Recently, the Iowa Freedom Riders have called for the Iowa City Jazz Festival to officially become a festival that celebrates Black culture. But to deny jazz as Black music is to deny its historical roots and remove its cultural importance.” “Jazz is now played and performed all over the world by every possible race, creed and culture. “Does this mean no white people or people of other backgrounds are involved in jazz? Of course not,” he said. RELATED: Jazz Fest brings unique genre to IC music scene “Even by the early 1970s, students were not allowed to practice jazz at any time in any music building facility.”ĭrier said this was because jazz was associated with Blackness and would threaten “Western” - which Dreier said actually meant “white” - sensibilities.ĭreier said that jazz is the living legacy of Black culture in America, and that a celebration of jazz is a celebration of Black Americans. “The University of Iowa School of Music resisted jazz, not only in the curriculum, but in the building!” Dreier said in an email to The Daily Iowan. While themes of community have always played a role in jazz, James Dreier, a professor of Jazz Studies at the University of Iowa, said that the Iowa City Community wasn’t welcoming of the jazz community for decades. John Kenyon, the committee chair of the Iowa City Jazz Festival, said he believes that the transition to an online format will expose more people to the music of the festival, and he hopes to see people return next year as a community. “It’s obviously going to be different than going to a festival with thousands of people, but we’ve got a lot of feedback from a lot of people who are going to stream it through their television or their stereo so they can enjoy something they couldn’t usually attend,” Barnes said. The performances will also be made available on Summer of the Arts’ YouTube channel.Īlthough streaming lacks the atmosphere of a festival, Barnes said that it will make the performances more accessible. “There’s a good variety this year.”Īll performances will be streamed through KCCK, Iowa’s only jazz radio station. “I think our committee does a really good job of trying to include different styles of jazz,” Barnes said. A few of the jazz bands playing are Wave Cage, Sammy Miller and The Congregation, and the Saul Lubaroff Quartet. She added that the new musical additions to the line-up will add more diversity of styles to the festival, from classic to avant-garde jazz. Barnes said some of the local musicians who play annually participated in socially distant recording for the event, all while standing six feet apart and wearing masks.
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