Lakecia Benjamin in the 2024 Iowa City Jazz Festival in downtown Iowa City -- July 5 through 7.
Friday, July 5, through Sunday, Sunday 7
Downtown Iowa City IA
With its 2024 lineup composed of touring headliners, Iowa City icons, Quad Cities favorites, and more, the Iowa City Jazz Festival (presented by GreenState Credit Union) returns from July 5 through 7, with three-time Grammy Award nominee Lakecia Benjamin headlining the nationally renowned Iowa City Jazz Festival that boasts music on two stages, culinary delights, artists, and activity booths, with free admission adjacent to the University of Iowa Pentacrest on Clinton Street and Iowa Avenue.
The side stage kicks off at 5 p.m. on Friday when all of the vendor booths open, while the main stage events begin at 6 p.m. with Fareed Haque. Steeped in classical and jazz traditions, his unique command of the guitar and different musical styles inspire his musical ventures with tradition and fearless innovation. Ingrid Jensen and the Iowa Women’s Jazz Orchestra hit the stage at 8 p.m. Jensen is hailed as one of the most gifted trumpeters of her generation, and has performed on Saturday Night Live and with Sarah McLachlan. Backing Jensen will be the Iowa Women’s Jazz Orchestra, which has performed across Iowa since 2017 to showcase the artistry of women in jazz and inspire the next generation of musicians.
Continuing a Jazz Festival tradition of showcasing student performers on the main stage, Saturday starts at 11:30 a.m. with the United Jazz Ensemble, which has been a part of the Iowa City Jazz Festival for more than 20 years. The UJE is a collective of students from Iowa City High, West High, and Liberty High Schools. The student focus continues at 12:15 p.m. with the North Corridor All-Stars, a similar ensemble comprised of students from I-380’s northern region, from Cedar Rapids all the way to Cedar Falls.
Iowa City's Blake Shaw & His Big(ish) Band take the stage at 2 p.m., while Iowa City native turned West Coast mainstay Emiliano Lasansky takes over at 4 p.m. A graduate of Iowa City West High School, Lasansky’s recent highlights include a 2024 Ravinia Steans Music Institute Bridges Competition – David Baker Prize and ASCAP - Herb Alpert composition award, as well as a master’s degree from the prestigious Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz Performance at UCLA (formerly the Thelonious Monk Institute).
At 6 p.m., the festival welcomes Matt Wilson’s Good Trouble to the stage. Wilson was named 2018 Musician of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association and his album Honey & Salt (Music Inspired by the Poetry of Carl Sandburg) won the JJA’s Album of the Year Award. That recording and his previous album, Beginning of a Memory, accomplished the rare feat of an artist receiving consecutive five-star reviews from DownBeat magazine.
Wrapping up Saturday evening on the Main Stage is Lakecia Benjamin at 8 p.m. In addition to touring with her own band both domestically and internationally in 2023, Benjamin performed in more than 20 cities with the Monterey Jazz Festival All Stars, sharing the front line with Dee Dee Bridgewater, Kurt Elling, and the Christian Sands Trio. Lakecia’s latest recording Phoenix, produced by Terri Lyne Carrington, garnered seven magazine covers and a New York Times cover of the Arts & Leisure Section. The album features Dianne Reeves, Angela Davis, Sonia Sanchez, Patrice Rushen, Georgia Anne Muldrow, and Wayne Shorter, and Saturday night at the festival wraps up with the City of Iowa City’s fireworks at 9:30 p.m.
Trio Grismore opens Sunday’s performances on the main stage at 1 p.m. Friends since the early 1990s, Steve Grismore, Mitch Towne, and Tim Crumley have partnered up to pay tribute to the classic guitar and organ trios first established in the 1950s and '60s. And closing out the festival at 3 p.m. is the Quad Cities-based funk/soul band 10 of Soul. The group has been blowing up the Iowa/Illinois live music scene over the past 12 years, and during that time, they have headlined events including the Iowa and Quad Cities Soul Festivals, the Bix Streetfest, KCCK’s Jazz Under the Stars, CR Market After Dark, Dubuque and All That Jazz, Beaverdale Fall Fest, the River House and Tangled Wood concert series, and many more.
During the July 5 through 7 festival, a second stage features some of the Corridor’s top area musicians. The Local Stage will be located on Clinton Street near Washington Street, and the Main Stage and Local Stage events are staggered, to ensure that everyone can catch all the performances. For more information on this year's Iowa City Jazz Festival, visit SummerOfTheArts.org.
