Mack Avenue Records Signs On As Headline Sponsor of This Year's Detroit International Jazz Festival

Mack Avenue Records, the Detroit-based independent jazz label, has announced that it will be the title sponsor of this year’s Detroit International Jazz Festival. The label has stepped in to fill the sponsorship void left after the Ford Motor Company decided not to renew its sponsorship commitment to the festival, which is the largest free music festival in North America.

Tom Robinson, the label’s president, and Gretchen Valade, its CEO, issued a joint statement, saying, “We are pleased to have the chance to support the Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts, and to support their long-standing efforts to create a cultural event that reflects so positively on the city of Detroit."

“Thanks to a strong commitment to their hometown on the part of the leadership of Mack Avenue, Music Hall is thrilled to be able to produce the 26th edition of our Jazz Festival on Labor Day weekend on the banks of the Detroit River," says Bob McCabe, festival founder and vice-chairman of Music Hall.

In 2004, Mack Avenue sponsored one of the four stages at the festival, and many of its artists – including six-time Grammy nominee Gerald Wilson, acclaimed Brazilian guitarist Oscar Castro-Neves, and rising stars Sean Jones and Ron Blake – performed throughout the weekend. The full line up for this year’s festival, which will take place over Labor Day weekend at Hart Plaza, has not yet been announced.

In a departure from past festivals, this year’s festival will not bear the title sponsor’s name, but will be billed as the Detroit International Jazz Festival, Produced by Music Hall.