After years of neglect and foreign ownership, the historic Bix Beiderbecke boyhood home is now under new ownership and faces a brighter future.
Near the close of the 2026 Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival, held in the legendary jazz musician’s hometown of Davenport, prominent performers – led by Chicago cornetist Andy Schumm – announced a group had just bought the late Victorian-era house at 1934 Grand Avenue (just north of Locust).
Four of the seven new owners (together called Bix House Band LLC) are cornet players, like Bix:
- Colin Hancock – cornet
- TJ Müller – cornet
- Andy Schumm – cornet
- Mike Davis – cornet
- Jenny Vidal Schumm – oboe
- Andrew Oliver – piano
- Josh Duffee - drums
“It really has been an absolute thrill, working with some of my best friends in the whole world to procure the house of the person who's the reason that I personally got into this music in the first place,” Hancock said at the 55th-annual jazz fest Aug. 1, at Rhythm City Casino Event Center.
“It seemed like an impossible task, and I just remember for years, the years that I've been coming here and we've been lucky to be a part of this festival, going by the house and seeing the condition it was in and hearing people say, you know, oh, I wish somebody would do something about that. Somebody needs to do something about that,” he recalled.
“Getting a group of people together who, when the moment kind of happened, to get together and get the house and put all of our resources together was really an amazing thing,” Hancock said. “From the moment we began that process to the moment we signed the paperwork, it was kind of like, is this really going to happen? Are we really going to be able to do this? Because we used funds that we earned playing this music and living it and loving it for our entire lives, which was not an easy task to buy a house in 2026, even one in the condition of Bix's house, but we did it.”
“We've got to work on the roof, and the porch and many other elements of the house to really make it shine and really honor that legacy,” he added.
“That was very moving for us on stage,” Duffee (a well-known Davenport drummer, and Bix-era expert) said in the house on Monday, Aug. 10. “All of us are still receiving messages and emails from Bix fans around the world like, this house is in the right hands with you seven. We feel so great that you own it, you have it, and you're gonna do great things with it.”
The goal is to have a restored house open to the public by next year’s festival, Aug. 4-7, 2027, to offer tours.
“It may not be complete with what we're wanting to do totally, but people can come in like, oh my gosh, we get to see the house all of a sudden now,” Duffee said.
“You always hear musicians and jazz fans say there's truly something special about Bix's music and the music of the 1920s, and that attending the Bix Jazz Festival and Mike Durham's International Classic Jazz Party feels like a big family reunion,” he posted Aug. 3 on Facebook.
“The Bix House Band LLC is just that, friends who all came together as family to save The Beiderbecke Family home so future generations of jazz fans and community members can drive down Grand Avenue and see where Bix began his musical journey that has impacted millions of people around the world with his sound and the recordings he made.”
As a Moline teenager, Duffee first toured the home with his best friend, Rich Johnson, who was the music director for the Bix Jazz Festival at the time, and a leading historian on Bix Beiderbecke (1903-1931).
For close to 25 years, Duffee has tried to do what he could to bring attention to Bix's home since the condition of it was gradually getting worse year after year.
During COVID (in August 2020), he streamed a live broadcast from The Beiderbecke home on the porch, playing original 78 rpm records of Bix's music, honoring the 89th anniversary of his death.
“People noticed the condition had worsened, so I gave them the email for the mayor of Davenport at the time, who unfortunately did nothing to help save it,” Duffee posted on Facebook. “I was contacted by people all over the world who wanted to help save it, but we couldn't do that until the owners at the time had sold it. Well, that moment is NOW!!”
“The support for Bix Beiderbecke reaches to all corners of the world, and we're ready save the family home,” he wrote. “We've seen and heard stories about other famous jazz musicians' homes being demolished due to poor condition, but that's not going to happen to Bix's home. We've already had Bix supporters sending us donations to help get the money flowing to start the vital repairs needed right away (a new roof and gutters to start).”
