The Des Moines Big Band, a storied ensemble that goes back to the 1950s, has played with some of the greatest names in jazz, from legends like Clark Terry to some of the more local household names such as Scott Smith. Led by renowned trumpeter/arranger Dave Rezek, this organization is in residence at Noce on Wednesday nights. --- The band often invites high school & college groups in to play during the set break. The first Wednesday of every month, though, the band plays their own full night highlighting the work of a different iconic jazz artist or composer. 

Every Thursday night, Noce hosts an all night happy hour. Doors at 6, music 7-10pm, no cover all night! $5 green tea shots, $6 well drinks, $7 house wine, $8 specialty cocktails. Some of the top jazz musicians in the region are featured each week. 

From his beginnings as one of Chicago’s most thrilling young trumpeters, to his current status as an internationally renowned musician, composer and bandleader, Marquis Hill has worked tirelessly to break down the barriers that divide musical genres. Contemporary and classic jazz, hip-hop, R&B, Chicago house, neo-soul—to Hill, they’re all essential elements of the profound African-American creative heritage he’s a part of. “It all comes from the same tree,” he says. “They simply blossomed from different branches.” That mission to bring styles together, complemented by Hill’s absolute mastery of his instrument, is a through line connecting his many achievements. It can be heard on his latest album, Modern Flows Vol. II, with its seamless blend of jazz interplay, hip-hop-infused rhythms and socially conscious spoken-word. It’s integral to The Way We Play, his Concord Jazz debut from 2016, where Hill and his musicians reinvent jazz standards using their generation’s wide- ranging influences. It marks the four records Hill self-released before November of 2014, when he won the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz competition and became a presence on the global scene virtually overnight. And it defines the revelatory live dates by Hill’s longtime working group, the Blacktet, which the Chicago Tribune called “a remarkably polished, immensely attractive ensemble.” For Hill, playing and listening without limits has long been an instinct. “It comes naturally; that’s the way I hear the music,” he says. “I came up in a household where my mom played Motown, R&B, Isley Brothers, Barry White, Marvin Gaye. Then I received my first jazz record, by Lee Morgan, and that was added to the collection. ... I truly believe that the music is all the same.” Born in Chicago in 1987 and raised on the city’s culturally rich South Side, Hill began playing drums at age 4, before switching to trumpet in the 6th grade. He attended high school at Kenwood Academy, excelling in its revered jazz-performance program, and was mentored by Bobby Broom, Willie Pickens, Tito Carrillo and other Chicago greats through the Ravinia Jazz Scholars program. Hill earned his bachelor’s in music education from Northern Illinois University and his master’s in jazz pedagogy from DePaul University. During college he made gigs and sessions around Chicago, jamming with and absorbing wisdom from the likes of Fred Anderson, Ernest Dawkins and Von Freeman. Even then, Hill was known in town as a stunningly gifted trumpeter with a soulful, highly textured tone. His sound is now somehow both deeply distinctive and a tour through jazz-trumpet history, evoking the high-drama stillness and space of Miles; the undeniable virtuosity of Clifford Brown and Freddie Hubbard; the groove- savvy phrasing of Lee Morgan and Donald Byrd; and much more. Well before Hill won the Monk prize—arguably the most important jazz competition in the world—his reputation for brilliance was firmly established in the Midwest, as a member of the Chicago Jazz Orchestra, an in-demand sideman and a bandleader. He also developed into a precocious, determined young label owner, and has released five acclaimed discs—New Gospel,Sounds of the City, The Poet and Modern Flows Vols. I and II—through his Black Unlimited Music Group imprint. “Just having my personality, there’s nothing like being in control of what you produce and put out into the world,” he says. “It’s a great feeling.” A move to New York in 2014 helped him gain wider exposure and new opportunities—though he frequently returns to his hometown for gigs and projects—and in recent years Hill has garnered an enviable spate of press. Previewing a Blacktet show, the New Yorker said, “His performances and recordings reveal a smart post-bop player who circumvents genre clichés by incorporating elements of hip-hop and contemporary R. & B.” Of The Way We Play, DownBeatwrote, “The groove-laden arrangements provide the perfect soundscape for Hill’s fluid improvisational style, which, with its glass-like lucidity, recalls the crisp elegance of hard-bop stalwart Donald Byrd.” In 2016, Hill earned first place in the “Rising Star–Trumpet” category in that magazine’s storied Critics Poll. Throughout his journey, he has supported and guested with a who’s who of jazz that includes Marcus Miller, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Boney James, Kurt Elling, Joe Lovano and Hill’s trailblazing Chicago peer Makaya McCraven. Today, Hill maintains a nonstop touring schedule with the Blacktet, and the intensely interactive, utterly unique band has become a kind of graduate school for next-level talent—Hill included.“One of the most beautiful things about leading a group is the flow of knowledge and energy that we bounce off of one another,” he says. “Each member contributing their distinctive voice is what truly makes the music and magic happen.” --- Lisa Henry is an artist of vast accomplishments, both in and outside the realm of performance. These accomplishments include the recently televised PBS Special: In Performance at the White House, First runner-up in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocals Competition, International Jazz Ambassador to Africa, CD recordings, BET documentaries, and recognition as an international clinician and adjudicator. As a jazz educator, Lisa takes the legacy and brilliance of jazz into classrooms and college campuses across the world. Through interactive assembly programs and vocal clinics, residencies, music business workshops, and performance adjudications, her teachings reach students from pre-school to university level. Lisa Henry thrills audiences at home and abroad. International tours include Mumbai and Calcutta, India with Kenny Garrett; South America “Expo Cumbre” tour with Herbie Hancock; Southern and Eastern Africa tour with T.S. Monk, and a month-long performance and educational tour in Madagascar. Throughout her stellar career, Lisa has, and continues to share the spotlight with many world renowned artists: Herbie Hancock, Anita Baker, Kenny Garrett, Clark Terry, Nnenna Freelon, Ted Curson, Rosemary Clooney, Kenny Barron, Roy Hargrove, Kevin Mahogany, Frank Mantooth, Norman Simmons, Ruben Alvarez, Tom “Bones” Malone, Lenny Pickett, Grady Tate, Terri Lyne Carrington, Jack McDuff, T.S. Monk, Claude “Fiddler” Willliams, Carmel Jones, Doc Cheethem, Wayne Shorter and Lou Rawls, to name a few. An engaging performer, Lisa’s charm and charisma, combined with her vocal abilities, make her a performing artist of the highest caliber. 

