The new Roaring Twenties take off in a special musical way on both ends of Bix 7 weekend with a tribute to the 1920s.

The third-annual “Heights of the Era” festival will be Friday, July 28, at Lindsay Park and the long-running Bix Jazz Festival will be Thursday, Aug. 3 through Saturday, Aug. 5, at Rhythm City Casino Event Center.

The Heights of the Era is a free music festival on Friday, July 28 at Lindsay Park, Village of East Davenport (photo by Jonathan Turner).

The Heights of the Era (THOTE) is free, running 1:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday at Lindsay Park in the Village of East Davenport. You don’t need to worry about parking as shuttles will leave from the former Hobby Lobby lot (2119 Kimberly Rd., Davenport) 15 minutes and 45 minutes after each hour. Patrons are encouraged to bring their own food and drinks.

Tuba Skinny is a popular band from New Orleans.

The band lineup will be:

  • 1:30 p.m.: South Side Soul Kings of Lockport, Ill. (Dixie blues)
  • 2:45 p.m.: Nite Hawks of Glen Ellyn, Ill. (1920s swing)
  • 3:55 p.m.: High Cotton of Monticello, Ill. (‘20s bluegrass)
  • 5:25 p.m.: Matt Tolentino and the New Liberty Dance Orchestra, of Cincinnati, Ohio (‘20s traditional jazz)
  • 6:45 p.m.: The Creswell Club of Sunnyside, Queens, N.Y. (‘20s Dixieland)
  • 8:15 p.m.: Tuba Skinny of New Orleans (‘20s Dixieland)
  • 10 p.m.: The Sweet Tooth Jazz Band of Brooklyn, N.Y. (roots of jazz & blues)

For more information on THOTE, visit its website HERE.

Bix Jazz Fest lineup

There are a couple new wrinkles in the 2023 Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival, which returns to the air-conditioned Rhythm City Casino Event Center, 7077 Elmore Ave., Davenport.

The Bix fest (which for many years was in Davenport’s LeClaire Park the same weekend as the Bix 7 road race) will return to the river on Friday, Aug. 4, 2023.

The Bix jazz festival will extend to the Celebration Belle river cruise on Friday, Aug. 4.

Live jazz will be featured on the Celebration Belle river cruise, boarding at 10:30 a.m. at 2501 River Drive, Moline, with a lunch cruise from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. It includes a two-entrée lunch buffet, coffee, iced tea, gratuity, and entertainment from T.J. Muller and his Jazz-O-Maniacs.

There is a dance floor and there may even be a visit from “Mark Twain,” according to the event flier. Tickets are $59.95 per person, with a portion of sales going back to the Bix Beiderbecke Jazz Society. Make your reservation by calling 309-764-1952.

The new Bix festival poster was painted by Bruce Walters, a board member of the Bix Jazz Society.

The festival will kick off with its annual Knoxville Tap tribute and dinner on the front end rather at the end, on Wednesday, Aug. 2 at 6 p.m., at 8716 Knoxville Road, Milan. The band is called Bix All-Stars, featuring Andy Schumm, Josh Duffee and David Boeddinghaus. You can reserve your seat for $20 by calling Duffee at 563-650-3403.

Patrons of a past Bix jazz fest pose with a cutout of the legendary Bix Beiderbecke (1903-1931), a Davenport native.

The full festival lineup is:

Thursday (August 3rd)

  • Putnam Museum: 3 p.m. — 4 p.m.: Andy Schumm’s Wolverines
  • Rhythm City Casino: 6 – 7 p.m.: Bix Beiderbecke Youth Jazz Band
  • 7:15 – 8:15 p.m.: Hal Smith’s New Orleans Night Owls
  • 8:30 – 9:30 p.m.: Banu Gibson & Hot Jazz
  • 9:45 – 10:45 p.m.: Andy Schumm’s Chicago Cellar Boys
Performers in Hal Smith’s New Orleans Night Owls

Friday (August 4th)

  • 11:30 a.m. — 12:30 p.m.: Banu Gibson & Hot Jazz
  • 12:45 – 1:45 p.m.: Bix Beiderbecke Youth Jazz Band
  • 2 – 3 p.m. Andy Schumm’s Chicago Cellar Boys
  • 3:15 – 4:15 p.m.: Dan Levinson’s Roof Garden Jass Band
  • 6 – 7 p.m.: Hal Smith’s New Orleans Night Owls
  • 7:05 – 7:15 p.m.: Bix Lives Award announced.
  • 7:15 – 8:15 p.m.: The Graystone Monarchs
  • 8:30 – 9:30 p.m.: Dan Levinson’s Roof Garden Jass Band
  • 9:45 – 10:45 p.m.: TJ Müller’s Arcadia Dance Orchestra
Clarinetist Dan Levinson

Saturday (August 5th)

  • 10 a.m. – 11 a.m.: Graveside Service at Oakdale Cemetery, Davenport.
  • 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.: TJ Müller’s Arcadia Dance Orchestra
  • 12:45 – 1:45 p.m.: Dan Levinson’s Roof Garden Jass Band
  • 2 – 3 p.m.: The Graystone Monarchs
  • 3:15 – 4:15 p.m.: Bix Beiderbecke Youth Jazz Band
  • 4:15 – 4:30 p.m.: Bix Beiderbecke Youth Band Awards
  • 6 – 7 p.m.: Banu Gibson & Hot Jazz
  • 7:15 – 8:15 p.m.: Andy Schumm’s Chicago Cellar Boys
  • 8:30 – 9:30 p.m.: Hal Smith’s New Orleans Night Owls
  • 9:45 – 10:45 p.m.: The Graystone Monarchs
Banu Gibson is a bandleader, vocalist, dancer, banjo/guitar player, director, choreographer, who manages her own record label, and is executive director of The New Orleans Traditional Jazz Camp.

Tickets range from $35 per afternoon or evening session, to $65 for one day, $130 for two days, or $150 for the whole festival (not including the Knoxville Tap and Celebration River Cruise events), available HERE through Aug. 3.

Bix Museum stays closed

The Bix Museum (in the lower level of Common Chord, 2nd and Main streets, Davenport) closed after flooding in late April and doesn’t have a timeline for reopening at this time.

The company doing the remediation has just finished the cleaning phase last week and they still have to replace walls and put things back together, museum director Nate Kraft said Thursday.

The Bix Beiderbecke Museum as seen in June 2023.

“This could mean they’ll be done in a few weeks or a few months. We don’t know and probably won’t until it gets done with the way the company has been operating,” he said. “It’s been rather frustrating since realistically we should have been open in June if work was happening at a consistent pace.

“We are for sure not going to be open this weekend or next weekend and have been trying to raise funding to help us with affording our expenses and programming while without any income from guests,” Kraft said. “We’ll be at the Bix Fest next week with potentially some artifacts from the exhibit and may look into seeing if we can get part of the exhibit on display temporarily at a different location until we are allowed to open again.”

In the meantime, he said people can learn about Bix and see the museum virtually on its site HERE. To support the Bix Museum while it’s closed, you can donate HERE.

The museum also is sponsoring a concert on Saturday, August 5th in the Redstone Room featuring BK Davis’s Iowa American Blues Band — the debut show of the Davenport native’s new Blues project featuring Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Tom Nelson on guitar. You can order tickets to that show HERE.

For more information on the Bix Beiderbecke Jazz Society, visit its website HERE.