“And that's what really touches us. It's like, wow, we played his music, 1920s music,” Duffee said Monday. “That's how we made a living. That's how we were able to pay for the house. So we don't have a mortgage. We don't have that monthly payment. So it's ours now. And that's what's— it's still surreal.
"Like, even sitting here right now, I remember being in here when I was 15 years old (in 1995) with Rich Johnson and Les Swanson, when Les was in his 90s. And literally walking the door, and Les is like, oh, I remember when Bix came running down the stairs.”
“I'm here with one of Bix's best childhood friends, and I just learned about a story from him,” he added, noting he first played in the Bix Youth Jazz Band as a Moline High senior. “So even at that point, I knew this home was special. I was just learning about it and learning about the music, and Rich was a big part of that."
Duffee has served on the Bix Jazz Society board for years and has played at the jazz fest since 1998.
“This is about Bix’s house, the legacy here in Davenport, and they were just letting it rot away. Even if you look right through the window right there, the porch roof has caved in. So that's what I mean, it's things like that,” he said. “Why wasn't the city of Davenport citing them for code violations? Well, you're in code violation of this and this and this. They never did it.”
“This is Bix's house. People come here for the jazz festival, for the run. This is like an iconic home, and it's a travel destination for people,” Duffee said. The idea to band together and buy it came from Andrew Oliver and Andy Schumm, longtime Bix fest performers.
On National Register of Historic Places
The dilapidated house (whose exterior is in far worse condition than inside), is a historic late-Victorian frame dwelling built circa 1895 that served as the birthplace and boyhood home of the influential American jazz cornetist, pianist, and composer Leon "Bix" Beiderbecke. Bix was born in a second-floor bedroom March 10, 1903.
It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
Situated in a residential neighborhood of similar vintage on a terrace overlooking a small park, it remains substantially intact despite minor alterations like asbestos siding over the original clapboards.
Bix (who had a sister, Mary Louise, and brother Burnie) lived there until September 1921, when he departed for Lake Forest Academy near Chicago to pursue his burgeoning music career, though he returned periodically to visit his parents until his death.
During his time in Davenport, he performed with local jazz bands and on excursion boats, laying the groundwork for his professional rise with groups like the Wolverines, Jean Goldkette's orchestra, and Paul Whiteman's band; notably, he composed his jazz standard "Davenport Blues" during a 1924–1925 visit home.
Bix died from pneumonia, exacerbated by alcoholism, on Aug. 6, 1931, at 28, in his New York City apartment.
His parents lived on Grand Avenue until 1941, Duffee said, noting his father Bismark died in 1940, and his mother Agatha died in 1952.
The house – which features a 1925 grand piano not original to the place – was bought in 1990 by Italian filmmakers Pupi and Antonio Avati, who recognized its value as Bix’s birthplace during the filming of their biopic Bix. The Avati brothers undertook major restoration work beginning in the late 1990s, focusing on reversing decay while preserving its late-Victorian features, with the project largely complete by 2000.
These efforts were supported in part by the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Society, founded in 1972, which advocated for the house's salvage and connected enthusiasts to the cause, though the society itself did not acquire the property. The roof is heavily damaged, in need of replacement, and the gutters in dire need of clearing out.
The Bix Society merged with Common Chord last fall, but while the Davenport-based music nonprofit has housed the Bix Museum since 2017, it could not acquire the house, Duffee said. Previously, they asked the Bix Museum and Common Chord if they would consider purchasing the house, as registered nonprofits and eligible for grant funding.
Duffee said the museum was putting all its time and money into moving itself this year, from the lower level of Common Chord to the larger space it’s now leasing across the street.
Common Chord itself didn’t have an interest, “because that's not part of our mission,” he recalled executive director Tyson Danner saying. “He goes, we can definitely help publicize— if you guys get it, we can definitely help publicize that you are the owners and here's where you can donate, and we want to help with what we can.”
Museum director Nate Kraft was the same way, very supportive.
“The community is different today than it was, let's say, 30 years ago in that, even the relationship between the Bix run and now Common Chord is like night and day difference,” Duffee said of the Bix 7 board and Bix Jazz Society board. The huge 7-mile road race (which attracts runners worldwide) began in 1975.
