The Bloomington Blues and Boogie Woogie Piano Festival will return for its seventh year this Sunday, including 10 artists performing blues, boogie woogie and other related music styles. The festival aims to introduce young people to new genres.
Boogie woogie music is a style of blues piano that originated in the late 1800s within Black communities but grew in popularity in the 1920s and ‘30s. It is a percussive style of piano playing that involves the left and right hands playing different patterns and riffs.
The festival kicks off at 1:30 p.m. at the Monroe County History Center with a performance and workshop led by Eden Brent, one of the musicians performing at the festival. The workshop is free but limited to 80 people and requires registration prior to attending. Brent’s performance will focus on Mississippi songwriters and female blues pioneers, like Lucille Bogan, Lil Green, Memphis Minnie and Denise LaSalle. She will also highlight original songs from her most recent album “Getaway Blues.” The workshop will include a performance from Brent and will allow some attendees to perform, too.
The festival will continue at the FAR Center for Contemporary Arts at 5:30 p.m. with the main concert. Tickets for the concert will cost $34.12 for adults and $23.87 for children 12 and under, and the show will last about three hours. It will include performances from blues musicians, starting with Bloomington Boogies festival founder Craig Brenner and his band. The full performance order is on the festival’s website.
After starting in 2015, and going strong for a few years, the festival ceased for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Returning in 2022, organizers struggled with funding for the event and were unable to put it on for the next two years. Despite these setbacks, this year's festival received many financial contributors, to help the festival return after disappointments about last year's cancelation, Brenner said.
Performing at a boogie woogie festival in Laroquebrou, France in 2014 inspired Brenner to bring his own festival to Bloomington. Lasting for a week, the French festival introduced him to many musicians who he’s kept in touch with over the years.
Having just retired, Brenner decided it was the perfect time to start planning. After returning from Laroquebrou he began and after nine months he had finished organizing the first year's festival.
Being a musician, Brenner performs in the festival, as well, with his band Craig Brenner and the Crawdads. His band plays boogie woogie, blues, early rock and roll, New Orleans R&B and occasionally zydeco, a blend of Louisiana French accordion music and Afro-Caribbean beats that mixes blues, cajun and creole music traditions. This year, they are the only local performers in the festival, with other artists coming from around the country, and pianist Ben Toury coming from France. Although they had more international musicians on their original lineup, issues with visas prevented some from attending.
“In the past we’ve had other people from other countries, and it was never a problem,” Brenner said.
As the organizer for the festival, Brenner’s main job is finding musicians to perform. His time as a musician himself has helped; performing at the Cincy Blues Fest in 1997 gave him the opportunity to meet many new musicians who got involved with the Bloomington festival.
After the events Sunday, the festival will continue Monday as Brent, along with musicians Henri Herbert, Brian Holland and Ben Toury will perform at Jackson Creek Middle School and Templeton Elementary School for students.
“It’s important to introduce young people to things, no matter what it is, whether it’s music or literature,” Brenner said. “When you go to college, a lot of people move away so they can broaden their outlook. I just think it’s important to broaden your approach and your listening habits.”
