The Bix Beiderbecke Jazz Festival opens today, running through Sunday at the Rhythm City Casino in Davenport, and, let’s be honest, it’s got an air of stodgy nostalgia to it. The Bix Fest was once a much bigger deal, an outdoor and indoor festival at a number of different venues, featuring bands from all over the world. Now it’s confined to a smaller space, in a smaller venue, one which has a built-in audience of people coming there for gambling and other attractions. If ’80s and ’90s Bix Fest was when it was celebrating its heyday, this is, well, it’s not quite... Read More

This year’s Bix Beiderbecke Jazz Festival is August 4th – 6th at Rhythm City Casino Davenport, IA. We have many spectacular bands performing including fan favorites and new additions. Come out and join the fun! 2022 Bix Jazz Festival Bands: – Jeff Barnhart’s Ragtime To Swing – New Orleans Night Owls – Chicago Cellar Boys – Dave Bennett’s Jazz Quartet – Joe Smith & The Spicy Pickles – NOLA Jazz Band – Benny Goodman Trio – Graystone Monarchs – TJ Müller Trio – Bix Youth Jazz Band Ticket orders: https://www.eventbrite.com/…/bix-jazz-festival-2022… Special... Read More

The Bix Jazz Festival continues today at the Rhythm City Casino Events Center, 7077 Elmore Ave., Davenport. This is the 50th anniversary for the jazz festival, to honor and continue the legacy of Bix, the great jazz cornetist, pianist and composer. This year’s festival also features a special guest, Bix fest pioneer and trombonist Bill Allred (who was part of the Aug. 6, 1971 reunion in Davenport) will perform in part of some of the bands’ sets. His performances have taken him to the major jazz festivals throughout the U.S. and abroad. He has appeared with Jack Teagarden, Bill Butterfield,... Read More

Saturday in the Arts is a weekly feature covering a trend, subject, event or personality of local interest. It runs every Saturday morning on your site for the best entertainment and arts coverage in the area, QuadCities.com! Liz Beiderbecke-Hart lives 139 miles from Davenport (outside Springfield, Ill.), but makes the pilgrimage back every year in honor of the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival and her famous family. “Bix is a part of my soul, he’s a part of who I am,” she said recently, in advance of the 50th anniversary of the fest, Aug. 5-7 at Davenport’s Rhythm City Casino Event... Read More

Saturday in the Arts is a weekly feature covering a trend, subject, event or personality of local interest. It runs every Saturday morning on your site for the best entertainment and arts coverage in the area, QuadCities.com! Brianna Hobbs was in middle school when the then-new River Music Experience first opened its doors June 12, 2004, in the historic Redstone building at 2nd and Main streets, Davenport. Now, the 28-year-old East Moline native is thrilled to join the growing nonprofit’s staff as new programs director, as the veteran RME leaders Bret Dale and his wife Kate transition out as... Read More

The Bix Beiderbecke Museum and World Archives in downtown Davenport is raising funds to renovate their permanent exhibit with three of the most important artifacts acquired to date. The $12,000 project will make it possible to permanently display Don Murray’s tenor saxophone and Bix’s tuxedo jacket and traveling trunk during the Paul Whiteman years in the museum. The saxophone was donated to the museum last year by Don Murray’s great-nephew, Justice Tom Harris Jr., and the tuxedo and trunk will be on permanent loan from Bix’s great-nephew, Chris Beiderbecke. Funding for this project will... Read More

No doubt about it, these have been some tough times we’ve been going through. But even through all of the negative events going on, there has been some good news, and that’s what we concentrate on here, in our What’s The Good News? column on QuadCities.com and KWQC-TV6’s “Paula Sands Live.” So, what’s the good news for this month? Creature Feature Creeping In The Quad Cities has a new remedy for all that ails them, as Dr. San Guinary brings his Creature Feature T.V. program to the Saturday night airwaves at 11 p.m. starting on July 4th on COZI 6.3. The one-hour program, hosted by... Read More