River Music Experience
A living museum where Davenport, Iowa celebrates its rich connection to the history of Jazz and the passage of music along the Mississippi River. As steamboats plied their ways, early jazzmen playing on these boats carried their songs and syncopated beat northward from its origins in New Orleans.... while bluesmen joined the parade, carrying their world of woe with them as they journeyed out from the juke joints in the Delta. They came to the heartland... past Memphis... past St. Louis.... to Davenport and from there over land to Chicago. They imagined, then brought with them, America's music... and carried it out to the world. The River Music Experience is located in an historic, Victorian Era department store. Media, combined with static exhibits, tells the story of how this unique American artform moved through and beyond our culture... bringing the players alive... illuminating the music... and speaking of local greats like Bix Biderbecke. Performance spaces, and restaurant and retail venues complete the program.
THE CONCEPT
THE PLACE
RIVER WALL
MASTER CLASS

 

EAR PORT

OUR GUYS