Students, fans get a master class at Elmhurst College Jazz fest

Anyone heading to Elmhurst College this weekend can leave their textbooks and notebooks at home.

The only thing you'll need is an ear for music during the 43rd annual Elmhurst College Jazz Festival, which runs today through Sunday. The event attracts up to 3,000 fans and musicians from throughout the country and remains the longest-standing cultural event on campus, historically attracting jazz luminaries like Dizzy Gillespie.

This year's fest will welcome professional musicians such as Wayne Bergeron, Michael Davis, Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band, Warren Luening, Phil Markowitz, Tom Scott, Gary Smulyan, Bill Watrous and Patrick Williams.

The fest also will feature about 40 of the country's premier university and college jazz bands that will not only perform, but be critiqued and learn from the best in the business.

"It has its place in jazz education, in addition to being just an event," said organizer and Elmhurst College jazz professor Doug Beach. "Student bands receive critiques from well-known jazz musicians. So they can hear pros, get comments from pros, hear what their peers are doing and perform themselves."

With Beach's guidance, students work year-round to organize the festival by booking acts, creating publicity and securing the venue. Beach also will direct the Elmhurst College Jazz Band this weekend, which acts as the fest's host band.

The event will feature matinee and evening performances today and Saturday, plus a Sunday matinee. Saturday's evening show is sold out, but tickets are still available for all other concerts.