By Devyn Young
Iowa City, a U.N. City of Literature, will be a city of music this weekend, becoming the home of the largest Blues and Boogie-Woogie music festival in the country.
The Englert Theater, Nolte Academy, and the Sheraton Hotel will welcome Chase Garrett’s sixth-annual Blues and Boogie-Woogie Piano Stomp Festival Friday and Saturday. Tickets range from $30 to $70.
“In the past, it’s kind of just been a one-man concert featuring a bunch of international pianists,” Garrett said. “This year, we’ve turned it into a festival.”
Garrett, an Iowa City native, began playing blues and boogie woogie music professionally at 17, quickly moving up to venues throughout the United States and Europe. The Piano Stomp Festival got started after Garrett’s mother passed away.
“I took some of the money she left me and my sister to further my career and my passion,” he said. “I took that and decided I wanted to pursue my passion here in Iowa City and create a base for this music here.”
Six years later, the concert is a large and internationally known music festival. This year will feature two nights of the Piano Stomp as well as dance classes, workshops, and two large swing dances at the Sheraton Hotel.
Festival preparations began in February and haven’t stopped since.
The first snag came in solidifying a location. The Englert had been booked for the dates Garrett originally wanted for the festival.
“I thought, ‘Well, I’ve always done it here; what am I going to do?’ ” Garrett said. “But then, I just said I have to do it at the Englert.”
Garrett eventually worked out a deal with the Englert. Since booking that venue, he has been busy booking more places and finding artists to fill them.
For the first concert, at 7 p.m. Friday, Garrett turned to Joe Smith and the Spicy Pickles Vintage Jazz Band.
“I do all the not-fun parts of the gig,” Smith said about his position as band leader. “I deal will all of the logistics of making sure people know where they’re supposed to be and when they’re supposed to be there. I pick what tunes we are going to do, and I commission original music.”
Smith’s love of boogie-woogie stems in part from its cross-generational appeal.
“The intention of the music really is the celebration of life … there are the difficult times, with the crying and the screaming, or whether it’s the really wonderful times,” he said. “This music makes people want to dance, and it’s really about the relationship between the music and the dance. It really is a celebration.”
Smith got to know Garrett in 2009. He was walking downtown and spotted Garrett playing one of the public pianos set up throughout central Iowa City.
“It became a regular thing for him to be outside in the afternoon playing music and getting people’s attention,” Smith said. “We jammed, played some music there. That’s when I really saw what he was trying to do with the first year of the Piano Stomp Festival. That was really cool, and it was really neat to watch him progress the event and evolve.”
Based in Denver, the Spicy Pickles had some traveling ahead of it for this festival. Not as much as some others, though. Some musicians and artists are coming from Sweden, Switzerland, and Hungary.
Balázs Dániel, who will travel from Hungary to play in the Piano Stomp Concert, will be in the United States for the first time.
“This music was born here, so it is a big honor that I can play your music for you,” Dániel said. “It is also a new experience to get to know the audience here, because they are very enthusiastic.”
Dániel has been in the United States for a few days now, and he looks forward to a return trip.
“I will spend three weeks all in all here … but I already would like to come back,” he said.
At Dániel’s own boogie-woogie festival, Garrett met Rasmus Holmqvist, a dancer from Sweden.
“I started dancing because my parents said that I should try everything, so I tried the Swedish couple dancing, Bugg, at the local dance club in our hometown, Eskilstuna,” Holmqvist said. “After that lesson, I was hooked.”
As soon as he spoke with Garrett, Holmqvist knew he wanted to be involved in the Piano Stomp Festival, so he, too, agreed to make his first trip to the United States.
“Chase told us about his festival, so of course we wanted to go there, both to see him and hear some great music,” Homqvist said.
With people visiting from all over the world, Dániel said, this shows the love people have for blues and boogie-woogie.
“It has so much soul and energy to it,” he said. “Boogie-woogie is a very happy music, and people like to have fun at a concert.”