Jauron Perry: Jauron Perry Quintet Live at the 2024 Detroit Jazz Festival

The Detroit Jazz Festival is the largest free jazz festival in the world, staged smack dab in the middle of one of the great jazz cities in the world. The city and surrounding area is a hotbed for jazz talent as well, historically and presently. Trumpeter Jauron Perry is one of the latest such talents to emerge, making his debut recording at the festival as the winner of the 2024 Detroit Jazz Festival National Combo Competition. Perry's quintet won a cash prize and a spot at the festival for their efforts, a dream for the twenty-year-old trumpeter and native of Detroit. The JP Morgan Chase stage where this recording took place is in the downtown core of the city, at Campus Martius in Cadillac Square. The square is surrounded by tall buildings, and for the festival, bustling with attendees, vendors and the tremendous energy that the festival brings to the city every Labor Day weekend. The quintet laid down this recording in front of many thousands of people in festival prime time, in front of a knowledgeable jazz audience that included some of the top musicians in modern jazz. Quite a bit for a young artist to take on— after all, Perry at the time of this recording was still an undergraduate student at Michigan State University under the tutelage of the great bassist and bandleader, Rodney Whitaker.

Perry carries himself with confidence and employs a tonal quality that is rich, full-bodied and delivered in a notably unhurried manner. Melody is very much at the forefront of his solo work, an attribute common to the Detroit sound. Emerging from this city and the mentorship of Whitaker connects the young trumpeter with the legacy of Marcus Belgrave, the great trumpeter whose influence as an educator and mentor is unique to American jazz cities. Yet his sound, his approach, even his attire reflects a deep connection to the great Roy Hargrove. The quintet covers Hargrove's "A Clear Thought," and the trumpet great's arrangement of Lou Marini's "Starmaker." Perry's love for his late, great trumpet hero continues with Hargrove's "Stinger." All three tunes are delivered expertly, and clearly raise the point of Hargrove's unquestioned status of being the most influential trumpet voice in jazz since Miles Davis in terms of actual accentuation of instrumental style. Yet the album's identity is truly established in the first two tracks, where this influence can be heard without actually broaching the Hargrove legacy compositionally.

Whitaker's "Childhood" is an extended piece that truly introduces us not only to the bassist/composer's influence on the trumpeter but to the fine band that accompanied him to the festival stage. Alto saxophonist Kevin Brewster begins the piece in ensemble mode with Perry, before breaking out into an extended solo. His work is equally brash and joyful, and an organic fit with his front-line trumpet mate. Pianist William Hill III, himself a young bandleader on the Detroit scene, displays an uncommon maturity for a young pianist, yes, but his playing has nothing to do with being young, or "up and coming." He never rushes, is not overwhelmed with the need to be lightning quick or to ignite any sort of cutting flash. His harmonic understanding of the music is reminiscent of another Detroit piano voice in Geri Allen. His rhythmic sense can be heard in great modern players such as Orrin Evans—but enough with comps, leave it to say that the cat can play and his name is one to keep an eye on as time goes by.

Drummer Joseph Fielder takes the flow of "Childhood" through a twisting, turning journey of dynamic change with ease and grace. Throughout the album, he is a human undercurrent of tidal change that meshes perfectly with bassist Langston Kitchen's immense groove. The backline twosome in concert with pianist Hill creates a formidable rhythm section that is about so much more than pure groove. It would seem their mentor in Whitaker is a primary influence here, his innate sense of swing embracing the sound of this quintet that grew out of his MSU band that is known as the "Bebop Spartans."

Hill contributes as a composer as well, with the quintet performing his piece, "Three's Company." The band takes the tune through an unraveling set of dynamic changes, highlighted by a sterling piano solo by Hill. The pianist's offering may be the high point of the recording, pointing to Perry's skillset as a bandleader in not only choosing the pianist to be a part of the project but in giving him the space to operate.

The closing two pieces are Perry originals, including "Chosen," a melody eerily reminiscent of his chosen trumpet hero in Hargrove. With Hill setting the ambient vibe on Rhodes, Perry and Brewster make abbreviated statements that are sharp and to the point. "Est. 2004" is the burner of the set, with the quintet taking the space to simply play freely within structure. Perry's opening solo demands immediate attention, with Brewster and HIll following in short, explosive bursts. With all of the formality of occasion that this set brings with it, the final piece seems to act like permission to cut loose, to express the realization that, "We've arrived, and now we're going to lay it down."

For a twenty-year-old jazz musician from Detroit, performing at the Detroit Jazz Festival is beyond big. To do so, not on a side stage sequestered down near the Detroit River, but downtown in the center of the festival must be a dream to Perry. To include making a premier recording to jump-start a career under these conditions is beyond impressive. We can all look forward to what the young trumpeter comes up with down the road, when he is allowed to explore his own original tunes in the studio and out on the road.