Opening The 42nd Annual Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Festival

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bix 001Some jobs are taken for the money, some are taken for the prestige and still others are played only because they are fun and that’s what the past week was all about. A very good friend invited me to play with his Dixieland band at the opening of the Bix Beiderbecke Dixieland Festival in Davenport, Iowa. From Branson to Davenport is no less than 8 hours drive away but due to the fact that we had not played together for 45 years, I agreed at once knowing that friendship and good music trumps all distance.

The setting was the Porch Party in front of the Main Street Library in Davenport. As the news article in the Quad-City Times stated “The Porch Party kicked off the 42nd annual Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival. In honor of Bix Beiderbecke, the jazz cornet great from Davenport, Bruce Chidester made sure to remind the crowd of who the man was and what was unique about his sound.

“Each line he played was like a conversation,” Chidester said, after demonstrating a stanza or two of Bix’s music on his cornet. “You all should feel proud to live in the same town that Bix was from”.

The Prairie Ramblers…Leader Don Estes (trombone), Bruce Chidester (trumpet), Terry Smith (clarinet, soprano sax), Mike Meinert (guitar), Russ Reyman (piano, vocal), Gus Tripolis (drums), Bob Kluever (bass vocal).

The Prairie Ramblers is the concept of Don Estes and as he told me, “My goal was to create a band whose musicians collectively had a broad repertoire of Jazz and the musical knowledge and abilities to create authentic style and sounds appropriate to the various styles. Each member is a virtuoso. All of this is achieved in the purest sense of Jazz. There are no charts. Everything is improvised. The musicians play using their hearts, souls, and creativity for just that audience at that moment. The Prairie Ramblers have played for the Davenport Library’s Bix Porch Party Benefit for more than 20 years”.

I want to thank Don and the band for allowing me to perform with them and suggest that you check them out if you happen to be in the Davenport area.

Bruce was a member of the faculty at the University of Northern Iowa, School of Music in Cedar Falls from 1969 until his retirement in 1999. He has performed with many well-known entertainers such as Bob Hope, Jim Nabors, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Anita Bryant, Carman Cavalara, Victor Borgie, the Four Freshman, Blackstone the Magician, Bobby Vinton and John Davidson.

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2 thoughts on “Opening The 42nd Annual Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Festival”

  1. Don Estes

    Nice article!!!

    • Bruce Chidester

      Great playing again with you and I hope we do it sooner than every 45 years!

      Thanks again for lunch and stay well.

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