After the first Evergreen Jazz Festival in 2001, organizers and musicians alike were not sure whether there would be a second. Now, 22 years and 19 festivals later, the event is stronger than ever.

The 20th anniversary Evergreen Jazz Festival July 28-30 hosted around 2,000 people, according to Jim Reiners, the festival’s marketing director. The music was endless from Friday to Sunday across five venues in town with a mix of local and national bands.

Reiners is the last of the original seven event organizers. He said attendance and finances were the most significant issues for the first event.

“The first one was a marvelous musical event and a financial disaster,” Reiners said.

The seven organizers decided to take 2002 off to develop a fundraising and business plan. Since then, the festival has marched on yearly, only missing one more due to the pandemic.

Festival organizers also tout the high caliber of performers who participate in the festival each year. Reiners said that expectations started from the beginning with the founder of the event, Sterling Nelson, who died in 2020. Nelson selected which bands played each year.

Many of the musicians that performed this year had a long history with the event. Jon-Erik Kellso, trumpeter and leader of James Dapogny’s Chicago Jazz Band, said they performed at the first festival in 2001.

“We’ve lost some of our key members and haven’t played here for nine years, but we decided to reunite for the 20th,” Kellso said.

Reiners said most jazz festivals across the country are very well traveled with some people traveling from festival to festival to hear the music. Evergreen’s festival is unique because of the town’s scenery and the venues’ intimacy.

“There’s a wonderful rapport that gets going between the musicians and the audience,” Reiners said.

Tuba player Bill Clark, the leader of the Queen City Jazz Band with Wende Harston, said his band performed at the second festival in 2003. Clark also lives in the Evergreen area.

“I’m really pleased to see how many local people come out to the festival each year,” Clark said. “You don’t see that in too many other places.”

Hal Smith is another musician who performed at both this year’s festival and the first one, but with two different bands. He played the drums for Capt. John Royen’s New Orleans Rhythm this year and was with the Roadrunners in 2001.

Smith said performing in Evergreen is much different from most of the other locations he performs at across the country. 

“Evergreen is the only place I’ve ever been where a herd of elk interrupted our performance,” he said. “I guess they wanted to check out the music.”

Reiners said the festival is the perfect casual environment to meet some of the best jazz musicians in the country who have been performing for decades.

“These (musicians) are the real deal,” he said. "It’s so easy here to just go up and talk to them because they want to talk to you, too. I think that’s why everybody likes coming back.”