Free Jazz Festival Returns to Normal

Reposted from The Pantagraph

By Brendan Denison

NORMAL — Normal’s Connie Link Amphitheatre will be loaded with jazzy licks Saturday (Sept. 12, 2023).

Glenn Wilson’s nonprofit Further Jazz Inc. is putting on its second annual Further Jazz Festival that day, an event produced via grants from the Illinois Prairie Community Foundation. The Music Shoppe is also an event sponsor.

The former Illinois Wesleyan University jazz director and active baritone saxophone performer is hitting the trailside stage with guitarist Rory Stuart, following a 17-stop tour this spring. The jazz duo goes back on tour this fall, visiting Eastern Illinois University; Western Illinois University; Southern Illinois University; Nashville, Tennessee; Bowling Green, Kentucky; Wisconsin Rapids and Madison in Wisconsin; and Ohio State University.

On Saturday, Wilson and Stuart will be joined by four other acts: the Illinois State University Jazz Ensemble, the Straight Answer Jazz Trio, the Carlos Vega Latin Jazz Ensemble, and a newly featured act, Oliver Nelson Jr.’s septet.

Matt Muneses, an assistant professor for ISU’s School of Music, is leading ISU’s 15-piece ensemble. In an emailed statement, Muneses said they’re pulling material from a list of jazz standards that includes “Isfahan” by Billy Strayhorn, “It Could Happen To You” by J. Van Heusen and “Desafinado” by A.C. Jobim.

Two music education majors will be featured in the ensemble’s set on Saturday, Muneses said: alto saxophonist and senior Luke Podvrsan will be centered in “The End of A Love Affair” by E. Redding and sophomore guitarist Dane Rabe on Jobim’s piece.

Wilson said an octet featuring works of the late Dave Pell was a highlight at last year’s Further festival. He said the Carlos Vega Latin Jazz Ensemble is returning from last year with frontman Carlos Vega, a Miami-based trumpeter.

The special set at this year’s festival will be Oliver Nelson Jr.’s seven-piece act, with alto and tenor saxophonists, a trumpeter, pianist, bassist and a drummer.

Nelson said he’ll play a lot of flute solos. He’s the son of jazz composer, saxophonist and clarinetist Oliver Nelson, who scored themes to hit Universal Studios television shows like “The Six Million Dollar Man.”

The junior Nelson, of Indianapolis, teaches music business at Indiana University on the Bloomington, Indiana campus, plus jazz courses on improvisation and history.

Wilson said they got together at a Texas jazz conference years ago for a show reviving music by Nelson’s father, and he later invited the junior jazz player for the show in Normal.

Nelson Jr. plays standard concert flute, alto flute and piccolo, which he crowned as “king” of jazz instruments. Nelson said a piccolo can be heard over any rhythm session.

Wilson said Nelson will perform most pieces from his father’s 1961 album “Blues and the Abstract Truth” and some from the record’s 1965 sequel. They trace back to the post-bebop era of jazz, which Wilson said followed modal jazz styles of Miles Davis, another influence on the late Nelson.

He said Nelson Sr. has stated he was often awake all night writing music for studio producers to hear in the morning, who might suddenly reject his work and hire on someone else. Nelson died of a heart attack at 43 years old in 1975.

In a phone interview, Oliver Nelson Jr. called his father’s 1961 album his “seminal work,” but noted his career was much bigger than that. Only 20% of Nelson’s music was for the jazz scene, and the rest was on TV, he said.

He said his father was a great arranger of orchestra, symphony and string quartet music in both Western and European styles, and a dedicated staff composer for Universal Studios. Nelson said many people have heard his dad’s music but don’t know his name.

Nelson said his father worked with Quincy Jones on the theme of the late-season “Ironside” TV episodes, and he wrote music to the “Columbo” TV special “The Greenhouse Jungle.” He said his dad was lucky he made connections with composers like Stanley Wilson and producers at Universal Studios.

He said Nelson Sr. learned that “you’re no better than the producer that liked you.” If they didn’t like your music, he said, “you were done.”

Nelson said his father would take weekend gigs, flying as far as Japan on a Friday and returning Monday to the United States to conduct an orchestra. He would write Western music on piano in the morning, then play jazz in the afternoon, he said.

As a professor, Nelson Jr. said his philosophy on music education is to touch someone’s life in a positive way. He also wants his students to understand how the music business works, how they can receive royalties and make a living in music.

“Jazz is not huge,” Nelson said. “It’s less than 3% of the total music market.”

Illinois Prairie Community Foundation awarded a Mirza/Arts & Culture Grant to Further Jazz to help fund this program. If you would like to support programs like this, donate online.