The 2023 Detroit Jazz Festival is almost upon us, taking place in its annual Labor Day weekend slot on the yearly jazz festival calendar. The largest free jazz festival in the world brings the music to the people of Detroit, and the world, on September 1-4 in downtown Detroit and in Hart Plaza along the Detroit riverwalk.
To those that visit the city for the festival, there is one obvious difference between Detroit and festivals more idyllically set in places like Monterey or Newport. While the quality of the programming is at a similar level, the urban setting surrounds the presentation of the music in the Motor City. It stages the music in the urban setting from which it has risen. While the festival shines light on this jewel city of Black American music, it doesn't take long upon arriving to realize that the local jazz scene is the difference maker between the Detroit experience and those of other notable festivals around the globe.
The prominence of the current Detroit jazz scene is most visible at the midnight jam sessions that take place in local clubs like Cliff Bell's after the music ends each evening at the festival's four main stages. Local veterans and students from the many surrounding university jazz programs in the area mingle with festival headliners both socially and musically. Over the course of three hours, both young and veteran musicians continually cross the stage, chorus by chorus. But to fully understand Detroit's standing in the evolution of jazz, a brief music history of the city, and the staggering amount of talent it has produced is a necessity.
While the world of popular music has focused on Motown Records and its host of award winning artists as “The Detroit Sound," history speaks to a more complete history dating back to the 1940's, long before soul, r&b and rock 'n roll spun out of Black music and the blues tradition.
The automobile industry created a thriving Black middle class in the 1940's and 1950's, and with it, a thriving nightlife and music culture. Exceptional school music programs were created, and mentorship was provided by musicians who arrived during this migration and by those native to the area. Mentors like Barry Harris turned Detroit metro into a jazz movement of epic proportions. That initial golden age produced iconic talents like brothers Hank, Thad and Elvin Jones, Gerald Wilson, Milt Jackson, Yusef Lateef, Donald Byrd, Tommy Flanagan, Kenny Burrell, Ron Carter, Roy Brooks, Alice Coltrane and Joe Henderson among many others. Musician formed cooperatives and self-determination groups evolved in the 1960's and 1970's, including the Strata Corporation and Tribe. The city's culture of mentorship ensured that the music would thrive and continue to evolve generationally. Trumpeter and teacher Marcus Belgrave, who passed in 2015, personified the growth of the mentorship cycle. His influence helped spawn Detroit artists Geri Allen, Kenny Garrett, Robert Hurst, Regina Carter and Gerald Cleaver. The Detroit jazz tradition continues to contribute mightily to the definition of modern jazz. The enduring legacy of the local scene provides a vivid and powerful projection of the city's lasting cultural influence.
The 2023 Detroit Jazz Festival features iconic Detroit headliners in recently honored NEA Jazz Masters Carter, Garrett and Louis Hayes. This year's Artist-In-Residence is Karriem Riggins, a renowned jazz musician, producer, DJ, and EMMY Award winner from, you guessed it, Detroit, Michigan.
This isn't to say that the festival schedule isn't replete with artists performing from around the world—a brief scan of the lineup answers any questions of that nature. But again, it is the local scene that makes the festival's urban setting come to life, to be rooted in history that looks both to the past and the future. In 2023, the festival celebrates that connection fully.
Both veteran and new generation Detroit musicians are dotted throughout the four days of the festival, their names comfortably situated between those of national and international stars. On opening night, AIR Riggens is featured along with pianist Danilo Pérez, and a tribute to recently passed festival benefactor and arts patron, Gretchen Carhartt Valade titled, “Our Angel of Jazz."
While Perez, John Patitucci, Brian Blade, Luciana Souza, Dafnis Prieto, John Scofield, Samara Joy and others are performing Saturday, two of the festival's stages will be hives of Detroit jazz scene activity.
The Absopure Waterfront Stage and the Pyramid Stage in Hart Plaza will feature Detroit artists all day, with young Chicago based saxophonist Isaac Collier and BlueNote artist Melissa Aldana performing sets with their respective bands. Detroit artists include young trumpet phenom Trunino Hill, Balance, the duo of saxophonist Marcus Elliott and pianist Michael Malis, vocalist Joan Belgrave and a program celebrating the Detroit piano legacy.
Sunday's schedule is also rich in Detroit based artists. Drummer Caleb Robinson leads his funk driven fusion band, Reaching, young tenor saxophonist Kenji Lee plays on the edge with his chordless Fortune Teller Trio, and bassist/educator Rodney Whitaker explores the spirituals of John Coltrane.
Whitaker is a highly respected member of the Detroit jazz community, and well acquainted with the young talent in the area as Director of Jazz Studies at Michigan State University. He serves as Director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's Civic Jazz Orchestra. Titles aside, Whitaker has instant credibility as a brilliant and swinging bassist that has performed with the top tier of the jazz world. He has toured and recorded extensively with the Wynton Marsalis Septet and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. His long roster of recording and performance credits include Barry Harris, Jimmy Heath, Terence Blanchard, Dianne Reeves and Eric Reed to barely scratch the surface. His delve into Coltrane is sure to be deep, well researched and performed with great artistry.
