Dozens of downtown Davenport businesses will activate the downtown neighborhood during Bix Block Parties Friday, July 29, and Saturday, July 30, during Bix weekend. Supported by the Downtown Davenport Partnership (DDP), the event is designed to celebrate the downtown neighborhood with multiple blocks of events programmed by adjacent business owners throughout downtown. The locally focused Bix Block Parties event replaces the traditional Street Fest. Bix Block Parties are located throughout east, central and west downtown Davenport locations spanning from the Rock Island Arsenal Bridge on the... 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

BREAKING NEWS: The 50th anniversary of the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival, Aug. 5-7, will be live-streamed for the first time. There will be five 5-hour concerts over those three days – at Davenport’s Rhythm City Casino Event Center — and you can pay for one ($20 each) or all five through Eventbrite. This link (also on the Society’s website), https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bix-beiderbecke-50th-jazz-festival-tickets-164015884927, will easily walk you through the process. This year, there will be eight professional bands plus the Bix Youth Band performing. The festival venue will... Read More

For the first time in 11 years, the Dixieland jazz of the 1920s will be part of Bix 7 race weekend, with a new music festival – The Heights of the Era, all day Saturday, July 24, in Davenport. “We really miss Bix Beiderbecke music being part of Bix weekend,” event organizer Michelle Solis Russell, partner in Russell Group (the Davenport-based construction and development firm), said Wednesday. A longtime runner in the annual seven-mile road race (canceled in 2020 due to Covid), she said the event heyday was back in the ‘80s and “the Bix was very much a music fest with those two things... Read More

Congratulations to local musician Josh Duffee, who very deservedly won the Bix Lives Award this weekend! Josh has long been a huge supporter of the Bix fest and Beiderbecke’s legacy, as well as an accomplished jazz musician in his own right. Josh posted news of the win on his facebook, where he said: I am very honored to have received the Bix Lives Award this past Saturday, January 16th, at the RME. A congratulations is also in order for Carol Schaefer, the other recipient of the award. I can’t believe it has been 20 years since I started my musical journey with my orchestra... 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

The Bix is back. That’s right, everyone’s favorite annual ode to the Quad-Cities’ favorite jazz musician son is once more filling Davenport with the sounds of Dixieland jazz. The Bix Beiderbecke 2016 Jazz Festival will be held at the Quad-Cities Waterfront Convention Center and the Isle Casino Hotel Bettendorf. Call now to reserve your room for the event! The Isle is just a few minutes away from the historic LeClaire Park Bandshell and other Bix related sites in Davenport. Join us for a fantastic week of celebrating Bix and the 45th Annual Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival on August... Read More