In The Beginning

The actual conception for the Iowa City Jazz Festival took place on a sunny spring day in 1991. I was standing in front of Ginsberg Jewelers visiting with Mark Ginsberg when he looked at me and said " Steve, lets start a jazz festival." Of course, not knowing if Mark was serious and unwilling to take the chance that he wasn't, I immediately said, "Ok, I'll take care of booking the bands and getting the sound system, etc.,..and you raise the money.

The first year the festival was called "The Washington Street Jazz Festival" for the obvious reason of location. But the second year we changed the name to "The Iowa City Jazz Festival" and it has remained that ever since.

Christian McBride

The City of Iowa City has been very helpful over the years and letting us shut the streets down for our first festival was a big deal at the time. The jazz festival was a one day affair for the first four years and always held on July 4th. The first two years of the festival attendance was only between four to five thousand but still a lot fun. But because of growing attendance and interest we expanded the festival in 1995 to include the evening of the the 3rd as well. We have been feeling the growing pains ever since. The average attendance the past three years has been about 25,000.

Through the Years

The stage has been placed at various locations and has been different sizes over the years in heart of downtown Iowa City. For the past five years we've added side stages to feature more local artists. A few years ago we announced the addition of the "All Youth Stage" featuring local jr. high and high school students.

We have always placed an emphasis on education and over the years have had numerous workshops and lectures led by jazz greats such as Paquito D'Rivera, T. S Monk, Paul McKee, Ed Wilkerson, Ron Carter, Marshall Allen, and members of the Sun Ra Arkestra.

Steve Grismore, Executive director

A few years years ago, National Public Radio and "Jazz Set", hosted by Branford Marsalis returned to Iowa City for the 2000 Iowa City Jazz Festival. Becca Pullium and Duke Marcos was here to record the Festival for "Jazz Set" which is broadcast on over 200 stations nationally including our very own KCCK. NPR has visited us three times prior to 2000 and 2000's festival was recorded and then broadcast several times during the following year. You can still hear past years of the Iowa City Jazz Festival on "Jazz Set"

We have also won several "Tourism and the Arts Awards" for the state of Iowa, and have been named "Best Festival" by several local newspapers including the Iowa City Press Citizen in 2002.

I am looking forward to continuing the tradition this year with our biggest and best festival ever! See you there!

In The Beginning

Through the Years

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

At a Glance

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