Big brass bands, spicy salsa and jumpin‘ and jivin‘ jazz artists will highlight Saturday’s East Lansing Summer Solstice Jazz Festival.
The festival, in its sixth year, will feature jazz musicians from throughout the state belting out tunes from 3-10 p.m. at the Ann Street Plaza (at the corner of M.A.C. and Albert avenues). The event is free, and spectators are encouraged to bring lawn chairs.
In the event of rain, the festival will move indoors to the Valley Court Community Center, 201 Hillside Court.
“Many of us feel that jazz is an important United States heritage,” festival founder and philosophy Professor Al Cafagna said, adding that people used to shun jazz as being too sexual, rather than simply an emotional release for the artist.
The 2002 festival is debuting a week earlier than previous years. It falls between the East Lansing Art Festival and the Great Lakes Folk Festival.
The jazz festival kicks off with the Jackson Jazz Ensemble at 3 p.m.
The group is a 19-piece big band that focuses on traditional jazz and swing music.
Jackson native Stan Grady helped form the band 16 years ago in his hometown. The band played at the festival several years ago and currently performs at venues across the state.
“We try to attract younger people because we feel jazz has a lot to offer, as opposed to the other stuff college students listen to,” Grady said, adding that jazz is a viable alternative to rock and rap. “Jazz is an art form. It is America’s only native art form. It requires improvisation.”
Grady, 72, said jazz’s popularity has increased and its future should be bright.
“Now there are a lot of universities that have courses and curriculums devoted to jazz,” he said. “Jazz is here to stay.”
MSU is one of those universities that offers a jazz studies degree, and Cafagna said that is a key reason why jazz is flourishing in East Lansing.
Two MSU faculty members will be performing at the festival - jazz voice instructor Sunny Wilkinson will play with her husband, pianist and music Professor Ron Newman.
Wilkinson has been hailed as a “versatile jazz singer with a wide range” by Allmusic.com.
After the Wilkinson-Newman performance, local group Ritmo Latin Jazz Band will offer up hot and spicy salsa and Latin jazz for dancing.
The group recently played at the East Lansing Art Festival.
“The thing about Latin rhythms is that it has the grooves that move inside you,” Ritmo frontman Mike Eiya said, adding that the sound of horns and brass make listeners want to dance.
Eiya said the student population will probably enjoy the music because there has been a “resurgence” of jazz music among high school students.
Capping off the day’s performers will be Motor Train, a modern jazz sextet whose members are primarily from Detroit.
The festival began as after-show entertainment for MSU Summer Circle Theatre spectators, but it soon grew into a larger event and moved to the Erickson Hall Kiva and then to downtown East Lansing.
The event also was designed to encourage diversity in the city.
“MSU has had a hard time with diversification of faculty,” Cafagna said. “But here’s a great chance, since jazz is of an African-American form.”
Cafagna said he hopes the festival will really take off in years to come.
“We haven’t gotten to the point of making it into a multiday jazz festival, but our plan is to make it a major event in East Lansing,” Cafagna said.
“What we need now are a few more musicians opening up.”