Gina Gedler teams up with the Soya Vista Jazz Orchestra bringing you music that specializes in the cool mainstream lounge jazz and pop music from the 1950’s through the 1970’s. It is a mixture of big band sound as well as some reduced combo format music as well. Under the direction of John Benoit, this band features great arrangements of music from: Frank Sinatra, The Andrew Sisters, Billie Holiday, Henry Mancini, Burt Bacharach, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Peggy Lee, Bessie Smith and many more! 

Join Max Wellman each Saturday night after 9pm for a night full of standards featuring a rotating cast of musicians & other singers. Similar to Wellman's Last Call series, but just a little bit earlier in the evening. Shows will go until 11 or midnight, depending on the evening. There is no cover. --- Vocalist Max Wellman is enticing music lovers throughout the region. With a sound evoking the likes of Sinatra and Connick, Wellman’s recordings & performances promise that the Great American Songbook is alive & well for a new generation of listeners. ​Wellman co-founded Noce, a state-of-the-art jazz club in the Western Gateway neighborhood of downtown Des Moines. Additionally, Wellman has appeared at some of the great clubs throughout the country, from Dizzy's Club Coca Cola at Lincoln Center to Andy's Jazz Club in Chicago to Dazzle in Denver & many in between. 

Join vocalist/bassist/composer extraordinaire Blake Shaw for one night only fronting the Des Moines Big Band as part of their First Wednesdays concert series. --- The Des Moines Big Band, a storied ensemble that goes back to the 1950s, has played with some of the greatest names in jazz, from legends like Clark Terry to some of the more local household names such as Scott Smith. Led by renowned trumpeter/arranger Dave Rezek, this organization is in residence at Noce on Wednesday nights. --- Blake Shaw is an upright/electric bassist, composer & arranger, bandleader and private teacher. Shaw has played at festivals such as the main stage of the Iowa City Jazz Fest, Twin Cities Jazz Fest, 80/35, Camp Euforia, Summer Camp, Iowa Soul Fest, Iowa Stock Music Fest, Mission Creek and Grey Area. Influences come from various genres and instrumentalists with experience from jazz, rock, classical, bluegrass, to latin, funk, R&B, and anything in between. His main bass influences include Dave Holland, Christian McBride and John Clayton. Current bands Shaw books with include: The Blake Shaw Quintet, Thrio, Goose Town, PSA, Elizabeth Moen, River Glen, and The Clinton St House Band. 

Every Thursday night, Noce hosts an all night happy hour. Doors at 6, music 7-10pm, no cover all night! $5 green tea shots, $6 well drinks, $7 house wine, $8 specialty cocktails. Some of the top jazz musicians in the region are featured each week. 

