playing a number of original Kovalcheck compositions. They will also play some standards, including “Skylark” and “What’s New?”

The Anat Cohen Tentet will perform at 7 p.m. Saturday night.

Parsons stressed that, even though he is the director of the festival, it is primarily student run, with many volunteers.

“Two student managers work under me and coordinate with all the section heads,” he said. “It provides a great opportunity for students, regardless of what their major is—working together, building skills. We’re providing a service to our students, getting some real-world experience while they’re at school.”

All performances are open to the public. A weekend package is $120 or $60 live streamed.

Individual events:

9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Thursday: $12; $10 live streamed.

9:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Friday: $12; $10 live streamed.

7-10 p.m. Friday evening: $55; $25 live streamed.

11:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Saturday: $12; $10 live streamed.

7-10 p.m. Saturday evening: $55: $25 live streamed.

11:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday: $12; $10 live streamed.

Information and reservations are at elmhurst.vbotickets.com/event/59th_Annual_Elmhurst_University_Jazz_Festival/178202.

Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.