WFIU Public Radio’s free Jazz in July concert will return to Columbus next summer, station organizers say.
The recent concert held at the Bartholomew County Public Library plaza on Fifth Street attracted an estimated 750 people to see the Al Cobine Big Band. That came just two days after the new JazzIN Columbus free downtown concert series attracted an estinated 400 people on Fourth Street after a rainstorm for sax player Rob Dixon’s all-star jazz lineup called The Blue Side.
No date or musical act has yet been set for the 2025 WFIU Jazz in July concert, said Laura Baich, WFIU marketing director.
The recent local jazz resurgence began after Columbus resident Warren Ward, a former full-time concert promoter and producer, launched the Jazz at Helen’s concert series in January 2023 at Helen Haddad Hall in downtown Columbus with the support and visibility of the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic. Performers have included both regional and nationally touring acts in a venue that opened in August 2020.
Ward, a longtime jazz fan, originally was struck by the idea that the Philharmonic’s Shigeru Kawai 9-foot piano was sitting idle much of the time and should be highlighted more. Jazz artists ranging from keyboardist Steve Allee, scheduled to perform on Fourth Street Aug. 14, to pianist Kelleen Strutz, slated for Aug. 16 at Haddad Hall, have mentioned that the instrument is a definite draw for performers.
Though a briefly expanded format of two-shows-per-artist did not draw the support that some expected, most of the single shows have sold out with a 96-seat format.
At the local Jazz in July concert July 19, Columbus resident Chuck VanNatta was among the attendees and was seated in the front row. He is an Indiana University music graduate who organized an eclectic and highly popular Music at Asbury series here for years for Asbury United Methodist Church, where he recently established a music conservatory for youth.
VanNatta, a big band fan and a former trumpet player in the early 1950s in a big band, said he enjoyed the group’s tunes that were “a little more sophisticated and complicated.”
“But I frankly also want to hear a melody, too,” he said.
Plus, he loved the fact that the ensemble was not amplified, because he did not have to adjust hearing aides.
“I actually could hear very well,” he said.
The crowd, which also included young parents with children, was spread out to across a closed Fifth Street in front of First Christian Church.
Support for Jazz in July came from presenting partner Greene & Schultz Trial Lawyers in Indianapolis and Bloomington and supporting partner the Columbus Area Visitors Center.
Staff at the Bartholomew County Public Library said last month they would be interested in hosting similar events in the future.
