Emma Dayhuff Quartet | Arts + Literature Laboratory | Madison Contemporary Arts Center

Emma Dayhuff Quartet

A 2025 Madison Jazz Festival Event 

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). 

Emma Dayhuff

Bassist Emma Dayhuff 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 Symphony.”

In 2015, Emma had grown curious... Read More

Saxophonist Isaiah Collier

Isaiah Collier is a Chicago/Brooklyn based multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, curator, activist, motivational speaker and educator. Collier is most known for his work as a saxophonist, and a drummer as well. Collier's sound and approach is drawn from the influences of other masters saxophonists such as John Coltrane, Roscoe Mitchell, Wayne Shorter. Ari Brown and Gene Ammons. 

Collier has shared the stage with many musicians both locally and internationally. with artists such as Chance the Rapper, Lewis Nash, Waddada Leo Smith III, Antonio Aart, Junius Paul, James Carter, Rene Marie, Carl Allen, Paul Rogers, Bennie Maupin, Rudy Van Gelder, Angel Bat Dawid, and many more. 

In addition to Collier playing at venues and festivals from notable places such as the Jazz Showcase, Dizzy's Club Coca Cola, Lithuania Jazz Festival, the White House, Chicago Jazz Festival, New York Winter Jazz Festival, the Hyde Park Jazz Festivals, Sons d'Hiver Festival (... Read More

Dee Alexander smiling Black woman looking to the right with long earrings and necklace

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

Percussionist and composer JoVia Armstrong

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

with additional funds from the Endres Manufacturing Company Foundation, the W. Jerome Frautschi Foundation, and the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation.

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