Native Cedar Rapids saxophonist to return home for Iowa City Jazz Festival

The Iowa City Jazz Festival is returning for its 34th year. The three-day festival, starting July 4, features an array of artists ranging from students at the University of Iowa to renowned performers from New Jersey.

This year, though, one performer is also returning home.

Flying in is the Ryan Middagh Jazz Orchestra featuring Joel Frahm. Middagh is coming to Iowa from Nashville, Tennessee, where he has led the jazz program at Vanderbilt University for 11 years. Though, for Middagh, Tennessee was originally the destination from Iowa, not the other way around.

A native Cedar Rapidian, saxophonist, composer and bandleader, Middagh is honoring his start with an “all star group of musicians” from Iowa for the festival. Middagh’s full-circle journey started years ago, when he recalls playing the side stage at the festival in high school.

“I must’ve been one of the rising seniors playing the side stage with my peers … to go to the main stage is really rewarding,” he said.

His “Iowa all-star band” features Des Moines area jazz educator and performer Dave Rezek on trumpet; Mt. Mercy and Cornell College jazz educator and bassist Blake Shaw; and University of Northern Iowa assistant professor Anthony Williams on trombone, among others.

Middagh has collaborated with artists like Jeff Coffin, Wycliffe Gordon and Victor Wooten. He covers varying stylistic ground in his collaborations and compositions, a flexibility he said he hopes to highlight in the band’s set.

“Overall, I have a pretty extensive book of music that my band draws from,” he said. “For this, I try to stick to things that’ll be super fun and engage the crowd.”

Middagh’s set will compile works from his album releases and stylistic reworkings of jazz standards like “Cry Me a River” and “Tenor Madness” (the namesake for his orchestra’s first studio album).

Other homegrown Iowa acts are scattered throughout the three-day lineup, including the Sam Ross Quartet, the Alayna Ringsby Trio, and two jam sessions led by Blake Shaw — the organizer for the festival’s side stage lineup — alongside Jason Shadrick of Dreamcatcher Events and formerly Premier Guitar, who scheduled the main stage acts.

Shadrick started working with Summer of the Arts, Iowa City’s summer arts and culture programming organization, eight years ago. He said the jazz festival’s popularity continues to grow.

“The fest has been going on for 30 years now or so,” he said. “It’s one of the few festivals in the Corridor that really has national attention. The reputation of the Iowa City Jazz Fest probably far exceeds people’s expectations.”

In terms of scheduling, Shadrick indicated talent is not hard to find. Inquiries flood in from artists wanting to gig, from which Shadrick and Shaw build the schedule, including artists the two may have had on their short list for years.

One of those artists, Shadrick said, is vibraphonist Stefon Harris, who is returning to the festival. More specifically, Stefon Harris & Blackout, a renowned jazz group featuring a rotating lineup in the band’s rhythm and horn sections, all focused around Harris.

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Flying all the way from New Jersey, Harris’s view on playing a show in Iowa is no different from playing a show anywhere else in the world, he said. Togetherness is a tenant Harris said he wants to promote, and Iowa City is no less a source of community than elsewhere.

“I love [playing in Iowa City] because anytime I get the opportunity to be on stage and be a part of giving people a reason to gather, to celebrate, to amplify joy in the world, I never take that for granted,” Harris said.

Harris’s music is marked by a contemporary feel, the descriptor “contemporary” being a blanket term and not what sets his music apart from other modern jazz artists. Various cultural and stylistic influences weave their way into Harris’s music, ranging from straight jazz to African-inspired rhythms to gospel to R&B.

Bringing that free-flowing intentionality to his performances, Harris said no two sets are alike. He plans on playing music from his most recent album “Sonic Creed II: Life Signs,” released in 2024, and music from an album yet to be released. He cemented his belief that “there are no mistakes on the bandstand” in the improvisational space, which fundamentally characterizes jazz as a genre.

“The magic of jazz, the magic of improvisation, is in the problem solving,” he said. “Something goes wrong, and you don't know what's going to happen next, and you kind of look to your right at the drummer, and they look back at you and they smile … and somehow you figure out how to take that strange thing and turn it into magic.”

Breaking up the sound is another major performer appearing at the festival this summer. Mark Lettieri, a guitarist known for his work with acclaimed contemporary jazz-funk group Snarky Puppy and an extensive solo career, is playing through his solo work with a quartet simply named “The Mark Lettieri Group.”

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Currently, Lettieri is touring material from his most recent 2024 album “Can I Tell You Something?” He toured in Shanghai and Beijing, China recently and now has his sights set on Iowa City for July 5.

Lettieri plans to create an engaging show that introduces the music to people in the audience who are unfamiliar, hoping to find the right songs to engage the crowd and atmosphere at the festival.

“We will be there to provide the fun,” he said.

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evan.watson@thegazette.com