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Banner exhibit celebrates 50th Elmhurst Jazz Festival

Visual art inspired by jazz music has been part of the Elmhurst College Jazz Festival for each of the festival's 50 years.

This year, in honor of the renowned festival's 50th anniversary, a collection of banners and album and CD covers will be exhibited at the Elmhurst Art Museum beginning Saturday, Feb. 18. The exhibit represents a new collaboration.

“This is the first time we are showing work from the college,” said Jenny Gibbs, museum executive director.

The exhibition will continue through April 30, coinciding for a time with the jazz festival's run from Thursday to Sunday, Feb. 23 to 26.

“We will have performers from the Elmhurst College Jazz Festival program on opening night,” Gibbs said.

Live jazz artist performances also will provide the aural backdrop for museum-goers taking in the artwork on Saturdays throughout the exhibition, she said.

The jazz festival got started in 1968 as a collegiate festival that added professional jazz artists and high school musicians, festival director Doug Beach said.

This year's featured performers include Dee Dee Bridgewater, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra from New York, and composer Patrick Williams, accompanied by his Los Angeles-based big band.

In addition to showcasing college musicians from throughout the Midwest and from California, Washington state and even Austria, the festival will host a high school invitational event on Thursday afternoon, Beach said.

Performers at past festivals have included Diana Krall, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Bobby Shew and Cannonball Adderley, Beach said.

All that talent inspired dozens of artists to come up with inventive, eye-catching promotional materials.

“There's been quite a lot of artwork created for it,” Beach said.

The exhibition will offer visitors a chance to see art by professionals, faculty and students.

“They're all kind of unique,” Beach said. “They're all great, I think.”

Each year, he said, the festival commissions an artist to design an album cover. This year's design is a colorful, abstract mosaic depicting jazz musicians. It was created by Beach's daughter, Alyssa Beach, a Nashville artist.

Other works that will be on display include artistic renderings of jazz greats such as Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey and Dizzy Gillespie.

Visual art is not the only category of art surrounding the festival.

“I commissioned a book to be written about the festival,” Beach said. Titled “Fifty Years at the Elmhurst Jazz Festival,” the book will be available at the college and the museum, he said.

Jazz singer Dee Dee Bridgewater is among the performers scheduled to appear at the Elmhurst College Jazz Festival, from Feb. 23 to 26. Associated Press File Photo
  The Elmhurst College Jazz Combo takes part in the annual Elmhurst College Jazz Festival, which draws bands and performers from high schools, colleges and the professional ranks. Mark Black/mblack@dailyherald.com, MARCH 2013
The 50th Elmhurst College Jazz Festival showcases performers from high school music students to professional recording artists Feb. 23 to 26. Courtesy of Elmhurst College

Art from the Elmhurst College Jazz Festival

<b>Where:</b> Elmhurst Art Museum, 150 Cottage Hill Ave., Elmhurst

<b>When:</b> Saturday, Feb. 18, through Sunday, April 30

<b>Hours:</b> 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays; 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday.

<b>Admission:</b> $8 for adults, $7 for seniors 65 and older, free for students and youth ages 18 and younger

<b>Info:</b> (630) 834-0202 or <a href="http://www.elmhurstartmuseum.org">elmhurstartmuseum.org</a>

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