From the 2025 Bix Beiderbecke Jazz Festival

The 54th Bix Beiderbecke Jazz Festival in Davenport, Iowa continued its tradition of excellence on July 31-August 3 at the perennially over-cooled Rhythm City Casino. What’s more, of the dozen-plus times I’ve attended this event, this was only the second I can recall when the weather matched the quality of the music. Although the music was entirely indoors, it was refreshing to step outside and not feel like you had entered a steam bath. The temperature never exceeded 80 the entire time, and the humidity was quite tolerable.

The kickoff event, though not an official part of the festival, was the Wednesday evening jam at Jim’s Knoxville Tap, a storied bar across the Mississippi in Milan, IL. Bix is reported to have gone there in his youth to listen to the bands. Several people remarked to me that if that had been the only event of the weekend, they would have gone home happy. The band this time consisted of Andy Schumm on cornet, Mike Davis on trombone (Mike played Miff Mole’s horn during the second set), Mike McQuaid and Richard Edsall from England on clarinets, TJ Muller on strings, Dave Bock on tuba, Paul Asaro on piano, and Josh Duffee on drums.

I also attended the annual free concert at the Putnam Museum, where Bix’s cornet is housed. Each year it is brought out and played by a member of the band on hand; this year that honor fell upon Colin Hancock, who arrived from Austin just after completing his bar exam—the legal kind, not a test of alcohol consumption. That band was rounded out by Natalie Scharf on reeds, Jacob Alspach on banjo, Brandon Au on trombone, Gina DeGregorio on drums and vocals, Mikiya Matsuda on bass, and Kris Tokarski on keyboard. This year the concert was held in the museum lobby, not in the auditorium. That meant there were occasional disturbances from other museum visitors.

The Bix Society tried something new this year, and to their credit, put out a questionnaire for attendees to weigh in on the changes. What’s new was the elimination of the dinner break in favor of continuous music, with earlier start and end times to the day. I welcomed the latter but not the former. People who paid for sponsorships had access to the hospitality room and could eat lunch and dinner there on Friday and Saturday. Everyone else had to either go out, patronize one of the rather high-priced casino eateries, or starve. The results are not in as I write this, but we’ll see if the new policy remains or is modified for next year. I suggested shorter sets (45 minutes vs. 60) that would allow a dinner break and still keep the earlier hours.

I passed on the annual Saturday morning ceremony at Bix’s gravesite. Had I gone I would have missed part or all of Mike Davis’s New Wonders set. The Mortonia 7, featuring Colin Hancock, played at the cemetery, but they had three other sets at the casino so I did not feel deprived by missing this one. I also did not sign up for the optional lunch cruise on the Celebration Belle. I had gone twice before, but felt my time would be better spent at the casino. Apparently the cruise sold out, as did the Knoxville Tap.

There were two events on Sunday that I also skipped in order to get to Chicago to see the Cellar Boys (again!) at their regular gig at the Honky Tonk Barbecue. You’ll read about that next month. The events I missed were the annual service at First Presbyterian Church and a free concert in Moline with four festival musicians: Jeff Barnhart, Steve Pikal, Josh Duffee and Dave Bennett.

The festival bands were these: the Chicago Cellar Boys, the New Wonders, the Mortonia 7 and El Dorado Jazz Band, both put together by drummer Hal Smith, TJ Muller’s Jazz-O-Maniacs, Paul Asaro and His Rhythm, and the Bix Youth Band. Not counting the Youth Band, 26 musicians in all played and/or sang during the weekend. There was not a single weak link among them. There were, as is often the case at festivals, some musicians playing with more than one band. The indefatigable Andy Schumm played in five!

In addition to Bix’s cornet being played by Colin at the Putnam, Mike Davis on two occasions played Miff Mole’s trombone, and Matt Tolentino owns and played a bass sax that had belonged to Adrian Rollini. The trombone and a sax owned by Don Murray are part of the Bix Museum collection. The museum is in the process of moving from its basement location to a street-level storefront at 112 West Second downtown, just a few steps from the old flood-prone site. A small part was open for a preview during the festival, and I went. The added visibility is most welcome.

There was no silent auction this year and nobody brought sheet music to sell, but there was plenty of Bix memorabilia for those who collect such things. If you weren’t there, you can order it online through the Society’s website.

The theme of this year’s festival was Bix’s composition Davenport Blues which was recorded for the first time on January 26, 1925, just about the end of the acoustic era. A note-for-note transcription by Michael McQuaid was played Saturday evening by the Graystone Monarchs. That was the only time I heard it, but it was mentioned that it was played other times during the weekend. Hard to imagine since I missed only small parts of just two or three sets the entire time.

Also honored was Josh Duffee’s inspiration, drummer Chauncey Morehouse. Chauncey’s granddaughter Susan Reed, who has attended a number of times, was on hand with her husband Larry and 14-year-old daughter Mackenzie. Mack was called to the stage during a Monarchs segment devoted to Chauncey’s compositions. One, titled Natchez, probably had not been played since it was written in 1940. I know I had never heard of it.

I could literally ramble on for pages about the highlights of this festival. The highest tribute I can pay it is to highly recommend it to you. Next year’s dates were not announced during the event, but if past practice holds, it will be August 5-8 so that it encompasses Bix’s death anniversary of August 6, 1931. Watch the festivals listings in this paper for exact dates, and make plans to attend.