All That Jazz – Iowa City
Conversations in jazz music between musicians can be blurry, dizzying. I captured this image during an upbeat moment and playing with the focus to try to capture clean light circles, yet still see the figures as recognizable. If it isn’t already, I would highly recommend the Iowa City Jazz Festival be placed on your to-do list next summer.
I am completely certain that when most people think of arts, diversity, culture, food, or a renowned jazz festival, Iowa City, Iowa is probably the last place most people outside the state of Iowa would think. I have traveled to most major metropolitan areas in the United States, and I can assure you Iowa City is an underrated gem in all those categories. But this post will focus on the arts, and specifically the Iowa City Jazz Festival. The ICJF is a 3-day affair now taking pace on the weekend of the July 4th holiday. This year’s festival wrapped up on July 1. The festival is FREE and takes place at the Pentacrest on the University of Iowa campus with the Old Capitol as the backdrop. Did I mention the festival is free? Free! A few of the streets in the area are blocked off so food vendors can set up and offer a fabulous variety of foods. There’s Caribbean fare, eastern Indian fare, asian barbecue fare, just to name a few. There are also 3 other stages set up for other local musicians to play while the main stage is being setup for the next artist.
Here is Ara Anderson, trumpet. Ara plays with bassist Todd Sickafoose’s Tiny Resistors.
Bassist Todd Sickafoose lays down the groove
Vocalist Cyrille Aimee does an amazing duet with her bassist.
Wayne Tucker on trumpet is living my dream.
As the sun sets, the Old Capitol lights up. The weather Saturday evening was spectacular enabling a large crowd to gather.
The other great thing to me about the jazz festival is that it means Iowa Hawkeye football is just around the corner about 60 days away. I am ready for Iowa City Jazz Festival 2013.