One Detroit linked performance that really stands out is the finale Monday at the Pyramid Stage. Titled “To Barry With Love," the performance celebrates the legacy of Barry Harris. Pianist Michael Weiss performs with his trio that includes bassist Peter Washington and drummer Lewis Nash.
There is always a sense of leaving on Monday of the festival, with musicians, press and festival guests heading out of town. Car services are abuzz transporting visitors from hotels to the airport. Between international acts like Joy, Hayes and Prieto are a number of hometown artists who aren't going anywhere soon.
Multi-reedist/composer/arranger Russ Miller and his Jazz Orchestra will perform an original piece, “Suite Justice: A Jazz Setting of the Beatitudes," an eight movement suite performed with a jazz big band combined with a sixteen voice choral ensemble. Young Detroit drummer Tariq Gardner leads his band Evening Star in a set that while steeped in the Detroit jazz tradition, adds elements of soul, hip-hop and jam based sounds. Vocalist Jesse Palter appears with her quartet on the Pyramid Stage, marking the final Detroit based artist to perform at the festival, though just before Weiss' Harris tribute.
The importance of the Detroit jazz legacy should not be ignored. While the region continues to incubate jazz talent, and impact the music in terms of style and culture, its understanding of the historical and sociological roots of the movement continues to feed the legacy and drive the traditions of mentorship and support in the community. The festival is the foundation of all things jazz in Detroit. Aside from programming and financing that is one resultant aspect of the festival's presence in the city, it engineers awareness of jazz music in the community on a generational scale. In turn, the festival is all about Detroit, its past history and present manifestations of brilliance.
In leaving, one is left to wonder if the magic that has been created in Detroit can be replicated in other cities, whether it be Seattle, Denver or any city with a jazz tradition. So much has changed socially and economically since the humble beginnings of the Detroit event. Not all cities have a benefactor like Gretchen Carhartt Valade, or sponsors available like Ford or Rocket Mortgage. Yet, if a city has a dedicated local jazz scene, supported by its people in the form of corporate support and volunteerism, the opportunity theoretically exists.
With the corporate stranglehold on the recording and concert industries, jazz is left to its own means. The economic forces that combine to create the Detroit Jazz Festival, and the methodology applied over more than four decades of festival history would seem accessible in other cities, if it has the urban infrastructure to sustain such an event. From this perspective, it is easy to see where a major event of this magnitude is rooted—in the local community at a grassroots level.
—Paul Rauch
To those that visit the city for the festival, there is one obvious difference between Detroit and festivals more idyllically set in places like Monterey or Newport. While the quality of the programming is at a similar level, the urban setting surrounds the presentation of the music in the Motor City. It stages the music in the urban setting from which it has risen. While the festival shines light on this jewel city of Black American music, it doesn't take long upon arriving to realize that the local jazz scene is the difference maker between the Detroit experience and those of other notable festivals around the globe.
The prominence of the current Detroit jazz scene is most visible at the midnight jam sessions that take place in local clubs like Cliff Bell's after the music ends each evening at the festival's four main stages. Local veterans and students from the many surrounding university jazz programs in the area mingle with festival headliners both socially and musically. Over the course of three hours, both young and veteran musicians continually cross the stage, chorus by chorus. But to fully understand Detroit's standing in the evolution of jazz, a brief music history of the city, and the staggering amount of talent it has produced is a necessity.
While the world of popular music has focused on Motown Records and its host of award winning artists as “The Detroit Sound," history speaks to a more complete history dating back to the 1940's, long before soul, r&b and rock 'n roll spun out of Black music and the blues tradition.
The automobile industry created a thriving Black middle class in the 1940's and 1950's, and with it, a thriving nightlife and music culture. Exceptional school music programs were created, and mentorship was provided by musicians who arrived during this migration and by those native to the area. Mentors like Barry Harris turned Detroit metro into a jazz movement of epic proportions. That initial golden age produced iconic talents like brothers Hank, Thad and Elvin Jones, Gerald Wilson, Milt Jackson, Yusef Lateef, Donald Byrd, Tommy Flanagan, Kenny Burrell, Ron Carter, Roy Brooks, Alice Coltrane and Joe Henderson among many others. Musician formed cooperatives and self-determination groups evolved in the 1960's and 1970's, including the Strata Corporation and Tribe. The city's culture of mentorship ensured that the music would thrive and continue to evolve generationally. Trumpeter and teacher Marcus Belgrave, who passed in 2015, personified the growth of the mentorship cycle. His influence helped spawn Detroit artists Geri Allen, Kenny Garrett, Robert Hurst, Regina Carter and Gerald Cleaver. The Detroit jazz tradition continues to contribute mightily to the definition of modern jazz. The enduring legacy of the local scene provides a vivid and powerful projection of the city's lasting cultural influence.
