Results for "Detroit"

Faruq Z. Bey

Musician interrupted
The story of Griot Galaxy & a renaissance for Faruq Z. Bey

by W. Kim Heron (June 2003)

He’d gone to see saxophonists John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders the year before at a place on Dexter called the Drome Lounge, and their wail was like nothing he’d ever experienced before: magnificent, powerful, polyrhythmic, polytonal, polychromatic, emotional, form-shattering … the purest music he’d ever experienced before or since.

And when the word went out that Coltrane had died on a Monday in July - or gotten so heavy he’d fallen off the planet, as some wags would have it - it was only fitting to call for a memorial party. A dozen or so fans worshipfully played records and made music through Saturday night at the cramped apartment on Chicago Boulevard where he lived with his wife. Around daybreak came the sound of cars speeding away from Lord knew what, and being reckless guys, they went to check out the commotion and soon found themselves at the epicenter of the brewing Detroit rebellion of 1967. It was a revelation:

“The people who were rioting in the street, they moved like one mind. It was almost like a hive of insects moves. It was like a wave; it just moved, but that whole episode put me in a frame of mind of thinking about our position here as a - quote - subculture, and how to deal with that. And since music was always an interest of mine and seeing how our music defined itself and our relationship to the greater environment as well … ”

The issues all seemed intertwined.

A couple days later with the riot still raging he became the owner of his first saxophone, a Martin tenor, for the uncharacteristically low price of $80.

Asked whether, in the parlance of the time, the saxophone had been “liberated,” he laughs dryly. “I got it during the riot,” he repeats.

Asked whether this all seemed prophetic - Coltrane dying, the memorial, the riot, the saxophone - his eyes widen as if it’s obvious. He laughs again: “It was significant, I’ll put it that way.”

Life seemed to take on a new seriousness. “Before that I was just floating and having fun doing what was expected of me by the culture at large and the tradition and yadda yadda,” he says.

Within a few years, Jesse Davis would have new names. He would become Malik Z. Bey then Faruq Z. Bey. His marriage would dissolve, as would two more during the ’70s. He’d become part of an artistic, spiritualist, pan-African political milieu; he’d eventually become a sort of poster boy for that set. He’d read his poetry to rapt listeners, pontificate on the meaning of life and culture, play in more bands and jams than anyone can be expected to keep track of. He’d impress a lot of folks as brilliant and charismatic; he’d attract talent like a magnet. He’d garner a rep as a ladies’ man. He’d live wildly, nearly die, watch much of what he’d worked for unravel, and slowly recover.

And roughly two decades after its demise, one of his bands, arguably the best jazz band to never make it out of Detroit, just may be on the verge of getting its due...

Keefe Marzell

Born: October 13, 1970

Keefe Marzell and Vintage insist that the music they create have two crucial elements -- a spiritual connection and a high emotional content. On their debut album, DRAWN WINDOWS, they play smooth jazz like it is seldom heard by fusing it with an eclectic mix of various styles including funk, R&B, hip-hop, fusion and gospel. “The group is called Vintage,” explains Marzell, “because underneath the smooth jazz melodies, all of our music has an old-school funk feel. Everything we do is groove-based ��" not just rhythmic, but groovin’. In addition to that, most of the musicians on the album have played with contemporary Christian acts and gospel artists as well as in church, so there is a lot of spirituality in this music

Michele Ramo

Born: May 5, 1964

MICHÉLE RAMO (pronounced: Me-KEL-ay) is an 8 string nylon fingerstyle jazz guitarist, jazz violinist, jazz mandolinist, composer and educator who specializes in bringing American Swing, Brazilian, Gypsy and Latin rhythms together in his playing, as well as composing and arranging for the guitar. A classical-jazz crossover artist in the truest sense of the word, Ramo has a unique and sought-after ability for blending his classical and jazz worlds into his writing, teaching and performance. Ramo is a self-taught guitarist whose formal training and higher education is in violin studies. Ramo always maintained his guitar playing alongside the violin and while working in orchestras

