Jazz lovers sample life on the edge: Avant-garde artists lined up for Edgefest
Edgefest, Ann Arbor's creative-jazz event designed for the musically curious, returns for its annual run Wednesday-Saturday.
As it has the past eight years, Edgefest mixes musicians of international and national acclaim with talented locals for shows at the Kerrytown Concert House and the Firefly Club. This year's event - the largest yet, according to director Dave Lynch - will present 50 musicians in 12 separate lineups, some of whom have played the event before in the various musical mix-and-match combinations that are typical of the jazz world.
Although players from as far away as the Netherlands and Germany will be on hand - as well as representatives from the New York, Montreal and Chicago avant-jazz scenes - 20 of the musicians hail from the Ann Arbor-Detroit area. Among local ensembles scheduled to play are E3Q, Sublingual Ensemble and Bright Out: Chamber.
Despite a mission to explore music that's on the cutting edge, Lynch said the festival shouldn't scare away those who consider themselves less adventurous.
“To me what Edgefest is about is not necessarily music that pushes the envelope in a very serious or academic way, or a way that's hard for the public to comprehend. ... It can be edgy to me if it's something that's not part of the mainstream.”
If Edgefest had headliners, one of them might be bassist Henry Grimes, performing Saturday night at Kerrytown, a top musician in the '50s and '60s who played with everyone from Benny Goodman to Billy Taylor. Falling on hard times, the Juilliard-educated Grimes sold his bass for cash and for almost 40 years lived in a hotel in downtown Los Angeles working construction and other odd jobs to stay alive.
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As it has the past eight years, Edgefest mixes musicians of international and national acclaim with talented locals for shows at the Kerrytown Concert House and the Firefly Club. This year's event - the largest yet, according to director Dave Lynch - will present 50 musicians in 12 separate lineups, some of whom have played the event before in the various musical mix-and-match combinations that are typical of the jazz world.
Although players from as far away as the Netherlands and Germany will be on hand - as well as representatives from the New York, Montreal and Chicago avant-jazz scenes - 20 of the musicians hail from the Ann Arbor-Detroit area. Among local ensembles scheduled to play are E3Q, Sublingual Ensemble and Bright Out: Chamber.
Despite a mission to explore music that's on the cutting edge, Lynch said the festival shouldn't scare away those who consider themselves less adventurous.
“To me what Edgefest is about is not necessarily music that pushes the envelope in a very serious or academic way, or a way that's hard for the public to comprehend. ... It can be edgy to me if it's something that's not part of the mainstream.”
If Edgefest had headliners, one of them might be bassist Henry Grimes, performing Saturday night at Kerrytown, a top musician in the '50s and '60s who played with everyone from Benny Goodman to Billy Taylor. Falling on hard times, the Juilliard-educated Grimes sold his bass for cash and for almost 40 years lived in a hotel in downtown Los Angeles working construction and other odd jobs to stay alive.
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For more information contact All About Jazz.
