Jazz Class at the Art Guild with Monika Herzig
~ by Lee Edgren courtesy photo
Is it a concert? Or is it a class? Monika Herzig, pianist, teacher, and jazz historian, thinks you might really enjoy finding out for yourself as she, the Brown County Art Guild, and Ivy Tech bring her Indiana Jazz: History, Scenes, Places and Personas to the Guild and to Out of the Ordinary beginning on March 20, 2018. Monika is an extraordinary advocate for jazz, and even though“ Jazz History” is listed in the Ivy Tech bulletin, it’ s sure to be a party.
Each of the six classes will feature a lecture, guest performances, discussions, and good company. After an hour of jazz history and another hour of intimate discussion with regional jazz greats at the Brown County Art Guild, the class will move across the street to Out of the Ordinary for food, drink, and a live performance featuring Monika with her guest lecturer / artist of the week.
Both jazz itself and the fact that this concert / class / party is going forward here in Nashville, is really a story about collaborative risk taking. Probably few people would suggest that Nashville would be the logical place to offer a six-week-long evening jazz class. But Shari Frank, who has taken the class two times already, found her own response to jazz changed by Herzig’ s passionate teaching and depth of knowledge.
When a Brown County friend couldn’ t take the class in Bloomington, Frank determined to try to bring the class here.“ I loved learning about the history of the people who played jazz. And because Monika is such an expert, she brings out key people that you might never find on your own. It’ s so fun to meet the artists, to ask them questions and hear their stories. It adds such depth and connection.” Ivy Tech was willing to give it a try.
The Guild said a ready“ Yes!” Rachel Di Gregorio, Office Support Manager, notes,“ The Guild has hosted Monika on several occasions and she performed so beautifully, that when we were approached to host her Indiana Jazz course, we jumped at the opportunity.” It doesn’ t hurt that the Guild has a 1935 Steinway baby grand.
Herzig herself relishes the opportunity to make jazz more accessible to people who either just haven’ t listened or think that they don’ t like it.“ The thing I like about jazz is that it’ s one of the few music styles that lives from the process of doing it,” Herzig says. There are certain basic rules, and then there is the excitement and skill of improvisation that takes place within the structure of the form. Jazz is a conversation, Herzig explains. It’ s bad form to hog the stage or to not be acutely tuned in to the other members of the conversation. Listening is the first part of playing.
Herzig has faced“ obstacles” that would daunt many pursuers of any art form. To be white, female, and from Germany, not normally seen as advantages in the jazz world, actually became the stepping stones to her amazing career.“ I have no obligations to follow any path, because there is no path. I have the permission of creating my own original style, I can put my influence into how the traditions come out.”
Student and friend of IU’ s great jazz educator, David Baker, she is the author of David Baker, A Legacy in Music( IU Press, 2011). Her second book, Experiencing Chick Corea: A Listener’ s Companion( Rowman & Littlefield, 2017), was published last fall.
She has collaborated with poet Norbert Krapf on the CD Imagine— Indiana in Music and Words, tap dancers, the Adzooks life-sized puppets, and also collaborated on the creation of a summer jazz camp for teenaged women.
Her website < monikaherzig. com > has current performance information, as well as a store with her CDs.
Her newest project SHEroes features some of the world’ s leading female jazz instrumentalists and will be released March 23 on Whaling City Sounds. The group is touring extensively and will stop in Bloomington on March 8 for a concert with Jazz Fables and in Indianapolis March 10 for a concert at the Jazz Kitchen.
Being any place in the collaboration— on stage or in the audience— is much more fascinating when you have some idea of what’ s going on. Football is more fun when you understand the game.“ The fun
38 Our Brown County • March / April 2018