2006 iowa city jazz festival

Recently we made our annual trek to the Iowa City Jazz Festival. My husband and I have been attending this wonderful festival for the past eight years. The past couple of years we’ve also talked our parents and various friends into coming, and this year we also had our daughter in tow.

Every year I write an overview of the festival and publish it here. I had every intention of doing the same this year. As I settled into my lawn chair, I made sure to keep at least one of the fifty free programs handed to us by festival volunteers clean and unrumpled, and I had my brain tuned into what would soon take place on stage. And then…

“Waaaah!”

Hmmm, somehow I began to think it wouldn’t be quite as easy to direct my undivided attention toward the music this year…not with a baby along. It turned out that, of course, this inkling was correct…I think I heard exactly two bands all weekend. And I didn’t hear enough of them to attempt writing about their music.

Was I disappointed? Well, yes, somewhat. There were a couple of groups I had really hoped to experience. But then I remembered that this was DD’s (dear daughter) first festival experience, and I wanted it to be a good one for her. I certainly didn’t expect her to sit comfortably in my lap while I took in the grooves emerging from the main stage…even this first-time mom isn’t naive enough to think that was even a possibility. So we strolled through downtown Iowa City, we danced to the music, we observed the crowd around us. And you know what? I may not have experienced the festival exactly the same way as in the past, but I ended up tuning into a lot of new aspects that I had missed before. And I can’t say I regret this new outlook at all.