“We at Common Chord and the Bix Jazz Festival are thrilled to see this group step up to preserve this historical landmark,” Danner said by email Monday night. “As we focus on ensuring a future for the Bix Jazz Festival and Bix's legacy of music, we are cheering them on as they work to preserve his home.”
“There's no bad blood. It's like, let’s work together and do this,” Duffee said. “The Bix advisory board, which is a part of Common Chord, they're supportive of all this. Like, you have the house, great, what can we do to help out? If this had been the old days, it would have been like, well, we own Bix’s house, you should be helping. It's one of those types of things.
"But everybody is willing to help get the word out, support Bix, and it's just that is a night and day difference, and it's refreshing to have that instead of it being like, who wants to own Bix in the community? It's not about that. Bix helped put Davenport on the map, so what can we do to keep his legacy going?”
The house was put up for sale this past spring, and the sale was handled by realtor Bill Gluba, former Davenport mayor.
“And I'm like, oh my gosh, wow, this would be amazing. And so they had the idea of getting a group of us together that were Bix enthusiasts,” Duffee said of Schumm, a close friend and jazz colleague for 25 years. “We love Bix, the music, and to pool our money and our resources we had to purchase the house. So that way we're not going through to get a loan from a bank and have all the process. We just wanted to just put an offer in and try to get it.”
Duffee called Schumm’s wife, Jenny, “just a godsend with this because she did all the paperwork, she did a lot of the negotiating,” he said. “She was the catalyst for really helping make this happen. And so what really is neat about this is all seven of us, the money that we put into the house, we earned by playing Bix’s era of music.
The Avati brothers had used the house as the American headquarters for their film company, and had a staff member man a desk there most afternoons for a couple hours.
“The only time they really opened it to the public was around the Bix Jazz Festival time,” Duffee said. “Sometimes they would open it during the Bix run, but mainly they really kept it closer to the Bix Jazz Festival. When the festival and the run were on the same weekend, then it was open for that as well. She was just here from 2 to 4, and you would walk in and the first thing that you would smell would just be cigarette smoke because she smoked inside, nothing with windows open. So it smells a lot better now than what it did when, when she was here.”
The jazz fest separated from Bix 7 weekend in 2011, in part because there were fewer QC hotels then, and the Biz Society wanted the festival closer to the anniversary of Bix’s death on Aug. 6. It moved to Rhythm City Casino in 2017, and this year was held July 30-Aug. 1, with an Aug. 2 concert at the Redstone Room.
Returning for public tours
While the goal is to restore the house to allow public tours, it may not have regular hours like the relocated Bix Museum downtown, at 112 W. 2nd St., Davenport. The new museum is open Monday to Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and by appointment on the weekends.
“We didn't want to turn into a museum because we have the wonderful Bix Museum down on 2nd and Main. And it's not zoned to be a museum either,” Duffee said. “What our plans are for this, first, is to get it fixed up outside because we want to get this exterior in good shape. We know it doesn't look good.”
Restoring the porch may have to wait until spring, he said, and they’ve had contractors look at it. There isn’t a set cost estimate for the exterior repairs yet.
“We’ve had a lot of people that have been donating money because they want to see the house survive,” Duffee said. “They want to see it last for generations, and they know it's in good hands. We're just not taking the money and going out and spending it frivolously. No, we're putting it to Bix’s legacy. We're putting it to this house.”
“Ultimately, we want to get the outdoor, get it all taken care of, and then make sure things are looking good. And then our focus is going to turn to the inside here,” he said. “A lot of it is in great shape. So, what we'd like to see done with this, one, over time we'd love to even see this turned into like a recording studio where bands that are passing through town that have an appreciation.
“It's a beautiful because you have the hardwood floors, you have the 10-foot ceilings, it would make a great recording studio,” Duffee noted. “It is going to be a home base for all of us that are in the Bix House Band because we are all traveling musicians. Now I live five minutes from here, but like Andy, if he's passing through the area or he's doing a gig in Des Moines or somewhere like that, or Twin Cities, and he needs somewhere to stay stop over, this is going to be our place to stay.”
