Bloomington pianist Monika Herzig will open the spring schedule of Jazz at Helen’s with two shows this month.
Photo provided
The Columbus Indiana Philharmonic’s Jazz at Helen’s series is widening its audience and tweaking it all at the same time for its new spring series of three shows.
The width-and-breadth issue surfaces in its first concert Jan. 19 and 20 with jazz pianist Monika Herzig, long a favorite with local listeners, at Helen Haddad Hall downtown. Herzig and vocalist Alexis Cole have put together a show, “Both Sides of Joni,” a reimagined, jazzy set of pop-rock singer Joni Mitchell’s tunes for what organizers say might attract “the non-hardcore jazz fans.”
Columbus resident and former concert promoter Warren Ward, the series producer, describes this quartet show — one that he has seen — in superlatives. In fact, he thinks that way with pretty much all of the veteran Herzig’s efforts.
“You could go anywhere in the country,” Ward said, “and not hear any better quality of music than this.”
That opening concert amid a 92-seat layout is the only one of the three that will retain the two-night performance schedule that the fall season launched. But Herzig and Cole’s second night will be without Ward’s idea to include tables, fewer seats and food.
Turns out that the second-night crowds in the fall did not support the added expense of a chef and food.
Ward sees Herzig’s latest concert tour as a way to broaden the jazz series audience — one that filled the place for the last concert with up-and-coming Bloomington sax player Ana Nelson in December. Nelson recently has impressed veteran jazz music critics who believe she could be on a major jazz recording label.
And Herzig long ago did such.
“Monika is obviously trying something new now,” Ward said. “She is so freaking talented that she can take a song by Joni Mitchell, turn it into her arrangement, and make it sound totally new.”
The single-night concert after Herzig is the Jeff Conrad Quintet of Indianapolis on March 15 with classic Dixieland with Hoosier roots or connections, plus even a washboard thrown into the mix and some vocals, too. Ward calls Conrad “a multi-talented horn player.” And the producer sees the genre as rather infectious.
“You can’t help but smile when you hear Dixieland, right?” Ward said. “It’s just plain fun. And Jeff Conrad’s got a big personality, and his musicians have a lot of fun with this.
“And if the musicians have a lot of fun, then the audience is going to have a lot of fun.”
On April 26, percussionist Kenny Phelps and friends will take the stage.
Phelps is a fixture in Indianapolis jazz who has played all over the world.
“He’s best known to Columbus as Rob Dixon’s drummer at both shows last fall,” Ward said. “I’ve been trying to get him here since we first opened the (series) doors.”
He’ll be leading a quartet, bringing listeners a bit of jazz from the Great American Songbook.
Ward is confident that audiences will embrace the new lineup. He mentioned that the December concert crowd let him him know that they’re excited about the schedule. He is for certain.
“I would never book a program,” he said, ” that I didn’t absolutely think was going to be terrific.”
The dates
Jan. 19-20: Pianist Monika Herzig with vocalist Alexis Cole.
March 15: Jeff Conrad Quintet.
April 26: Kenny Phelps Quartet.
For tickets: thecip.org
