The CU Jazz Festival kicks off on Wednesday, launching five days of jazz performances that will echo around the community.
The festival, which runs through Sunday, will feature a variety of jazz performances around town. Artistic director and the festival’s founder, Jenelle Orcherton, is running it for the 11th consecutive year.
“It feels like a bit of an incubator,” Orcherton said. “It’s fun to have sort of an influx of musicians everywhere, bringing in new energy.”
This year’s festival will feature Kurt Reeder ORGANization, the Emily Kuhn Quintet, Alex Massa, Alex Manfredo, the Kevin Hart Trio, Thaddeus Tukes and the Whitney Ashe Trio. The festival will be taking place throughout the Champaign-Urbana area at venues including the Rose Bowl Tavern, Stage 5 at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Gallery Art Bar, Plant Mode, Seven Saints and The Urbana Free Library.
“It’s a balance,” Orcherton said on selecting artists to play. “We have forms available for people who can get in touch … and we sort of balance based on budget, available venues and projects we think would be interesting for the Champaign-Urbana community.”
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According to Orcherton, finding venues for each artist presents its own challenge. “Not every location fits every type of show,” Ocherton said. Orcherton also said she likes to find “interesting, beautiful spaces.”
Jason Finkelman, artistic director of global arts performance initiatives at KCPA, sees each venue as an opportunity.
“I think it’s a really great opportunity to be presented at Krannert Center,” Finkelman said. “It exposes a performing artist to new audiences and vice versa; it exposes our audience to new artists.”
Orcherton said the festival brings new energy into the community. With the busy lifestyle of musicians and audiences, Orcherton views a weekend of jazz as a time to reconnect and strengthen local ties.
The festival’s roots trace back to Orcherton’s inspiration from other local festivals featuring music and art, including Sweetcorn Festival, PYGMALION and ELLNORA Guitar Festival.
“When I first moved here, I was surprised that Urbana didn’t have a jazz festival already … and I thought, well, let’s see if there could be one here, and that’s kind of how it evolved,” Orcherton said.
Emily Kuhn, jazz trumpeter and leader of the Emily Kuhn Quintet from Chicago, will perform music from her 2023 album, “Ghosts of Us,” and from an unreleased project at KCPA on Thursday. According to Kuhn, performing at the festival is a great opportunity.
“I’m really, really looking forward to it,” Kuhn said. “I think it’s meaningful to get to play at bigger festivals … It’s very cool to be included in a festival like (this) that has legends playing alongside more local acts. It feels like a really cool part of the music community, and professionally, it’s a cool opportunity to just play some bigger stages.”
