Rozz-Tox’s Northern Parallels series of techno/house/electro/club music events celebrates its three-year anniversary with a party headlined by Detroit-born, Chicago-based DJ-slash-producer Jason Patrick, with Northern Parallels residents Higgy and Mike Derer rounding out the bill.

Originally founded in Iowa City and performing their signature fusion of funk and Afro-Caribbean music, the musical talents of Eufórquestra bring their annual seasonal concert Home for the Holiday's to Iowa City's Englert Theatre on December 20, with GratefulWeb.com enthusing, “The boys seem to play like the apocalypse will happen at any second and they want to die doing what they do best.”

Madison-based journeyman and experimentalist/bedroom-pop weirdo Tippy plays Rozz-Tox on December 13.

A bill of psychedelic, folk-adjacent music in various permutations takes over Rozz-Tox on December 11 with a headliner set by local project Sunshrine.

Fiery progressive-funk/jazz-fusion jam ensemble Kung Fu hits the stage at Davenport's Redstone Room on December 12.

The Sacramento-based legends of Blackalicious bring their brand of brainy, alternative hip-hop to the stage at Gabe’s in Iowa City on December 12.

Platinum-selling, chart-topping alternative rockers whose single “Sex & Candy” spent 15 weeks at the top of Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart, the post-grunge musicians of Marcy Playground bring their talents to East Moline venue The Rust Belt on December 13, demonstrating their continued gifts, after 20-plus, for delivering what AllMusic.com deemed “hard-edged, melodic pop songs with strong hooks and backbeats.”

An annual holiday-music tradition returns to the area as the professional vocal ensemble the Nova Singers presents its latest A Nova Christmas concerts, with exciting and moving arrangements of non-secular, classical, traditional, and contemporary holiday favorites performed December 13 at Davenport's St. Paul Lutheran Church and December 14 at Galesburg's First Lutheran Church.

The stunning repertoire of a hugely respected yet only moderated celebrated jazz artist will be the focus of the latest offering in Polyrhythms' Third Sunday Jazz Workshop and Matinée Series, with the December 15 concert at Davenport's Redstone Room a celebration of American jazz singer Johnny Hartman as presented by the gifted jazz artists of the Tony Sconyers Sextet.

Performing under the direction of Curtis Fischer-Oelschlaeger and accompanied by pianist Marcia Renaud, two dozen of the area's premier vocalists will blend their skills in December 6 and 7 Christmas with the Quad City Singers concerts at Colona's Lavender Crest Winery, with the seasonal repertoire boasting classic and contemporary arrangements for soloists, specific vocal groupings, and the ensemble as a whole.

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