Madison Jazz Festival 2025 welcomes bassist and composer Emma Dayhuff to celebrate the release of her album Inventions through Lineage at the High Noon Saloon on Friday, June 6, 8:00pm. Advance general admission tickets are $25.00, available online at Ticketmaster.
Featured musicians joining Emma will include Isaiah Collier (tenor saxophone), Dee Alexander (vocals), and JoVia Armstrong (percussion).
Bassist Emma Dayhuff makes her first appearance in our series, leading a trio that mixes soulful lyricism with adventurous experimentation. Emma is the most recent bassist to graduate from the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz Performance and is the fifth woman to ever participate in the prestigious program. Emma has had opportunities to share the stage and the recording studio with Herbie Hancock, David Murray, Jeff Parker, Kahil El Zabar, Gretchen Parlato, Robert Irving III, Patricia Barber, Victor Goines, Nicole Mitchell, and Willie Pickens.
Originally from Bozeman, Montana, she left home to attend the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where she studied with Peter Dominguez, Eddie Gomez, and Billy Hart. Upon graduation, Emma moved to Chicago where she worked as a freelance musician and as the recording engineer for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She is the recording engineer for two releases by the CSO: “Mason Bates: Anthology of Fantastic Zoology” and “Bruckner’s Ninth... Read More
Isaiah Collier is a model, arranger, composer and activist. Born and raised on the South Side of Chicago. Collier grew being surround by music, bith his Parents sing and played music along with his siblings. An alumnus of the Jazz Institute of Chicago and The Chicago High School for the Performing Arts, Collier has worked and played with Chicago legends such as Willie Pickens, Delores Scott, Ernest Dawkins, Ari Brown, Dee Alexander, Maggie Brown, Robert Irving III, and Charles Heath IV, in addition to national and international artists Rene Marie, James Carter, Chance the Rapper, Stefon Harris, Roy McCurty, Carmen Bradford, Carl Allen, Bennie Maupin, Bobby Broom, Quincy Phillips, Lisa Henry, Wyclef Gordon, Lewis Nash and many more. Along with being apart of The Advance Association For Creative Musicians (AACM) who's members have gone on to be recipients of some of the most prestigious awards from Grammys, Pulitzers and the MacArthur genius grant.
Dee Alexander is one of Chicago’s most gifted and respected female vocalist/songwriters. Her talents span every music genre, from Gospel to R&B, from Blues to Neo-Soul. Yet her true heart and soul are experienced in their purest form through her performance of Jazz music. From a soft, sultry traditional ballad, to a contemporary Jazz-Funk groove; from a high flying swing, to a scat-filled romp, Dee Alexander delivers each style with a passion and love of music that comes across in each and every note, and with a style and grace that is truly her own. Besides being a phenomenal headliner in her own right, Dee has shared the stage with Ahmad Jamal, David Sanborn, Earl Klugh, Gerald Albright, Roy Ayers, Joshua Redman, and the O’Jays. Not being one to ever feel that the spotlight has to belong exclusively to her, Ms. Alexander has lent her considerable talents as a backup vocalist to the live performances of an array of many other well known artists i.e., Michael Bolton, Phil Perry... Read More
JoVia Armstrong is a well-traveled musician, composer, producer, and educator from Detroit, Michigan. She won the 2014 Best Black Female Percussionist of the Year through the Black Women in Jazz Awards. Shortly after, in 2015, she became an official member of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). Armstrong is now on the executive board serving as the organization’s Secretary and chair of its membership committee. She is an endorsed artist with QSC, Sabian, Icon Pro Audio, and Gon Bops.
Eunoia Society is Armstrong’s current project as a bandleader. The ensemble experiments with immersive technology while composing music intended to be therapeutic entertainment. This project relies heavily on repetition, drones, reverb, delays, and other time-based processed effects. In their practice, they explore performing in multichannel audio systems, telematic shows, and various techniques using high-end audio. United, these... Read More
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