Full Concert: Saturday, June 15, 11 a.m.
Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds, 2815 West Locust Street, Davenport IA
Abbreviated Concerts: June 16 through 19
Numerous Area Venues
Appearing as rare summertime guests in Quad City Arts' Visiting Artists series, the Rock Island-based organization welcomes the New Orleans jazz ensemble Jazzy Ash & the Leaping Lizards to the Quad Cities, with the popular touring artists and celebrated children's musicians bringing their smoky yet distinctly family-friendly styling to a half-dozen area venues between June 15 and 19.
Jazzy Ash is a celebrated songwriter, music educator, and founder of Leaping Lizards Music Programs, and now performs nationally with her band. Ash grew up influenced by the music from her mother's hometown of New Orleans, as well as by her father's Trinidadian culture. She trained professionally in music and theatre through her high-school and college years, and holds a degree in Early Childhood Education. Jazzy Ash’s music is primarily inspired by her New Orleans roots and early jazz, and the artist has been praised by Sirius XM Radio/Kids Place Live as their “favorite new musical discovery.” The first single from Bon Voyage, “Heebie Jeebies,” topped Billboard's kids-music charts, and Jazzy Ash & the Leaping Lizards have performed for children and their grown-up companions in over 50 venues across the country, including World Café Live in Philadelphia, The Rumpus Room, National Head Start Conference, Louisiana Children’s Museum, and the Getty Center.
Jazzy Ash & The Leaping Lizards features a live five-piece New Orleans jazz band in which families can hear a live ukulele, guitar, banjo, accordion, fiddle, bass, trombone, sax, washboard and drums. Every musician in the band is also a professional music educator, meaning that kids get to dance and learn about New Orleans' music and culture simultaneously, and Ash’s strong alto vocals and fully orchestrated sound add sophisticated listening for the adults in her crowd. As Ash says, her band's songs celebrate “the movement of life” and are “about all things that move around – bikes, trains, boats, fireflies, et cetera – plus all of the ways we move our bodies, too.”
While Jazzy Ash & the Leaping Lizards will perform the band's full public concert on the indoor stage of Davenport's Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds at 1 p.m. on June 15 (held in conjunction with the area's annual Juneteenth festival), there are also another five opportunities to see abbreviated versions of the ensemble's set. On June 16, the group plays an 11 a.m.set at Davenport Freight House Farmer's Market (421 West River Drive). On June 17, they'll be at the Moline Public Library (3210 41st Street) at 6:30 p.m. Two shows are set for June 18, with the band playing Bettendorf's Family Museum (2900 Learning Campus Drive) at 11:30 a.m. and the LeClaire Community Library (323 Wisconsin Street) at 6 p.m. And on June 19, Jazzy Ash & the Leaping Lizards deliver their final area concert at Rock Island's Martin Luther King Jr. Park (601 Ninth Street) at 1 p.m.
All of the area's Jazzy Ash & the Leaping Lizards concerts are free – with the Family Museum event free with $5-9 museum admission – and more information on the group's summer residency is available by calling (309)793-1213 or visiting QuadCityArts.com.