The 2023 Detroit Jazz Festival features iconic Detroit headliners in recently honored NEA Jazz Masters Carter, Garrett and Louis Hayes. This year's Artist-In-Residence is Karriem Riggins, a renowned jazz musician, producer, DJ, and EMMY Award winner from, you guessed it, Detroit, Michigan.
This isn't to say that the festival schedule isn't replete with artists performing from around the world—a brief scan of the lineup answers any questions of that nature. But again, it is the local scene that makes the festival's urban setting come to life, to be rooted in history that looks both to the past and the future. In 2023, the festival celebrates that connection fully.
Both veteran and new generation Detroit musicians are dotted throughout the four days of the festival, their names comfortably situated between those of national and international stars. On opening night, AIR Riggens is featured along with pianist Danilo Pérez, and a tribute to recently passed festival benefactor and arts patron, Gretchen Carhartt Valade titled, “Our Angel of Jazz."
While Perez, John Patitucci, Brian Blade, Luciana Souza, Dafnis Prieto, John Scofield, Samara Joy and others are performing Saturday, two of the festival's stages will be hives of Detroit jazz scene activity.
The Absopure Waterfront Stage and the Pyramid Stage in Hart Plaza will feature Detroit artists all day, with young Chicago based saxophonist Isaac Collier and BlueNote artist Melissa Aldana performing sets with their respective bands. Detroit artists include young trumpet phenom Trunino Hill, Balance, the duo of saxophonist Marcus Elliott and pianist Michael Malis, vocalist Joan Belgrave and a program celebrating the Detroit piano legacy.
Sunday's schedule is also rich in Detroit based artists. Drummer Caleb Robinson leads his funk driven fusion band, Reaching, young tenor saxophonist Kenji Lee plays on the edge with his chordless Fortune Teller Trio, and bassist/educator Rodney Whitaker explores the spirituals of John Coltrane.
Whitaker is a highly respected member of the Detroit jazz community, and well acquainted with the young talent in the area as Director of Jazz Studies at Michigan State University. He serves as Director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's Civic Jazz Orchestra. Titles aside, Whitaker has instant credibility as a brilliant and swinging bassist that has performed with the top tier of the jazz world. He has toured and recorded extensively with the Wynton Marsalis Septet and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. His long roster of recording and performance credits include Barry Harris, Jimmy Heath, Terence Blanchard, Dianne Reeves and Eric Reed to barely scratch the surface. His delve into Coltrane is sure to be deep, well researched and performed with great artistry.
One Detroit linked performance that really stands out is the finale Monday at the Pyramid Stage. Titled “To Barry With Love," the performance celebrates the legacy of Barry Harris. Pianist Michael Weiss performs with his trio that includes bassist Peter Washington and drummer Lewis Nash.
There is always a sense of leaving on Monday of the festival, with musicians, press and festival guests heading out of town. Car services are abuzz transporting visitors from hotels to the airport. Between international acts like Joy, Hayes and Prieto are a number of hometown artists who aren't going anywhere soon.
Multi-reedist/composer/arranger Russ Miller and his Jazz Orchestra will perform an original piece, “Suite Justice: A Jazz Setting of the Beatitudes," an eight movement suite performed with a jazz big band combined with a sixteen voice choral ensemble. Young Detroit drummer Tariq Gardner leads his band Evening Star in a set that while steeped in the Detroit jazz tradition, adds elements of soul, hip-hop and jam based sounds. Vocalist Jesse Palter appears with her quartet on the Pyramid Stage, marking the final Detroit based artist to perform at the festival, though just before Weiss' Harris tribute.
The importance of the Detroit jazz legacy should not be ignored. While the region continues to incubate jazz talent, and impact the music in terms of style and culture, its understanding of the historical and sociological roots of the movement continues to feed the legacy and drive the traditions of mentorship and support in the community. The festival is the foundation of all things jazz in Detroit. Aside from programming and financing that is one resultant aspect of the festival's presence in the city, it engineers awareness of jazz music in the community on a generational scale. In turn, the festival is all about Detroit, its past history and present manifestations of brilliance.
In leaving, one is left to wonder if the magic that has been created in Detroit can be replicated in other cities, whether it be Seattle, Denver or any city with a jazz tradition. So much has changed socially and economically since the humble beginnings of the Detroit event. Not all cities have a benefactor like Gretchen Carhartt Valade, or sponsors available like Ford or Rocket Mortgage. Yet, if a city has a dedicated local jazz scene, supported by its people in the form of corporate support and volunteerism, the opportunity theoretically exists.
With the corporate stranglehold on the recording and concert industries, jazz is left to its own means. The economic forces that combine to create the Detroit Jazz Festival, and the methodology applied over more than four decades of festival history would seem accessible in other cities, if it has the urban infrastructure to sustain such an event. From this perspective, it is easy to see where a major event of this magnitude is rooted—in the local community at a grassroots level.
—Paul Rauch
For more information contact All About Jazz.