Seth Hedquist combines his background in history and music to tell a unique story about Iowa agricultural musicians in the early 20th century, in an all original, twelve-song cycle. --- Hedquist earned a BS in History (2009) and an MA in History (2015), both from Iowa State University. His work focuses on rural Iowa musicians who played at state and county farm bureau events in the 1920s and 30s. He investigates who these musicians were, and what needs they fulfilled for the organization, and for themselves, by participating in those events. His work further examines to what extent the styles they played measured up to farm bureau and Country Life leaders’ expectations for rural music at that time. Broadly, this topic focuses on questions of identity, and the complexities of playing music for organizations during trying times of heightened pressure, like the 1920s and 30s. His master's thesis The Chronicles of Agrimusic won the Iowa History Center’s “Outstanding Master's Thesis Award” in 2016, and his article “Boost the Farm Bureau: Agricultural Leaders, Progressive Musicians, and Social Orchestration in Iowa, 1921 - 1937” appears in Agricultural History (Vol. 93, No. 2, Spring 2019). Hedquist graduated from The School for Music Vocations at Southwestern Community College in 2005. He works as a full-time professional musician in Des Moines, Iowa. As an educator, Hedquist teaches improvisation to students of all ages at The Seth Hedquist School of Music and Improvisation (SHSMI) in Valley Junction, and is the jazz guitar instructor at Drake University. As a performer, Hedquist has played and recorded with Des Moines artists such as Bonne Finken, Nella Thomas, James Biehn, Max Wellman, Dustin Smith, and The Maytags. He has played with the Des Moines Symphony since 2015; pieces include George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue (tenor banjo) and William Bolcom’s Ragomania (guitar). With the Symphony he has also accompanied Tony Award-winning performers such as Audra McDonald, Sutton Foster, Kristin Chenoweth, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Bernadette Peters and Santino Fontana. He plays at the Des Moines Civic Center for traveling Broadway musicals; past shows include Beautiful: A Carole King Musical, Something Rotten!, Chicago, Mean Girls, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, The Wiz, MJ: The Musical, and Back to the Future. And he has played for the Des Moines Metro Opera’s Porgy and Bess (2022), The Falling and the Rising (2023), and The Barber of Seville, (2024), the last of which he also made his debut stage role as “The Guitarist.” Hedquist is the bandleader for Plymouth Congregational Church’s Saturday Night Band, and is the music director and choral conductor at Wakonda Christian Church. 

By age 33, Emmy-nominated trumpeter and singer Benny Benack III has proven to be that rarest of talents: not only a fiery trumpet player with a stirring command of the postbop trumpet vernacular in the vein of Kenny Dorham and Freddie Hubbard, but also a singer with a sly, mature, naturally expressive delivery in the post-Sinatra mold, performing standards and his own astute songs with a thrilling sense of showmanship. This duel-threat ability was recognized by the 2025 Downbeat Readers Poll where he won the category of Rising Star Male Vocalist, and placed #8 as a Rising Star Trumpeter as well. His superb intonation and bracing virtuosity enable him to handle astounding feats of originally composed vocalese (complex solos with written lyrics). On top of it all, he’s a highly capable pianist as well. Benny has performed internationally as an Emcee/Host for the Youtube sensation Postmodern Jukebox, and achieved his own viral success amassing millions of views for his crooning alongside the Grammy-award winning “8-Bit Big Band”. In early 2020 he released A Lot of Livin’ to Do, the follow-up to his well-received 2017 debut One of a Kind. This sophomore effort, richly varied in mood and brimming with bop inflection, features bassist extraordinaire and Jazz ambassador Christian McBride (whose Grammy-award winning Big Band frequently calls upon Benny in the trumpet section) and drummer/producer Ulysses Owens, Jr., as well as the radiant Takeshi Ohbayashi on piano and Rhodes. His vocalese duet on “Social Call” from this album alongside fellow young star vocalist Veronica Swift became an instant smash hit single, being transcribed and learned by Jazz vocalists around the world. His latest album “Third Time’s the Charm” features many stars including Peter Bernstein, Emmet Cohen & Bria Skonberg and was released in June 2023 to critical acclaim and chart-topping success, reaching #2 on the JazzWeek National Radio Charts. Alongside his global touring as a straight-ahead/contemporary bandleader, Benny has appeared as a trumpet soloist in more commercial circles alongside Josh Groban, Ben Folds, fashion icon Isaac Mizrahi, Ann Hampton Callaway and more. He’s been featured at Birdland, Jazz @ Lincoln Center, Mezzrow, Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle and other leading New York venues, and has also been a special guest with the Pittsburgh Symphony Pops Orchestra, the Columbus Jazz Orchestra and the Minsk Philharmonic Orchestra. He made his television debut in NBC’s short-lived, SNL-inspired variety show “Maya & Marty” playing in the in-studio band led by acclaimed bassist & Broadway arranger Charlie Rosen. More recent TV credits include “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” where he’s performed in the House Band started by Jon Batiste. His global recognition has been bolstered by recent live-streaming concerts at Smalls Jazz Club, where he maintains a Jam Session residency, as well as frequent appearances on fellow young lion Emmet Cohen’s smash-hit online concert series “Emmet’s Place” . Third in a generational line of Pittsburgh jazz notables, Benny follows in the footsteps of his trumpeter/bandleader grandfather, Benny Benack, Sr. (1921-86), and his father Benny Benack, Jr., a saxophonist/clarinetist who gave the young Benny his first professional experience. Benny, Sr. hailed from a Pittsburgh lineage that also produced Roy Eldridge, Earl Hines, Art Blakey, Billy Strayhorn and so many more. He recorded the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 1960 theme song “Beat ’Em Bucs” and toured with Tommy Dorsey and Raymond Scott, among others. Benny III returns to Pittsburgh often to perform, saluting his family forebears and the jazz heritage as a whole, nonetheless staking his bold and highly individual artistic claim. He is an endorsing artist with Torpedo Bags cases, CarolBrass flugelhorns, as well as various menswear fashion lines including X-Suit, Alain Dupetit, Brisk Shirts, Proper Cloth & Vittone. 

