Talkeetna Jazz Workshop returns, blending jazz and visual art

Last week, Jazz musician and artist duo Rocco and Denise Iacovone returned to Talkeetna to host the Talkeetna Jazz Workshop. In the program, Rocco teaches jazz while Denise teaches participants to paint along to the music.

The New York-based artists have been involved in the arts for years.

“I’ve been playing jazz for quite a few years, I wanna say at least back from the seventies,” Rocco Iacovone said.

Denise Iacovone said she was “born and bred in New York City” where she attended NYU studying art education. She added listening to Rocco play Jazz

“I realized this sounds like one of my paintings,” she said.

The couple said their journey from New York to teaching a jazz workshop in Talkeetna began when they first visited the area in the late 90s.

Rocco said Talkeetna stood out.

“The other aspect of when we first got here was that combination of, you know, guys fishing, hunting, doing hard work. Gold mining,” he said, “But yet they were artists.”

Rocco recalled one particular poetry night at a local bar when he and Denise first arrived. The couple listened to someone recite their poetry and realized they fit right in.

“He big like Paul Bunyan, and he read off a poem that he wrote, and by the end of it, he was crying,” Rocco said, “And we just said we belong here because this is the place.”

Even with the local presence of other artists, Rocco knew something was missing–Jazz.

“I’ve always found it interesting to bring jazz where it wasn’t before,” Rocco said.

And that’s just what Rocco and Denise Iacovone did with the Talkeetna Jazz Workshop.

However, Denise says the program does more than just teach Jazz and painting.

“It’s really about learning how to think and learning how to accept and learning how to let go. Those are life lessons that I’ve taught students, adults, and high school students my whole life,” she said, “It’s good to be able to look at a problem from another way.”

Rocco and Denise Iacovone plan to return and lead the Jazz Workshop again next year.