{"id":190,"date":"2008-07-21T11:00:44","date_gmt":"2008-07-21T16:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs2.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/?p=190"},"modified":"2014-01-15T15:49:58","modified_gmt":"2014-01-15T21:49:58","slug":"a-double-bix-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/2008\/07\/21\/a-double-bix-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"A Double-Bix Weekend!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bix Beiderbecke, for those of you who don\u2019t know, was a jazz genius, a coronet player who jammed with the likes of Hoagy Carmichael and played with the Jean GoldKette \u00a0<\/span>Orchestra and the Paul Whitman Band.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>When he died on August 6, 1931, of pneumonia, quite a few musicians and music lovers took it hard.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1971, some jazz musicians decided to honor the 40th<\/sup> Anniversary of Bix\u2019s death.\u00a0 <\/span>They visited the gravesite in Davenport\u2019s Oakdale Cemetery and planned a jam session at the Holiday Inn.\u00a0 <\/span>Well, more than 2,000 people showed up at that session to listen and join in (according to the next day\u2019s Times-Democrat<\/em>), so they decided to make it an annual event:\u00a0 <\/span>The Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival.\u00a0 <\/span>A few years later, the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Society was formed to keep the festival going, and they certainly have.\u00a0 <\/span>The event moved to LeClaire Park in its second year and mostly stayed there, but what with the Mississippi River being a little uncooperative this summer, the 2008 festival will be held at the baseball stadium. <\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Cornbelt Running Club had the idea of establishing a 7-mile running event through some of the scenic historic neighborhoods* of central Davenport.\u00a0 <\/span>As everyone was already coming to Davenport for the memorial Jazz Festival, the Club set the event for the same weekend in 1975 and dubbed it the Bix 7 Run.\u00a0 <\/span>Only 70 people competed in that first race, which started at the foot of Perry Street hill, wound down Kirkwood Boulevard and around through a deceptively challenging course before\u00a0 <\/span>turning around at McClellan Boulevard and East River Drive.\u00a0 <\/span>But by 1980, several world class runners\u2014including Olympic gold medalists Frank Shorter and Joan Benoit\u2014had joined in, giving the race national publicity and sending participation through the roof.\u00a0 <\/span>In 1983, they had to switch the starting line to the foot of four-lane Brady Street hill to accommodate the expansion.\u00a0 <\/span>Since then, thousands of runners have registered each year–and thousands of cheerleaders have hollered them up and down the course and into the major party and recovery site downtown.**\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So come on down (or up, or over) to Davenport this weekend (that would be the 26th<\/sup> and 27th<\/sup>) to work up a sweat running, cheering, clapping, or jamming at the Bix 7 Road Race or the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival.\u00a0 <\/span>You\u2019ll see us at the finish line\u2014the Main Street library will be closed.***<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

(Posted by Sarah)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

_______________________________________________<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>*Which includes some of the highest hills and steepest grades in the city, too, but we\u2019re sure<\/em> that\u2019s just a coincidence.<\/span><\/p>\n

** Which is most appreciated, since the only way some of us can get up that looong initial hill\u2014a 12% grade, according to our Public Works Department– is through the encouragement of others!<\/span><\/p>\n

***Mostly because you can\u2019t get near the library during the race!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bix Beiderbecke, for those of you who don\u2019t know, was a jazz genius, a coronet player who jammed with the likes of Hoagy Carmichael and played with the Jean GoldKette \u00a0Orchestra and the Paul Whitman Band.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When he died on … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[323,84,417,418,419,23],"class_list":["post-190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-history","tag-bix-7-road-race","tag-bix-beiderbecke","tag-bix-beiderbecke-memorial-jazz-festival","tag-bix-beiderbecke-memorial-society","tag-cornbelt-running-club","tag-oakdale-cemetery"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd0CXc-34","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1687,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190\/revisions\/1687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}