Paul Chambers

Born: April 22, 1935

One of the premier bassists in jazz history, Paul Chambers had it all: a beautiful tone, a fluid technique, a great choice of notes, impeccable time and a magnificent sense of swing. He could even take a bowed solo and keep it interesting and in tune. Paul Chambers was born in Pittsburgh in 1935, and grew up in Detroit, where he became part of the city's growing jazz scene. He moved to New York, where he played in the {{J.J. Johnson = 8101}}-{{Kai Winding = 11467}} quintet. He joined Miles Davis' first legendary quintet along with {{John Coltrane = 5851}}, {{"Philly" Joe Jones = 8188}}, and {{Red Garland = 6951}}, at the age of 20

Alexander Zonjic

Alexander Zonjic’s musical life is proof that one’s true destiny isn’t always revealed the minute a youngster picks up his first instrument. Growing up in Windsor, Ontario and excited by all the music of the British invasion, he launched his guitar dreams at age nine and was playing lead guitar in an R&B band in high school. The story goes that at age 21, when Zonjic was home on hiatus from a rock tour, a stranger on the street who had seen him play guitar offered him a flute ? most likely stolen ? for 50 dollars. Zonjic got it for nine. “I liked how it looked in the case,” Zonjic recalls

Rodney Whitaker

Born: February 22, 1968

Rodney Whitaker is associate professor of double bass and director of jazz studies at the Michigan State University College of Music.

Whitaker is one of the leading performers and teachers of jazz double bass in the United States. He is a member of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and received national recognition performing with the Terence Blanchard Quintet. Whitaker has also toured internationally as a featured performer with the Roy Hargrove Quintet. In addition, he has appeared and presented master classes at the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE) conferences. Featured on more than 100 recordings - from film to compact discs - Whitaker's film score, China, directed by Jeff Wray, was released on PBS in 2002.

In 2006, he was nominated for the Juno Award, Canada's equivalent to the Grammy, for his work on “Let Me Tell You About My Day,” produced by Alma Records

Doug Watkins

Born: March 2, 1934

Douglas Watkins was an American hard bop jazz double bassist from Detroit. An original member of the Jazz Messengers, he later played in Horace Silver's quintet and freelanced with Gene Ammons, Kenny Burrell, Donald Byrd, Art Farmer, Jackie McLean, Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan, Sonny Rollins, and Phil Woods among others. Some of Watkins' best-known work can be heard when as a 22-year-old he appeared on the 1956 album, Saxophone Colossus by tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins, with Max Roach and Tommy Flanagan. From that session, the tunes "Blue Seven" and "St. Thomas," especially, have become revered not only as evidence of Rollins' original genius but as fine examples of Watkins' work

Julius Watkins

Born: October 10, 1921

Julius Watkins was an American jazz musician, and one of the first jazz French horn players. He won the Down Beat critics poll in 1960 and 1961 for "miscellaneous instrument" with French horn named as the instrument. Watkins was born in Detroit, Michigan. He started playing French horn when he was nine years old, having played the trumpet, the recognized jazz instrument, for the Ernie Fields Orchestra in the mid-1940s. By the late 1940s, however, he had played some French horn solos on Kenny Clarke and Babs Gonzales' records. After moving to New York City, Watkins studied for three years at the Manhattan School of Music

Lucky Thompson

Born: June 16, 1924

A legendary tenor and soprano saxophonist who took his place among the elite improvisers of jazz from the 1940's to the 1960's and then quit music. Lucky Thompson connected the swing era to the more cerebral and complex bebop style. His sophisticated, harmonically abstract approach to the tenor saxophone endeared him to the beboppers, but he was also a beautiful balladeer. Thompson was born in Columbia, South Carolina, but grew up on Detroit's East Side. He saved to buy a saxophone study book, practicing on a simulated instrument carved from a broomstick. He finally acquired a saxophone when he was 15, practiced eight hours a day and, within a month, was playing around town, most notably with the King's Aces big band, among who was vibraphonist Milt Jackson, later a frequent associate

Charles McPherson

Born: July 24, 1939

For more than 60 years, saxophonist Charles McPherson has been one of the most expressive and highly regarded voices in jazz. His rich musical style, rooted in the blues and bebop, has influenced and inspired generations of musicians and listeners. McPherson was born in Joplin, MO, on July 24, 1939, and he developed a love for music at a young age. As a child, he began experimenting at the piano whenever one was available. He also attended summer concerts in Joplin that featured territory bands from the Midwest and Southwest. These concerts made a strong impression on McPherson, who was particularly enamored with the sound and shape of the saxophone. McPherson moved to Detroit in 1948 at age 9