Jazz enthusiasts had their fill this past weekend at the Iron Post’s second annual Jazz Fest, which featured seven jazz groups from across the musical spectrum.
The festival, held inside Urbana’s Iron Post, 120 S. Race St., kicked off Thursday night with the C-U Hard Bop Collective, featuring the tunes of Art Blakey.
Friday gave listeners at the Post something different. The West Coast Blues ensemble, led by saxophonist Mik Templeton, brought smooth west coast sounds to downtown Urbana, along with the Chip McNeill Quintet, led by the University’s department head of jazz studies.
The event wrapped up late Saturday with The Mike Fenoglio Combo.
“It’s a great thing for the town,” said Paul Wirth, owner of the Iron Post. “It’s as good as jazz you’d get in New York, L.A. or Chicago for half the price.”
Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!
The event centered around Ray Sasaki and the Jazz Sextet, a group of past and present faculty and students of the University’s jazz department who, over time, spread across the country.
The group, who played Saturday, meets annually in Champaign-Urbana to play together, even though its member’s careers have guided them as far as Austin, Texas, where trumpet player Sasaki teaches at the University of Texas, and Cleveland, where saxophonist Howie Smith teaches at Cleveland State University.
“(Sasaki) started teaching at the U of I in 1975,” trombonist Morgan Powell said. “We started playing together then, and we haven’t stopped since.”
The audience appreciated the reunion-type dynamic of the long-time collaborators and friends.
“It’s very intimate, among old friends,” said Tom Turino, professor of musicology, about the sextet.
“But, also, among the audience, they’re among old friends. … It’s the way music should be.”
In all, the Iron Post, which will continue to host jazz and other musicians throughout the summer, played its part as an intimate venue for Champaign-Urbana’s many performers.
“We’re really fortunate to live in a town with so many great musicians,” said Kerry Helms, a Post patron and University employee.
