“Imagine – Indiana in Music and Words, which contains 15 tracks totaling 61+ minutes, includes tributes to the Hampton Sisters – recited by NEA Jazz Master David Baker, various Indiana Avenue jazz greats, and poet Etheridge Knight of Indianapolis, Hoagy Carmichael of Bloomington, and the southern Indiana hill country, the setting of many of Norbert’s poems. The CD also includes poems in response to work by John Lennon, Paul Simon, and Bob Dylan. A 20-page booklet includes the texts of all 14 poems on the CD, a collage of color performance photos, and images related to the subjects of the poems. Late jazz great Bob Berg can also be heard on a track dedicated to the trauma of losing an unborn child. Monika and Norbert think of what they are doing as a contemporary Indiana form of chamber music, an accessible combination of jazz and poetry. Some of what they do can be traced to Beat Poetry and jazz of the 1950s, but they take it in their own direction, with their individual sensibilities and everyday concerns shining through. At the core of their collaboration is a love of Hoosier heritage. Monika Herzig Bio Herzig has been performing as a professional jazz pianist for more than fifteen years and has completed a Doctorate in Music Education and Jazz Studies at Bloomington's Indiana University. Currently she teaches in the Arts Administration program at IU. As a touring jazz artist, she has performed at many prestigious jazz clubs and festivals, such as the Indy Jazz Fest, Cleveland’s Nighttown, Louisville’s Jazz Factory, the W.C.Handy Festival, Jazz in July in Bloomington and Cincinnati, Columbus’ Jazz & Rib Fest, to name just a few. Groups under her leadership have toured Germany, opened for acts such as Tower of Power, Sting, the Dixie Dregs, Yes, and more. As a recipient of the 1994 Down Beat Magazine Award for her composition "Let's Fool One" and with several Big Band Arrangements published with the University of Northern Colorado Press, Herzig has gathered international recognition for her writing skills. More info and sound samples from her numerous releases at www.monikaherzig.com. Norbert Krapf Bio Krapf moved with his family to Indianapolis in 2004 after over 30 years of living and teaching in the New York area, where he directed the C.W. Post Poetry Center of Long Island University. His poetry collections include Somewhere in Southern Indiana, The Country I Come From, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, Looking for God's Country, a recent collaboration with Darryl Jones, Invisible Presence: A Walk through Indiana in Photographs and Poems, and the forthcoming Bloodroot: New and Selected Indiana Poems (IU Press). Since moving to Indianapolis, Krapf has collaborated with singer-songwriters Kriss Luckett and Greg Ziesemer at the Indiana Poetry Festival and at other venues. Winner of the Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, Krapf is emeritus Professor of English at Long Island University and serves on the board of Etheridge Knight Inc. For more info and poem samples, visit www.krapfpoetry.com and http://www.ekfestival.org/aboutus.html