BLOOMINGTON— WFIU Public Radio and the Department of Jazz Studies at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music are partnering to co-host Swing in September, a free outdoor concert series featuring a variety of musical acts from swing bands to jazz vocalists and more.
The concerts will be held every Friday in September at 6:30 p.m. in the Northwest Quad on the Indiana University campus. The Northwest Quad is located on the east side of Luddy Hall between 11th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue in Bloomington. Free parking is available after 6 p.m. in the nearby Fee Lane or Forrest Avenue parking garages.
In the event of rain, the concerts will be moved indoors to Recital Hall.
The first concert of the Swing in September series on September 6 will feature the Bloomington North and South High School Jazz All-Stars as the opening act for the Hickey-Shanafelt 9ollective. The Bloomington North and South High School Jazz All-Stars will perform at 6 p.m. with the Hickey-Shanafelt 9ollective following at 6:30 p.m.
The rest of the Swing in September lineup includes Palonegro on September 13, The Big Push on September 20, and The Postmodern Jazz Quartet on September 27. WFIU hosts David Brent Johnson and William Morris will emcee the concerts.
Swing in September is made possible with support from presenting sponsor Greene & Schultz Trial Lawyers.
For more information about Swing in September, visit wfiu.org/swinginseptember.
About the Swing in September artists:
The Bloomington North and South High School Jazz All-Stars feature Tanner Davis on trumpet, Maddy Waters on piano, Erik Jensen on bass, and Scott Sprinkle on drums. Davis, Jensen, and Sprinkle are students at Bloomington High School South. Waters is a student at Bloomington High School North.
The Hickey-Shanafelt 9ollective is a modern jazz nonet dedicated to writing, commissioning, and performing original music written by local artists for the Indianapolis community. Founded in 2019, the band is led by longtime friends Kent Hickey and Alex Shanafelt, who are inspired by the works of Artemis, Anat Cohen, Chuck Owen, Lucas Pino, Dan Pugach, and Maria Schneider, among others. In October 2022, the 9ollective recorded and released their debut album illuminate. The ensemble plans to return to the studio later this year to document the “Kaleidoscope Suite” and record an album of original Christmas arrangements.
Palonegro’s music spans from South American Andean styles to Afro-Caribbean rhythms and Latin jazz and features the original compositions and arrangements of the band’s director, Sergio Ospina Romero. Palonegro’s journey began in Bogotá, Colombia, in 2009. Between 2014 and 2019, Palonegro was based in Ithaca, New York, where they recorded their first album, Two Minutes Apart. After another season in Colombia, Sergio relocated to Bloomington and Palonegro became a Latin jazz quartet with Sergio Ospina Romero on piano, Jacob Smith on bass, Michael Wimer on congas, and John Maruri on drums.
The Big Push is a quintet based in Bloomington that performs a mix of original music and arrangements of jazz standards. The band is named after Wayne Shorter’s composition “The Big Push” from his album The Soothsayer. In addition to Shorter, influences include Joshua Redman, Brian Blade, Joe Henderson, and Art Blakey. This band loves to swing! The group is comprised of Caleb Robinson on tenor saxophone, Nadia Reist on trumpet, Dan Ventura on piano, Alex Hoberty on bass, and Tate Sherman on drums and cymbals.
The Postmodern Jazz Quartet has played regularly at venues around Bloomington since its formation in 2004, including Tutto Bene Wine Bar, Player’s Pub, Café Django, Topos, Bear’s Place, C3, and Morgenstern’s Books and Café, where the band currently holds a monthly jazz salon. The group’s set list features jazz standards and hard bop classics. The band includes Jeff Isaac on piano, Pat Harbison on trumpet, Jonathan Elmer on trombone, Dave Bruker on bass, and Dan Deckard on drums.
About WFIU:
WFIU is an NPR member station and south-central Indiana’s source for news and classical and jazz music, broadcasting from the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington. WFIU is available at 103.7 FM in Bloomington and Seymour, 100.7 FM in Columbus, 101.7 FM in French Lick/West Baden, 98.9 FM in Greensburg, 106.1 FM in Kokomo, and 95.1 FM in Terre Haute. WFIU2 is available at 101.9 FM in Bloomington and 100.1 FM in Seymour. Both stations also stream online at wfiu.org.
