Art Museum offers 'Jazz in July'

The IU Art Museum is home to the vibrant, soulful sounds of jazz in its Jazz in July series every Friday this month. Most of the events are scheduled to take place in the Sculpture Terrace, adding a visual edge to the musicians' work. When it rains, the concerts are moved inside the museum.\nLast Friday Rachel and Sara Caswell of The Caswell Sisters performed. They both grew up in a musical family with both their parents having doctoral degrees in musicology. Their father taught at IU and retired in 1996. Both sisters are alumni of the IU School of Music with Sara graduating in 2000 and Rachel in 1995. They have been performing jazz together for over five years, but their music history is much longer. Sara began playing the violin at age five and Rachel learned cello at age 10.\n"We have been playing together ever since," Rachel said. \nSara still performs the violin, but Rachel now sings during their performances. The women said their jazz concerts are a reflection of their close relationship. Rachel's voice often reflects the sounds of Sara's violin. They design their concerts with some arrangement but also include improvisation.\n"We want to take the audience on a journey with the music," Sara said.\nRachel will perform at a fund-raiser for Bloomington High School North Bands Aug. 21 at Burnham Woods. Tickets can be purchased at the Bloomington cooking school, Books, Crooks & Spaceman, Burnham Woods Nursery, Brown County Winery, Goods for Cooks, ProWinds and Tutto Bene.\nJazz in July continues with a concert each Friday until the end of the month with three concerts remaining.\nThe Bill Lancton Quartet will perform Friday. Lancton, a guitarist, is part of the world renowned group Dog Talk and pulls influences from funk, jazz, rock and country music. The performance will highlight jazz versions of Joni Mitchell and other artists from the 1960s and '70s. Lancton also performed at Jazz in July last year.\n"It was fantastic," said Joanna Davis, coordinator of Jazz in July and marketing and events manager for the IU Art Museum. "He plays with a lot of energy. His band comes to have a good time, and he really feeds off of the crowd, and he plays into the grooves." \nSaxophone Cartel, a sextet composed of IU students, pushes the boundaries of the saxophone and performs July 23. Their concert will draw from rock, classical, ragtime and free jazz. \nThe final show of the season will be July 30 with The Riverboat Ramblers with Marty Hodapp. Hodapp is a jazz historian and professor at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis and Marian College. Davis said when Hodapp performed at Jazz in July a couple of years ago, he used his historical knowledge to teach the audience about his music.\n"He spends quite a bit of time with the crowd giving them stories about the songs and jazz artists who wrote them," Davis said. "He mixes the music with the history of Dixieland jazz. The audience really appreciates it. You see a lot of them laughing at some of the stories that he tells."\nThe performance will include many Dixieland jazz favorites. \nBloomington Brewing Company, Oliver Winery and Pizza Express will sell refreshments at the events. There is also a special exhibit titled "Improvisation and Rhythm in African Textiles," which is only open during Jazz in July events. The curator will give a brief tour of the exhibit before Hodapp's performance July 30.\nDavis said the performances are very popular and fill up very quickly.\n"It is a good idea to show up early. It's certainly hard to find a seat and sometimes difficult to find a place to stand," Davis said. "We're in our 14th year, and it seems that each year our attendance numbers get even larger. It's a really fun way to enjoy the art museum in a different way."\nThe Jazz in July concerts are free and open to the public, but donations are accepted and appreciated. Each concert begins at 6:30 p.m. and features a free raffle with prizes ranging from T-shirts to CDs. \n-- Contact staff writer Maurina Paradise at paradise@indiana.edu