This year drummers rule at the Driftless Jazz Festival! Our lineup of Persuasive Percussion is sure to thrill you. Ernie Adams, Davu Seru and Rich MacDonald will be featured in several groups across the weekend.

We're also featuring some of the best regional musicians such as Tim Whalen, David Cooper, Geoff Lowe, Karyn Quinn and the Jfar Coretet. The results are guaranteed to be amazing. But don't take our word for it - come see and hear for yourself!

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Friday, May 23rd

Jazz 101 - Understanding Improvised Music

Jam Session hosted by the Driftless Jazz Collective

Jazz 101 is a discussion to try to help anyone who feels they don't understand jazz and improvised music. We'll discuss the basic structure of the music, show some great videos of jazz performances and help to provide a peak behind the curtain. These discussions will help any listener uncover new ways to enjoy all types of music.

The jam session welcomes all musicians to perform and all people to enjoy! The Driftless Jazz Collective is guitarists Dave Ware and Ted Parrish, drummer Jason Smith and multi-instrumentalist Tom Gullion. Bring your axe!

Saturday, May 24th

Street Beat Blues - Ted Parrish Trio, Jim Schaffer

    1pm, Viroqua Food Coop, free

Becoming-listener (again!) in Ghana with Davu Seru

    3pm, VIVA Art Gallery, free

Tom Gullion Quartet featuring Ernie Adams, Tim Whalen

David Cooper and Kelly de Haven

    7pm, Green Man Music Hall, $10

Street Beat Blues kicks off the festival outside at the Viroqua Food Coop. There'll be food and blues to start the weekend right! Ted Parrish and his trio from Chicago will kick things into the right groove. Jim Schaffer brings his own flavor of the blues. It will be a great event!

Street Beat Blues is also a green event. One of our sponsors, Prarie Solar, will be providing electricity for the event with its mobile solar unit. This unit collects light from the sun and converts it to electricity. Sustainable, organic meets the blues. What a perfect Gumbo!

Featured artist Davu Seru shares his experiences traveling to Ghana with us at 3pm. VIVA Art Gallery is hosting this great event. Davu recently traveled to Ghana and made some startling discoveries. Come hear them!

David Cooper and his wife Kelly de Haven open the evening concert. David's an amazing trumpet player and his wife is a similarly great singer.

The Tom Gullion Quartet headlines the evening. They recently has great success at the Freedomfest festival in Madison. Come hear energetic, inspired jazz from some of the region's best players. Tim Whalen has built a great reputation as a name to watch and will be playing piano. Karyn Quinn joins them from the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse.

Ernie Adams is featured and will bring his artistry that he has displayed over the years with some of the greatest names in jazz, including, Ramsey Lewis, Nancy Wilson, Dizzy Gillespie and Clark Terry.

Sunday, May 25th

Jazz Brunch with Christie Knapp

    10am, Drifless Cafe

JFar Coretet Poetry Slam

    3pm, General Store, free

INTOIT

Project Fourthstream with Davu Seru, Rich MacDonald

    7pm, Green Man Music Hall, $10

One of the perennial favorites of the festival, vocalist Christie Knapp brings her elegant, always-swinging style to the Driftless Cafe for an awesome jazz brunch. Come join her and guitarist Mike James for a great, mellow start to the day.

The Jfar Coretet is probably the hardest working band in the area. This band has been rehearsing, growing and expanding their sound for the last couple of years. It's always great fun to follow where they're leading us! This time around will be no exception. They're combining some amazing poetry with their improvised ensemble. This is where the Beat generation meant to arrive.

Members of the INTOIT ensemble will open the evening concert. This ensemble attracts some of the best drama and comic talent in the area and always amazes us with new, fresh ways of performing.

Project Fourthstream, the duo of pianist/composer William Neil and woodwind specialist Tom Gullion will take to the stage. This latest work of the group extends the "digital acoustic" soundscapes that William Neil has been producing. He'll be hot off a tour of New York state and Chicago for this performance. Featured guest artist Davu Seru joins them. He is ultra-creative in the many ways he orchestrates music using varied percussion instruments and even found objects. He's as much fun to watch as he is to listen to.

Monday, May 26th

Ted Parrish Trio featuring Catherine Hall Parrish

Christie Knapp

Tom Gullion Quartet featuring Geoff Lowe and Rich MacDonald

    1pm, Green Man Music Hall, $10

The final event of the festival is all about having a great time! Great food, great atmosphere, great music! Organic Valley, one of our corporate sponsors, has donated some great food items. There will also be a host of local vendors providing that perfect lunch.

Ted Parrish features his talented wife, Catherine Hall Parrish. Their work together is always brilliant.

Christie Knapp returns this time with a full jazz quartet and will certainly delight you with some great new material she's presenting at the festival.

Tom Gullion's Quartet is seeking to repeat the exciting music they performed at last year's fest. Bassist Geoff Lowe is coming up from Chicago and drummer Rich MacDonald is joining them from Minnesota. Tim Whalen performs again on piano. It is certain to "rock out" - in a swingin' sort of way.