Steve Grismore Trio at the Universalist Unitarian Congregation of the Quad Cities -- November 17.
Sunday, November 17, 5 p.m.
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Quad Cities, 3707 Eastern Avenue, Davenport IA
An area jazz great and recently retired full-time lecturer at the University of Iowa will be the gifted headliner in the latest Polyrhythms Third Sunday Jazz Series event, a November 17 engagement (at Davenport's Unitarian Universality Congregation of the Quad Cities) with the Steve Grismore Trio featuring vocalist Grismore on guitar, Drew Morton on bass, Justin LeDuc on drums, and standards and originals played in the styles of Keith Jarrett, Kenny Burrell, Grant Green, and George Benson.
Grismore grew up in Iowa and cut his teeth on pop-music styles of the '60s, but gravitated toward the jazz sounds of the 1970s through his experiences in high-school jazz and rock bands. He studied jazz performance at the University of Miami during his freshman year of college, and from there transferred to Arizona State in the mid '70s. In 1978, Grismore moved to Los Angeles and enrolled in the newly formed school, the Guitar Institute of Technology. Upon graduation, he returned to Iowa, where he joined the R & B band the Rhythm Rockers and started teaching at Coe College in Cedar Rapids. A couple of years later, he returned to school and received his B.M. in Composition and an M.A. in Music Theory from the University of Iowa. Soon after, Grismore became Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Iowa, staying from 1990 through '93. The jazz artist returned to the University of Iowa in the fall of 2000 as an adjunct professor, and retired as a full-time lecturer in 2021.
Since co-founding the Iowa City Jazz Festival in 1991, Grismore – who has been playing guitar for more than 55 years and is one of the most in demand players in eastern Iowa and beyond– has recorded three nationally distributed CDs for the Accurate label with the Gismore/Scea Group, eight albums with Iowa’s salsa band Orquesta Also Maiz, and three CDs with the Oddbar ensemble. Grismore also released the 2012 CD Besame Mucho with the Steve Grismore Trio and performs with such outfits as the Beaker Brothers, 3 Dawgs & a Bone, and Big Fun. In addition, he has recorded and performed with jazz masters including David Sanborn, Charlie Haden, Matt Wilson, Tim Hagans, and Robin Eubanks.
The Steve Girsmore Trip performs their Third Sunday concert at Davenport's Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Quad Cities on November 17, admission to the 5 p.m. event is $15 (no reserved seating), and children K-12 and college students (ID required) will be admitted free. This concert event will also be preceded by Grismore leading a 3 p.m. jazz workshop presented free of charge to all attendees, with a social hour starting at 4 p.m. and doors for the 5 p.m. performance opening at 4:30 p.m. For additional information, visit Polyrhythms.org.
