A quintessentially American music

A decades-old tradition will return to Green Bay once again, celebrating jazz music and musicians throughout the city.

“Jazz was invented in America — it’s a quintessentially American music,” said UW-Green Bay Associate Professor of Music and Jazz Fest Organizer Dr. Adam Gaines. It started in and around New Orleans with the combination of European sounds and African sounds and Black American sounds and things from the Caribbean. It really is something that we, as Americans, should celebrate as part of our heritage. That’s something we came up with and it spread around the world. It’s become an important music in the entire world, but it started here. We’re trying to bring that to Green Bay and hopefully give people a sense of how big the umbrella of jazz is. A lot of people will sort of pigeonhole jazz as just like one thing they heard one time from the Glenn Miller Band or something… But we have a whole huge breadth of music that is considered jazz.”

Green Bay Jazz Fest, once a one-day event put on by UW-Green Bay dating back to 1970, will bring jazz-focused events April 8-11.

“Jazz Fest this year is a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday event that happens here in Green Bay,” Gaines said. “The multiple nights started a few years ago. Before that, it was just the UW-Green Bay Jazz Fest, which still happens on Saturday, April 11… There’s events every night, culminating in the big headliner concert on Saturday night at the Weidner Center.”

This year’s festivities will kick off with a jam session featuring The Standard Collective and Friends at Stillmank Brewing Company on Wednesday, April 8, at 6:30 p.m.

On Thursday, April 9, at 6 p.m. in the Tarlton Theatre, Mingus Fest will return.
“It’s about the 27th year or so now of the Mingus Fest,” Gaines said. “It’s a celebration of Charles Mingus and his music that was started a few years ago at Luna Coffee in De Pere. We picked it up and we do it at the Tarlton now. We feature the music of Charles Mingus and some other composers around his type of music.”

On Friday, April 10, Jazz Fest attendees can expect to catch a performance by the All City Jazz Ensemble — made up of the top musicians from 11 area high schools — and the UW-Green Bay Jazz Ensemble at the Weidner Center at 7:30 p.m.

And wrapping up this year’s Green Bay Jazz Fest on Saturday, April 11, will be a headline concert by the Green Bay Jazz Orchestra with special guests Nadje Noordhuis, Tierney Sutton and Tamir Hendelman at the Weidner Center at 7:30 p.m. and a late night jam session at the Tarlton Theatre at 10 p.m.

Even for those who are hesitant to call themselves fans of jazz, Gaines said it’s worth checking out the events during Green Bay Jazz Fest.

“People conjure up preconceived notions and the think they sort of know what jazz is…” Gaines said. “Sometimes people tend to think jazz is sort of untouchable, but in fact, a lot of the stuff we’re going to be doing is going to be very approachable by audiences. It can be very listenable, maybe even sing along-able… If they could just be open to some different kinds of music than what they listen to, I think [attendees] would find they enjoy themselves and the culture around jazz… Hang out, listen to some great music… It’s a really fun atmosphere.”

More details about Green Bay Jazz Fest can be found at weidnercenter.com/events-and-tickets/green-bay-jazz-fest.