"The Bix Museum is happy to know the Bix home is now in the hands of a group of musicians who love Bix and want to preserve his legacy as much as we do," Bix Museum director Nate Kraft said Wednesday, Aug. 12.
"We are excited to see their journey of restoring the home. Many of our guests visit the Quad Cities to see everything Davenport has to offer regarding Bix's legacy, and it's great we can soon encourage guests to see the home in a state worthy of Bix's name."
The new owners also plan to host concerts at Tyler Park across the street, which used to be the site of Bix’s grade school, Tyler Elementary. The first-floor dining room will be an area with more books and photos, for people to be able to research Bix.
“This is where he grew up. This is the house where he learned to play cornet,” Duffee said. “This is history right here, and to me it brought it to life. And that's what I want students to see, and I want even adults to see that haven't had that true Bix experience yet, is that once they're here and they see it, hear it.”
Moving festival back downtown
For the first time since a single concert in 2011 at the then-newly restoredHotel Blackhawk (200 E. 3rd St., Davenport), 2027 will be the first time the Bix jazz fest will return downtown, back at the hotel’s luxurious Gold Room, where Bix had once played.
“People loved the venue because it was historic,” Duffee said of the 2011 fest. “Bix had actually played there when he was here. So that's a true Bix venue. And I think that's what people have been missing for quite a few years is being in a room, kind of how it is now at the house, being somewhere where Bix was. And that's what really drew me in every year for the Bix Fest was like, wow, I'm sitting in the Col Ballroom, or Danceland, where he was playing there.”
“That's where the historians and the people love it, knowing like the music that we're listening to was being heard here,” he added. Now 2027, next year, people can sit in the Gold Room like, this music was being played in this room 100 years ago just like it is now. So we're bringing the history to the present, and that's what people are really excited about.
"And I'm excited that we're back downtown as well because we now have the Last Picture House where we did the silent films, and that was sold out. So that's going to be a one or two-block walking from the Blackhawk; the Bix Museum, one or two-block walk. So everything is going to be more compact for everybody.”
Moving to the Blackhawk also opens up the chance of extending events to the neighboring RiverCenter, Duffee noted. The relocated Redstone Room also will be available next year, on ground floor of the Redstone Building, to do another Sunday concert.
This year’s fest was also special since on Saturday night, Duffee led his Graystone Monarchs in a centennial tribute to Bix playing in 1926 with the Jean Goldkette Orchestra. Duffee is a huge fan of Goldkette (1893-1962), the Detroit drummer and bandleader (Josh’s email starts with jgoldkette and his car license plate is “GOLDKTT”).
“We’re finding people love these themes,” he said of themed concerts, which he picked up from a festival in Newcastle, England he’s played for years, Mike Durham's International Classic Jazz Party. “Every set at this festival that I've been honored to play at for quite a number of years now are specially themed sets,” Duffee said.
“You have a pool of, let's say, 30 musicians. And Michael McQuaid and Colin Hancock, who are the music directors, they will put the musicians with particular sets. And it's just kind of like playing chess. Like, okay, let's put so-and-so here, put so-and-so here.”
Many Bix fans are rejoicing about the Bix home’s new owners. One, Matthew Kulbacki, posted Aug. 4 on Facebook:
“To think for years this building's fate was precarious at best. Owned by people who had no clue what they had and no desire to do anything with. Now. Concerts and presentations and performances and listening sessions galore. Music out the back porch, the front porch, and every square inch of this Major, Major piece of Jazz Age History. A day or two later it still hasn't sunk in. Pinch me. I'm dreaming. I must be.
“My Heart is full. My Heart Bursts. It is as if every last Bix crazed or Jazz Age freak owns a small piece of this Landmark, Landmark, LANDMARK !!!!! building.”
Anyone interested in donating to its restoration, can do so at https://bixhouse.com. You can email them at bixhousebandllc@gmail.com.
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