Add me to the MMC email list
to receive announcements of future programs and other news about the local jazz scene.

Join MMC today!

Membership Levels
Fall 2023 DIG JAZZ Concert Series

Fall 2023 DIG JAZZ Concert Series

 

DIG JAZZ wraps up this fall, featuring two tremendous newcomers to the series and a closing concert featuring the musician who began and conducted the series from the beginning. The Feestet makes its DIG JAZZ premiere, followed by that of pianist and new UW-Madison School of Music Director Dan Cavanagh. Finally, Nick Moran, the man who started it all, will conclude DIG JAZZ with a special concert featuring him and a great number of his musical friends and collaborators.

 

The concerts will be performed live at the Union Theater Play Circle. The events are free to view but donations are encouraged to support and grow this series and others like it.

 

Friday, September 15 - Feestet

 

Friday, October 27 - Dan Cavanagh

 

Friday, November 17 - Nick Moran and Friends

Madison Jazz Festival
Fall 2022 DIG JAZZ Concert Series

Fall 2022 DIG JAZZ Concert Series

 

DIG JAZZ rises anew for fall, featuring the triumphant return of a couple of previous DIG JAZZ participants and a brand new one. Lo Marie, Madison's homegrown vocalist and songwriter, returns to DIG JAZZ to showcase her new album "The Bar." Michael Brenneis returns to showcase a brand new work with his Plutonium Players. Donna Woodall makes her DIG JAZZ debut showcasing her new album "The Subject of Love."

 

The concerts will be performed live at the Union Theater Play Circle. The events are free to view but donations are encouraged to support and grow this series and others like it.

 

Friday, September 30 - Lo Marie

 

Friday, October 21 - Michael Brenneis and the Plutonium Players

 

Friday, November 4 - The Donna Woodall Group

Support the Madison Music Collective

The pandemic was especially hard on our local musicians.


 

We kept the music streaming online through it all and now we're counting on you to help us continue to support Madison's fine local musicians.

 

The Madison Music Collective is an all-volunteer, non-profit organization that relies on membership dues and public donations to fund, organize, and promote live music performances in Madison throughout the year.

 

You can help support Madisons great local musicians and help bring free, live jazz music to our community by joining the MMC or including us in your end-of-year, tax-deductible charitable giving.

 

Please help us keep the music happening by becoming a member or making a donation today!

 

Support Madison Music Collective Now

In Memoriam of MMC Founder Joan Wildman
Beloved pianist-keyboardist, composer, multi-dimensional artist and UW Emeritus Professor of Music Joan Wildman passed away at her Madison home on 4/8/20, at age 82. Joan taught at UW-Madison from 1978-2002 and influenced and mentored generations of improvising musicians, including several members of our community’s current corps of jazz artists. Through her teaching and performances, Joan helped students and audiences appreciate avant-garde jazz, packing clubs and concert halls in the Madison area until last year.

In his heartfelt tribute two days after she passed, former Isthmus editor Dean Robbins called Joan “Madison’s avatar of the avant-garde” while noting that her music was firmly “rooted in swing rhythms and the blues.” In another rich remembrance, Tone Madison blogger Scott Gordon described Joan as a “restless musical explorer,” and charted the pathways she pursued in developing her music, e.g., her melding of jazz with electronics like the Yamaha DX7 synthesizer into which she programmed new sounds almost every time she played live with it.

Joan was also a leader in our local jazz community, notably founding the Madison Music Collective in 1985 as a self-help organization dedicated to expanding performance opportunities in respectful settings for local jazz musicians. Through the years, many of them with Joan serving on its board, the Collective has produced jazz festivals, educational programs, and performances by touring artists and local musicians, including the ongoing DIG JAZZ original music series. In tribute to its founder, the Collective chose Joan to give the headline performance at their 30th anniversary celebration in 2015.

Joan will be greatly missed by the Madison Music Collective and the entire larger music community of Madison and beyond.