Andy Schumm & the Chicago Cellar Boys in the 2022 Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival at the Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center -- August 4 through 6.
Thursday, August 4, through Saturday, August 6
Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center 7077 Elmore Avenue, Davenport IA
An eagerly awaited weekend of live performances returning to the Quad Cities for the 51st time, the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival will, from August 4 through 6, again enjoy residency at the Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center, with the Davenport venue hosting no fewer than 25 individual sets by nine assemblages of thrilling jazz talents.
With concerts taking place from 6 to 9:45 p.m. on August 4 and from 11:30 a.m. to 10:45 p.m. on August 5 and 6, Rhythm City will host a trio of engagements with the nascent jazz talents of the Bix Youth Band, who will perform at 6 p.m. on Thursday, 1:30 p,m. on Friday, and 3:30 p.m. on Saturday. The student jazz performers will be joined in the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival lineup by eight other gifted jazz acts scheduled to perform either two or three sets over the festival's three days: genre great Jeff Barnhart and his celebratory project Return to Swing; the Big Easy talents of the New Orleans Night Owls; the Dave Bennett Quartet, a group that bills itself as one that "taps into the pain and joy of living in these trying times, the power of healing, and music's ability to transform isolation into inspiration"; the salute to a legendary clarinetist and bandleader that is the Benny Goodman Trio; gifted practitioners of 1920s- and '30s-era jazz the TJ Muller Trio; jazz master Andy Schumm and his touring outfit the Chicago Cellar Boys; the 10-piece dance band the Graystone Monarchs, whose All-Stars are led by area jazz favorite Josh Duffee; the Des Moines-based talents of the NOLA Jazz Band; and, hailing from Denver, Colorado, the soaring swing-music masters that are Joe Smith & the Spicy Pickles.
The 2022 Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival will also feature a handful of area concert events held in conjunction with those at the Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center: a party at Davenport's Carriage Haus on August 3 featuring live music from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m; a performance with the NOLA Jazz Band at Davenport's Putnam Museum & Science Center on August 4 at 4 p.m.; and the annual Bix gravesite concert at Oakdale Cemetery on August 6, with this year's 10 a.m. headliners the NOLA Jazz Band. On the day after the festival, August 7 brings with it services at the Beiderbecke family church First Presbyterian at 8:30 am & 10 a.m., featuring music by the Benny Goodman Trio. And as a special August treat on the other side of the Mississippi River, Andy Schumm's Chicago Cellar Boys will play Milan, Illinois' venue the Knoxville Tap on August 7 from 5 to 8 p.m.
Festival-goers are also invited to spend some time at Davenport's new Bix Museum, where visitors can learn of Bix Beiderbecke's brief but eventful life at the dawn of the 20th century, view rare films, and listen to his incomparable music. Opened in July of 2017, this museum in Bix's hometown tells his story through recordings, photos, videos, storyboards, poignant letters, instruments used by colleagues, and precious artifacts, including a baby grand piano from the New York City apartment where he died in 1931 at age 28. The museum is located in the lower level of the River Music Experience (RME) at the corner of 2nd & Main Streets in downtown Davenport, with hours of operation 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday. Admission is free, but donations are gratefully accepted.
A legendary jazz cornet player and Davenport native, Bix Beiderbecke was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s, a musician noted for his inventive lyrical approach and purity of tone who delivered such clarity of sound that one contemporary famously described it like "shooting bullets at a bell." He composed or played on recordings that are jazz-classic standards – among them "Davenport Blues," "In a Mist," "Copenhagen," "Riverboat Shuffle," "Singin' the Blues," and "Georgia on My Mind" – and his solos on such seminal recordings demonstrate a gift for extended improvisation that heralded the jazz ballad style in which jazz solos are an integral part of the compositions.
More information on all of the concert events scheduled for the August 4 through 6 2022 Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival is available by visiting BixSociety.org.
