2026 Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival at the Rhythm City Casino Resort -- July 30 through August 1.
Thursday, July 30, through Saturday, August 1
Rhythm City Casino Resort, 7077 Elmore Avenue, Davenport IA
With an eagerly awaited weekend of live performances returning to the Quad Cities for the 55th time, the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival will, from July 30 through August 1, again enjoy residency at the Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center. For 2026, the Davenport venue will host performances by local and national jazz acts – the Chicago Cellar Boys, the Bix Youth Band, Mike Davis' New Wonders, the Oliver-Smith Incomparables, Jeff Barnhart's Fats Waller Legacy Band, the Graystone Monarchs, Louis Armstrong's Hot Five Centennial, Paul Asaro, David Boeddinghaus,Andy Schumm – while additional area venues host Bix-related concert events of their own.
As is widely known, the festival was named after jazz cornet player and local legend Leon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke, who was born on March 10, 1903, and lived at 1934 Grand Avenue in Davenport. His father was manager of the East Davenport Lumber and Coal Company, while his mother was a musician who played piano and the organist for the First Presbyterian Church. Bix attended Davenport High School in 1918 until 1920, and the following September, he was enrolled in Lake Forest Academy, though he was eventually expelled.
As a musician, Bix's first gig was in 1921 at Hayne's Dancing School under his own name, The Beiderbecke Five. After leaving Lake Forest, he played with several bands around Chicago and Davenport, joining the Wolverine Orchestra in 1924. When he was only 24, Bix was making more than $200 a week – quite a princely sum in the 1920s. In October of 1924, Bix left The Wolverines and joined The Jean Goldkette Orchestra, and after returning to Davenport and briefly attending the University of Iowa in 1925, he began to play with jazz great Jean Goldkette. In October of 1927, Bix joined Paul Whiteman. bandleader for the Whiteman Orchestra – the group had its own train, was on national radio, and played every major concert hall in the United States, including Carnegie Hall, where Bix played his own composition "In A Mist." Bix continued to collaborate with Whiteman until September of 1929.
According to his peers and music historians, Biz was a true jazz pioneer, having written the compositions "In a Mist," "Candlelights," "In the Dark," and "Flashes," as well as his hometown salute "Davenport Blues." The gifted artist, however, eventually became dependent on alcohol, a disease which contributed to lobar pneumonia, and he died on August 6, 1931, at the age of 28, in his apartment in Queens, New York. Bix's body was returned to Davenport, where he was buried at Oakdale Cemetery.
In addition to the Rhythm City events in the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival, a number of concerts will take place at other area locations in tandem with the fest: Jeff Barnhart and Josh Duffee proving live jazz accompaniment to 1920s silent-film comedies at Davenport's The Last Picture House (325 East Second Street) on July 30 at noon; the Chicago Cellar Boys playing, including on Bix's own cornet, at the Putnam Museum & Science Center (1717 West 12th Street, Davenport IA) on July 30 at 3 p.m.; T.J. Muller's Jazz-O-Maniacs at the Celebration Belle (2501 River Drive, Davenport IA) on July 31 at 11 a.m.; Mike Davis' New Wonders at Oakdale Memorial Gardens (2501 Eastern Avenue, Davenport IA), playing the annual graveite concert on August 1 at 10 a.m.; a Bix Jazz Liturgy at Davenport's First Presbyterian Church (1702 Iowa Street) on August 2 at 9:30 a.m.; and a Sunday Session in Davenport's Redstone Room (129 Main Street) on August 2 at 2 p.m., the event featuring Dave Bennett, Dave Kosmyna, Steve Pikal, and Adler Schiedt.
For more information on all of the events scheduled for the July 30 through August 1 2026 Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival, visit CommonChordQC.org/event/bixfest2026.
