AFTER GRADUATING from Indiana University in 2006, jazz band leader Sean Imboden went to New York City to get his Master of Music degree—-and found fast success on Broadway, touring with Hairspray, South Pacific, and Young Frankenstein. Yet when he moved back to Indianapolis in 2015 to teach music at Ball State and Butler universities, Imboden realized home is the perfect place to continue pursuing his passion. He was soon drawing crowds at the Chatterbox. The members of the Sean Imboden Large Ensemble—aka SILE—met at a gig in 2017 and have been harmonizing since. What Imboden calls “a modern big band” blends exuberance with control, creating bouncing and interlocking rhythms that captivate both the ear and the mind. Their perseverance paid off: SILE is releasing its debut album, Communal Heart, and celebrating with a special show at The Jazz Kitchen April 26.
Born to musicians, Imboden was introduced to the thrill of performing early. “I very much came up in the music world,” he recounts, noting his rise from gigs as a student at North Central High School to star-studded shows. “A lot of it had to do with just being on the scene long enough,” he says. “I had the opportunity to appear on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon with The All-American Rejects, to play with Johnny Mathis, Aretha Franklin, and Idina Menzel. It all came from making connections.”
He finds the sense of belonging and the liveliness within Indy’s jazz scene to be just as fulfilling as performing at Radio City Music Hall. Hoosiers have a “genuine sense of connection,” he observes. He hopes they’ll listen to the 38-minute album as SILE intended, in one sitting. “I want to inspire people. Not inspire them to pick up a sax or a trombone, not anything like that. But in terms of what [they think] is possible for themselves.”
