It’s time for our look back at the year that was in arts and entertainment, 2020. Every day between now and New Year’s Eve, Dec. 31, we’ll be posting a story painting the big picture on the year, a couple months each day. We hope you enjoy the look back, and let’s all hope for a happy new year and a much, much, much, much better 2021! Here’s today’s installment, where we look at the longest month of the year, and probably the decade, that being MARCH OF 2020. I think if there’s a time during the year that encapsulates 2020, it’s this time. March was complete and... Read More

2020 has certainly been a life-altering, challenging year, but Freddy Allen is getting by with a little help from his friends. The 50-year-old Davenport jazz pianist and singer has been a professional musician for 37 years, performing all over the globe. Spending most of his career in Chicago, Allen moved to Davenport three years ago to be close to family and become a part of the vibrant music scene in the Quad-Cities. He hopes to travel and tour with his music again as soon as the pandemic is over. On Saturday at 7 p.m., Allen is launching a series of online concerts, “Freddy and Friends,”... Read More

Josh Duffee and Carol Schaefer are two Davenport men who are passionate about one of Davenport’s most famous natives. They are the newest winners of the Bix Lives award, given each year since 2007 to people who exemplify what it means to keep Bix Beiderbecke’s legacy alive. Leon “Bix” Beiderbecke (1903-1931) is a legendary Davenport native, cornetist and pianist for whom an annual jazz festival and three-year-old museum in Davenport are named. The Bix Beiderbecke Museum and World Archives (at the lower level of River Music Experience, 2nd and Main streets) announced Duffee and Schaefer... Read More

Ten years ago, when Davenport jazz drummer Josh Duffee first performed with jazz singer Cecile McLorin Salvant in England, he knew he was in the presence of some kind of genius. This week, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation agreed, awarding the 31-year-old from Brooklyn, N.Y. one of its 21 “genius grants.” The foundation – which “supports creative people, effective institutions, and influential networks building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world” — each year hands out the MacArthur Fellowship, a $625,000, no-strings-attached grant for individuals who have shown... Read More

Fourteen years before Aug. 6 was burned into the world’s memory (with the 1945 U.S. atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, killing more than 70,000 people), that date marked another impactful death. Davenport native and jazz legend Leon Bismark (“Bix”) Beiderbecke died Aug. 6, 1931 at age 28, from alcohol abuse and lobar pneumonia in his Queens, N.Y., apartment. His mother and brother Burnie were on their way to New York but arrived too late. Bix’s body was returned to Davenport with services on Aug. 11, 1931 at Hill & Frederick’s Funeral Home, and burial at Oakdale Cemetery,... Read More

Even in the midst of this terrible time, there’s always some good news, always people rising above the depressing and dark news out there and trying their best to do good works and be positive in this world. And every month, I, in conjunction with our media partners at KWQC-TV6’s “Paula Sands Live” bring you some of the positive and uplifting events, actions and individuals in the area. Here are some of the great things going on during this challenging time in the Quad-Cities: Mask Makers Stepping Up In the face of a shortage of masks and a greater need than ever for people... Read More

DAVENPORT — Local musician Josh Duffee has long been a scholar of area legends like Louie Bellson and Bix Beiderbecke, and now he’s sharing his encyclopedic knowledge with a new online show, Bix Beiderbecke: A Driving Tour Around Davenport, taking place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday on Josh’s Facebook Live. “When I have the opportunity to travel the country and the world performing the music I love, I am proud to say that my family and I live in Davenport, Iowa, the hometown of Bix Beiderbecke!” Josh said. “The one thing I’ve heard the most from the... Read More

DAVENPORT — Like many of his fellow musicians who are airing videos on Facebook and working to raise money during the Covid-19 pandemic, Don Gustafson is using the social-media platform for good. The 49-year-old Davenport man makes his living as a full-time musician – as bassist in the Q-C band Funktastic Five, assistant music director at Davenport’s St. Paul Lutheran Church, and adjunct music teacher at Black Hawk College, offering private piano, guitar and bass lessons. In response to the coronavirus, which has closed bars and restaurants, and put musicians out of work, Gustofson... Read More

Have a jones for some live jazz music this weekend? Join Josh Duffee, Neal Smith and Freddy Allen as they live-stream again from Josh’s living room this Saturday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.! As Freddy put it, “Last week’s show was so much fun, we thought we’d do it again this week. Maybe we’ll even make this a regular event whilst we all stay inside and practice social distancing. Josh will be on drums, Neal on sax, and I’ll be at the keys and singing some of our favorite jazzy tunes. We’ll be doing some of the requests we missed from last weeks show, and we’ll be taking new requests... Read More