Documentary to kick off Wichita Jazz Festival

The head of the Wichita Jazz Festival was in New York City for a gig last week, dodging traffic as he walked and talked on his cellphone to an interviewer back in Kansas. That’s interesting, because one focus of next week’s festival is a fascinating character from Wichita who played a role in New York’s jazz scene during the 1950s.

A documentary called “The Jazz Loft According to W. Eugene Smith” kicks off the festival with a free showing April 10 at the Wichita Art Museum. Smith was not a musician, but rather an internationally known photojournalist based in New York City.

“He lived in the flower district of Manhattan,” said Geoffrey Deibel, a Wichita State University professor of music and executive director of the festival. “He had this photography studio but also used it as a research space for jazz musicians. He recorded thousands of hours of recordings and discussions. It’s really cool.”

The film will be shown in partnership with the Tallgrass Film Association at the Wichita Art Museum at 2 p.m. April 10. It’s free to attend. A brunch with live jazz music starts at 11 a.m. in WAM’s Muse Cafe.

Smith was born in Wichita in 1918 and eventually became a photographer for Life magazine. According to the website for the documentary, Smith left his family in 1957 and moved into dilapidated NYC apartment that became a late-night hangout for the likes of Charles Mingus and Thelonious Monk – not to mention celebrities, drug addicts and prostitutes – many of whom Smith recorded on film or tape. Smith died in 1978.

Deibel said Wichitans are lucky to get an early look at the documentary, which was made by writer/director/producer Sarah Fishko, who earlier produced a series about Smith for WNYC Radio in New York.

“It’s very new,” Deibel said. “This is probably the only place people are going to be able to see it for a while. It’s definitely a not-to-be-missed event.”

The festival’s musical headliner isn’t new to Wichita, but Deibel said that just should increase attendance for saxophonist Joe Lovano, who will perform with his quartet April 16 at Roxy’s Downtown.

“We’re bringing him because he’s one of the greatest jazz saxophonists alive right now,” said Deibel, a saxophonist himself.

A New York Times reviewer has gone a step further, calling Lovano “one of the greatest musicians in jazz history.”

Lovano, who teaches at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, has produced 23 albums on the Blue Note label, including the 2008 Grammy nominee “Symphonica.” The list of musicians he’s played with spans decades, from Woody Herman and the Thundering Herd in the 1970s to Esperanza Spalding during a 2011 show in Wichita. Talking to The Eagle before that show, Lovano said it was growing up as the son of part-time jazz musician in Cleveland that made him “really comfortable playing with all generations.”

Deibel, noting that Roxy’s Downtown only seats about 200 people, said that kind of show “doesn’t happen every day, or even every year.”

Other highlights of the schedule include:

▪  WSU Jazz Combos Concert, 7:30 p.m. April 13 in Miller Concert Hall on the WSU campus. Two student combos, the Maplewood Quintet and the Runaway Quartet, will play original music and standards. Tickets are $3-$7.

▪  WSU Jazz Ensemble Concert, 7:30 p.m. April 14 in Miller Concert Hall. Three jazz ensembles – Guitar Ensemble, Banda Hispanica and the Jazz Arts Ensemble –will present new programs. Tickets are $3-$7.

▪  Fundamental, a Denton, Texas-based jazz fusion group, 9 p.m. April 14 at Roxy’s Downtown, 412 E. Douglas. Tickets are $10, $5 with student ID.

▪  WSU Jazz Invitational, all day April 15 in Miller Concert Hall. Bands from area middle schools, high schools and colleges play for judges and participate in clinics with guest artists. Admission is free.

▪ Joe Lovano Classic Quartet, 8 p.m. April 16, at Roxy’s Downtown. Tickets are $16 to $35, $10 to $22 with student ID.

Several other events are affiliated with the festival. The Wichita Jazz Festival All-Star Band, made up of high school students, plays at Reverie Roasters coffee shop from 6 to 8 p.m. April 11. On April 13, well-known guitarist and Wichita native Jerry Hahn is hosting a jam session at Roxy’s. Both events are free and open to the public. A discussion of jazz-related books is expected to take place at Watermark Books, although it had not been scheduled as of Thursday.

“I’m really excited, and hopefully other people will be, about how the festival has expanded,” said Chris Heim, host of a jazz program on public radio station KMUW and a festival board member. “For a number of years, it was just the student competition and one or two concerts. Now instead of a couple of days, it’s a whole week.”

This story was originally published April 1, 2016 at 3:39 PM with the headline "Documentary to kick off Wichita Jazz Festival."