[Dixielandjazz] Update on the Elkhart, Ind festival in June

[Lowell Busching]

Bob Ringwald has pointed out that there are now 571 or so members on the 
list and that not all of them are learned music scholars or musicians or 
both. (Sometimes hard to tell!). Therefore, he seems to agree that it 
would not hurt the integrity of the list if some like myself continue to 
"plug" our favorite music festivals in case some list members have 
missed their upcoming dates or personnel.  Besides the obvious ones of 
Sacramento on Memorial Day weekend and the Sweet and Hot festival in LA 
on Labor day weekend, my festival of choice continues to be the Elkhart, 
Ind festival June 23-25. The price is good, The location is not that far 
from some major cities like Chicago, and the current schedule of 
musicians I think is excellent.

In the beginning, the Gods of jazz made Elkhart a much more eclectic 
festival with about an equal number of musicians from swing/trad jazz 
and more modern players and mixed them together beautifully, with many 
players showing how versatile they were in other then their own genre. 
Now, for a variety of reasons we do not need to go into, it has "swung" 
more to OKOM with one or two "token" trad bands and mostly All Star 
swing musicians.  It is still a lot of bang for the buck.  Go to 
www.elkhartjazzfestival.com for details and prices..

For those who do not have the time or inclination to do so, I will 
mention the major players here.  If you have read it before, just hit 
the delete key NOW or scroll down,   like we all should when we see an 
email on the DJML we do not like, instead of constantly complaining 
about it.  Likewise many of those writers who do excessive quoting  
might want to at least try to do as Bob suggests and use highlight and 
delete when they respond to keep down the long repeats of full emails  
Just a suggestion. No response needed.  It really is not that hard to 
do.. Or use a blank mail screen  like you get by clicking on the top 
address on the digests, and wing the email  off the top of your head,  
Seeing a long quote 20 times in a couple days is a drag as some have 
said.  It does not have to continue as is.


Elkhart, Ind Festival   June 23-25 , 2006

Listmate Ed Metz Sr. and his Bob Cats will also be at Elkhart this year 
if you miss them in Madison Wisc.. In addition to Ed on the piano, 
Elkhart will have Shelly Berg, Eddie Higgins, Mark Shane, John Sheridan 
and Johnny Varro on piano.. Not too shabby. 

On brass will be Bill Allred, along with his Classic Jazz Band, John 
Allred possibly again as an All Star, if they can keep from scheduling 
him at two venues at once, Dan Barrett, Bob Havens, Duke Heitger, Ed 
Polcer, Randy Reinhart, Tom Saunders, and Jiggs Whigham.. No, I do not 
think all of them will play at one time, although it might be 
interesting if they did!  Mix and match on most sets.

On reeds is Dave Bennett, Kenny Davern, Chuck Hedges, Ken Peplowski and 
Allan Vache.

On Guitar, Howard Alden, James Chirillo, Eddie Erickson and Rebecca 
Kilgore with BED , Marty Grosz, Bucky Pizzarelli and Frank Vignola.

On bass, John Bany, Lou Fischer, Joel Forbes, Jay Leonhart, Frank Tate, 
and Murray Wall..

And last, but by NO means least due to the quality, on drums, Joe 
Ascione, Charlie Braugham, Les DeMerle, Jeff Hamilton, Jake Hanna, Steve 
Houghton, Ed Metz Jr. and Ed Shaughneassy.

You like organized groups and singers you say?  Ok.  Bill Allred's 
Classic Jazz Band, BED, Shelly Berg Trio, Boston Brass, The Bob Crosby 
Bob Cats as mentioned, Tim Cunningham with his backup group, The Frank 
and Joe Show (guess), The Jeff Hamilton Trio,  Cathy Morris & Collage, 
The New Reformation Band from Michigan, and Wally's Warehouse Waifs.

The prime vocalists from the above groups are Dave Bennett, Rebecca 
Kilgore and Claudia Schmidt. You can count on some of the others to sing 
one or two songs also.  Are you listening Tommy?

As of Saturday the price for all 4 sessions on 7 stages, with staggered 
times so you can catch at least a few minutes of another group,  is $105 
up from $90 until now.. I told you about this one before so no 
complaining. Patrons are more of course, but if you have to ask, you 
can't afford it.  Go to the web site. Daily badges are also available.

As they say in their flyer, Elkhart is less then 200 driving miles from 
Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis and Toledo.  If you can't handle that, 
you should no longer be going to festivals anyway. Order their CD's. You 
can fly in to within 20 miles. South Bend/Elkhart Airport..  Instead of 
just talking about OKOM, go enjoy it live.

One of the venues is in a beautifully restored old theater that in case 
of REALLY bad weather could probably hold all the ticket holders 
itself.  The other venues vary greatly. Shuttle buses for free from the 
motels for Patrons, but for a small fee others can also ride. Plenty of 
room.

Oh yeah. Check out the steaks in Casy's Restaurant downtown.  No longer 
cheap, but still  Yum Yum.

Lowell AKA Mad Dawg