Things were cookin` in Du Page last weekend, and it had nothing to do with the mid-80-degree sunny day or the smell of grilled concessions at Oak Brook Polo Club.
What was really cooking was jazz-a jumpin`, joltin`, finger-tappin`
festival featuring some of Chicago`s top jazz musicians.
”The idea developed over the last year, and it ended up taking on a life of its own,” said Oak Brook attorney and music-lover Bill Bedrava, who organized the Oak Brook Jazz Festival.
”Every one of these acts is a top performer; we did nothing but go for the best,” he said.
Bedrava, a self-described frustrated trumpet player and owner of II B Entertainment, brought on well-known jazz musician and producer Bobby Whiteside, who has worked with Johnny Mathis and Barbra Streisand and is the creator of the music for Illinois Bell`s new ”Good Friends are Never Far Away” campaign.
”The bands tonight are superb,” Whiteside agreed. ”I`ve been in the music business for 25 years, and although I live in Darien, the work has really been in Chicago. This is going to be fun.”
Both men believe there`s a suburban market for jazz that`s not currently being met, a situation that Bedrava hopes to improve by making the jazz fest an annual event. Evidence of that market came in the form of about a thousand people who paid $15 to hear performers such as Guy Fricano, Colby/Caruso Combo, Johnny Frigo, Rob Parton`s Jazztech Big Band, and others providing more than eight straight hours of jazz.
Among the attendees were about 50 1960 graduates of Willowbrook and York High Schools.
”It`s a Fifties Birthday Bash,” said Diane Devermann of Villa Park,
”because we all turn 50 this year. We had cocktails Friday night, the Jazz Fest today and brunch tomorrow.”
Organizers hope the turnout means the suburbs will be the home to more jazz in the future.
”We all just love jazz, and wanted to do this,” said Pat Kristofek, the event`s publicist. ”We go to Rush Street and the jazz places downtown, but we have the creme de la creme out here today.”