Join Max Wellman each Saturday night after 9pm for a night full of standards featuring a rotating cast of musicians & other singers. Similar to Wellman's Last Call series, but just a little bit earlier in the evening. Shows will go until 11 or midnight, depending on the evening. There is no cover. --- Vocalist Max Wellman is enticing music lovers throughout the region. With a sound evoking the likes of Sinatra and Connick, Wellman’s recordings & performances promise that the Great American Songbook is alive & well for a new generation of listeners. ​Wellman co-founded Noce, a state-of-the-art jazz club in the Western Gateway neighborhood of downtown Des Moines. Additionally, Wellman has appeared at some of the great clubs throughout the country, from Dizzy's Club Coca Cola at Lincoln Center to Andy's Jazz Club in Chicago to Dazzle in Denver & many in between. 

The Des Moines Big Band, a storied ensemble that goes back to the 1950s, has played with some of the greatest names in jazz, from legends like Clark Terry to some of the more local household names such as Scott Smith. Led by renowned trumpeter/arranger Dave Rezek, this organization is in residence at Noce on Wednesday nights. --- The band often invites high school & college groups in to play during the set break. The first Wednesday of every month, though, the band plays their own full night highlighting the work of a different iconic jazz artist or composer. 

Every Thursday night, Noce hosts an all night happy hour. Doors at 6, music 7-10pm, no cover all night! $5 green tea shots, $6 well drinks, $7 house wine, $8 specialty cocktails. Some of the top jazz musicians in the region are featured each week. 

Noce is proud to present “Voix de Ville,” an original ever-evolving cabaret produced by Max Wellman featuring arrangements spanning from the 1920s to the 2020s. A modernized creation inspired by the vaudeville shows that ushered in the Jazz Age, Voix de Ville includes an elite jazz orchestra under the direction of Jason Danielson alongside drag & ballet professionals. The show opened in September of 2024 & will have an ongoing rotating cast of performers for a different show each week. Past shows have featured drag queens Tyona Diamond & Domita Sanchez, ballet professionals Amelia & Logan Hillman, Napoleon Douglas, & more. 

Max Wellman and his big band highlight the works of Frank Sinatra, his contemporaries, and those that followed. Fly Me to The Moon features songs made famous by Harry Connick Jr, Michael Bublé, Dean Martin, and more. Wellman includes newly commissioned arrangements from some of today’s great Big Band arrangers; this new format will allow for an ever-changing, dynamic set list each time the band takes the stage. –––––––––– Vocalist Max Wellman continues to entice music lovers throughout the region, with a sound evoking Sinatra and Connick. Wellman’s recordings & performances proclaim that the Great American Songbook is alive and well for a new generation of listeners. Noce is a state-of-the-art jazz club (co-founded by Wellman) in the Western Gateway neighborhood of downtown Des Moines. In addition to performing at Noce, Wellman has appeared at some of the great clubs around the country, including Dizzy's Club Coca Cola at Lincoln Center, Andy's Jazz Club in Chicago, and Dazzle in Denver. 

