Justin Drwencke, the Assistant Director of Parks, Recreation & Arts for the City of East Lansing, has worked on the jazz festival for the past six years, four of those being in-person. 

“I think that what is really special about this event is that this demonstrates kind of the special partnership between the city and the university,” Drwencke said.

The City of East Lansing works closely with the Jazz Studies program at Michigan State University, with Randy Napoleon, a guitar professor, acting as the artistic director. Many of the performers are also students and professors at MSU. 

“It's a really great opportunity to bring people downtown and experience jazz music,” Drwencke said. “And really, our mission for the event is to build community while promoting jazz.”

Mary Devine found out about the festival through a friend in a math research program she’s doing at MSU this summer. Originally from Rochester, New York, Devine said she “wanted to come see the community.”

“Being able to get so many people of different ages all together at one event has been awesome,” Devine said.

Devine’s favorite performance was by Randy Gilespie on Friday, who brought multiple other performers on stage with him.

Drwencke’s favorite was the State of the Sax summit that followed Gilespie, although all were “fantastic.”

“I actually grew up playing saxophone,” he said. “I played saxophone in the Spartan Marching Band, so it was great to see that instrument featured.” 

Every year, Drwencke feels the urge to “dig the horn out of the closet, play it again,” he said.

For Ken Jones, president of the volunteer board, his favorite performances have been by artists who are “playing with their heart.”

“It can be regular jazz, or it could be smooth jazz, but if they're playing it with their soul, and I see the audience enjoying it and getting into it — that's what moves me,” Jones said. 

Jones had one of those moments on Friday evening, during a performance by Sean Dobbins, where he spotted a woman dancing by herself in the street. 

When the performance was over, she went up to the stage and said, “Now you’ve really made me focus on jazz. At first, I thought jazz was elevator music and didn't understand it.”

“That’s the problem with a lot of music, whether it's classical music or country,” Jones said. “If you have somebody (who) can really play that music, or any music, and reach the person's soul or their heart — that's what it's all about.”

Drwencke shared a similar sentiment: 

“Even if jazz isn't something that you're necessarily familiar with, or you don't know if you love it yet, anybody that comes out is going to find something that they like, because there's a little bit of everything.”