Bloomington Boogies returns with a celebration of keyboard beauty and energy
By Mike Leonard
The Lotus World Music & Arts Festival has rightly earned the admiration and support of Bloomington area residents and beyond by annually bringing a well-curated mixture of world music and culture to the city.
The Lotus World Music & Arts Festival has rightly earned the admiration and support of Bloomington area residents and beyond by annually bringing a well-curated mixture of world music and culture to the city.
The smaller and more specialized Bloomington Blues & Boogie Woogie Piano Festival is a world music festival as well, consistently bringing in pianists from Europe and other parts of the world where boogie woogie piano and related music is celebrated through performances and festivals.
This year’s Bloomington Boogies runs from Oct. 10-12 with workshops, school visits and various performances but the highlight for most is the all-star Main Event performance at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater on Oct. 11. Each performer brings a particular style, repertoire and attitude that typically swings from songs that showcase the beauty of piano mastery to the power and flat-out fun of boogie.
Boogie woogie piano goes like this. The left hand of the pianist lays down a powerful rhythm while the right hand cuddles and attacks melodies, toys with familiar quotations and tosses phrases back at the left hand. Sometimes you swear that there has to be a hidden other piano somewhere.
Bloomington pianist Craig Brenner decided that his home needed this event after performing in 2014 at the Laroquebrou International Boogie-Woogie Festival in the medieval village in Cantal, France. It’s the world’s largest boogie-woogie festival, attracting more than 10,000 festival-goers to a five-day event that includes boogie-woogie, swing, jazz, blues and gospel.
Many of the premier performers in the world of boogie-woogie have come to Bloomington since, including the sainted Bob Seeley, Marcia Ball, Eden Brent and European standouts including Jean-Pierre Bertrand. In recent years, festivals across the country and world have integrated New Orleans zydeco accordion players including C.J. Chenier and Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes, who returns this year.
Other performers and workshop presenters include Jason Marsalis (yes, Wynton and Branford are his brothers), Rob Rio, Deanna Bogart, Yoshi “Z2” Tsuji Matt Hampsey and Silvan Zingg.
And.
Sometimes lost in the organizing and promoting of Bloomington Boogies is Brenner, a versatile player who Bloomingtonians might recognize from his years of playing in the Ragin’ Texans, Craig and the Crawdads and other popular bands. Among his recordings, Live at the Old Mint: Blues and Boogie Woogie Piano, stands out from stature alone, hosted by the former U.S. mint and now a the home of the New Orleans Jazz Museum, a division of the Louisiana State Museum
Backing the headliners, when appropriate, is an all-star assortment of Bloomington’s most respected players at their particular instruments, including Gordon Bonham guitar; Dan Hostetler, drums; Joe Donnelly, saxophone, and Ron Kadish, bass.
Tickets for the festival concert that begins at 3 p.m. on Oct. 11 are $26 for children 12 and under and $37, general admission for adults, available at the Buskirk Chumley Theater box office. For full information on the workshops, school appearances and other details, visit bloomingtonboogies.com. Workshop events are free but registration is required.
