The Hornucopia festival this weekend in The District of Rock Island could fall into a pattern of sameness - with the requirement that all bands feature horns and with several outfits making repeat performances.
Probably the smartest thing the organizers of the Eighth Annual Quad Cities Jazz Fest can do is leave Jim Widner to his own devices. Widner, the musical director of the festival and leader of the St.
Giuseppe Verdi originally wrote only a portion of his Messa da Requiem (conceived to honor Rossini) with the hope that other composers would join in him in completing it, but the project never materialized.
New York City legends The Holmes Brothers bring a preacher's fervor and faith to boogie blues, something apparent in the music and vocals as well as the lyrics. These guys believe, and you will, too, damn it. The tight trio - with Holmes brothers Wendell and Sherman along with drummer Willie "Popsy" Dixon - will be making a stop this week at CSPS in Cedar Rapids, but even if you can't make it out Wednesday night, you shouldn't miss an early candidate for the best album of 2001: Speaking in Tongues, on Alligator Records.

Bob Dorr has a self-effacing way, with something serious and true behind it. "I'm like all the dot-coms that are going under but on a much smaller scale," he said. One of his favorite lines is that the genius of The Blue Band is its persistence.

The goal was something young. Young performers. Young audience. Young composer. Those were the parameters the Quad City Youth Symphony Orchestra set two years ago when it asked for composers to apply for a commission, its first in more than a decade.
Though Guy Davis was raised in New York City, the son of the well-known actors Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, he grew up hearing accounts of life in the rural South from his parents and grandparents. He used those tales for his own songs and stories.
In the booklet for Shaffer Street’s debut album is a gauzy picture of the band’s leader, Chris Shaffer, that suggests Rob Zombie about to do some damage – long hair, beard, made-up eyes, and a sly look of malevolence.
Panama-bred jazz pianist, composer, and educator opened himself up to some scrutiny after he announced during Saturday’s concert that this was his jazz trio’s first public performance. But although the players weren’t always on the same page, it was an impressive debut.
Danilo Perez was born in Panama in 1966. His father, also called Danilo, was a singer. At the age of three, Danilo would play bongos when attending his father's rehearsals. He took up the guitar at the age of five and by the time he was 10, he was studying piano at the National Conservatory in Panama.

Pages