The Des Moines Big Band, a storied ensemble that goes back to the 1950s, has played with some of the greatest names in jazz, from legends like Clark Terry to some of the more local household names such as Scott Smith. Led by renowned trumpeter/arranger Dave Rezek, this organization is in residence at Noce on Wednesday nights. --- The band often invites high school & college groups in to play during the set break. The first Wednesday of every month, though, the band plays their own full night highlighting the work of a different iconic jazz artist or composer. 

Every Thursday night, Noce hosts an all night happy hour. Doors at 6, music 7-10pm, no cover all night! $5 green tea shots, $6 well drinks, $7 house wine, $8 specialty cocktails. Some of the top jazz musicians in the region are featured each week. 

Noce is proud to present “Voix de Ville,” an original ever-evolving cabaret produced by Max Wellman featuring arrangements spanning from the 1920s to the 2020s. A modernized creation inspired by the vaudeville shows that ushered in the Jazz Age, Voix de Ville includes an elite jazz orchestra under the direction of Jason Danielson alongside drag & ballet professionals. The show opened in September of 2024 & will have an ongoing rotating cast of performers for a different show each week. Past shows have featured drag queens Tyona Diamond & Domita Sanchez, ballet professionals Amelia & Logan Hillman, Napoleon Douglas, & more. 

Join Max Wellman & his band for an evening full of standards. --- Vocalist Max Wellman is enticing music lovers throughout the region. With a sound evoking the likes of Sinatra and Connick, Wellman’s recordings & performances promise that the Great American Songbook is alive & well for a new generation of listeners. ​Wellman co-founded Noce, a state-of-the-art jazz club in the Western Gateway neighborhood of downtown Des Moines. Additionally, Wellman has appeared at some of the great clubs throughout the country, from Dizzy's Club Coca Cola at Lincoln Center to Andy's Jazz Club in Chicago to Dazzle in Denver & many in between. 

Lenard Simpson is a saxophonist, composer and educator from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Lenard was mostly self-taught through high school, but his natural ability and musicianship earned him accolades such as membership in the esteemed Grammy Camp Jazz Session, and an outstanding soloist award at the Mingus Jazz Competition in New York City. Lenard has had the opportunity to play and travel with artists such as pianist and composer-Billy Childs, Kurt Elling, Marquis Hill, and Clayton Cameron. Lenard received a B.M in Jazz performance at Northern Illinois University. While studying at NIU, Lenard was awarded first place in Chicago’s esteemed Luminarts Jazz Competition. Upon graduation, Lenard moved to Chicago and soon became one of the city’s top call saxophonists playing sideman to legendary local drummers, George Fludas and Charles Heath. Lenard’s trio has appeared at premier clubs and jazz festivals throughout the Chicago and Milwaukee area. Lenard recently graduated from the Thelonious Monk Institute Fellowship, which has since been renamed to the Herbie Hancock Institut where he was selected by a panel of Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, James Newton and Ambrose Akinmusire. 

Join Max Wellman each Saturday night after 9pm for a night full of standards featuring a rotating cast of musicians & other singers. Similar to Wellman's Last Call series, but just a little bit earlier in the evening. Shows will go until 11 or midnight, depending on the evening. There is no cover. --- Vocalist Max Wellman is enticing music lovers throughout the region. With a sound evoking the likes of Sinatra and Connick, Wellman’s recordings & performances promise that the Great American Songbook is alive & well for a new generation of listeners. ​Wellman co-founded Noce, a state-of-the-art jazz club in the Western Gateway neighborhood of downtown Des Moines. Additionally, Wellman has appeared at some of the great clubs throughout the country, from Dizzy's Club Coca Cola at Lincoln Center to Andy's Jazz Club in Chicago to Dazzle in Denver & many in between. 

The Des Moines Big Band, a storied ensemble that goes back to the 1950s, has played with some of the greatest names in jazz, from legends like Clark Terry to some of the more local household names such as Scott Smith. Led by renowned trumpeter/arranger Dave Rezek, this organization is in residence at Noce on Wednesday nights. --- The band often invites high school & college groups in to play during the set break. The first Wednesday of every month, though, the band plays their own full night highlighting the work of a different iconic jazz artist or composer. 

Every Thursday night, Noce hosts an all night happy hour. Doors at 6, music 7-10pm, no cover all night! $5 green tea shots, $6 well drinks, $7 house wine, $8 specialty cocktails. Some of the top jazz musicians in the region are featured each week.