Results for "Detroit"

Steve Wood

Born: June 11, 1953

Steve Wood started his professional training at Oakland University where he studied with Marvin "Doc" Holladay and Sam Sanders. He also studied with legendary trumpeter, Marcus Belgrave in his Jazz Development Workshop. In 1990 Steve won a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship to study with jazz great, George Coleman. In his professional career Steve has performed with many of the world's finest jazz musicians. He has released two CD's as a leader, "Unanswerable Questions" on Alembic records in 1993 and "Deep Woods" on Corridor Records in 2000. A quintet co-led with tenor saxophonist Carl Cafagna released the CD "Detroit Tenors" on the Detroit Music Factory label in 2019

Trio Reenactment

What Once Was… is the second release from acclaimed jazz ensemble Trio Reenactment. The recording explores an eclectic mix of sounds, including soul, rock and straight-ahead jazz. Formed in 2008 by John Barron (bass), Sven Anderson (keyboards) and Rob Emanuel (drums), the Detroit-area trio performs original music and clever arrangements of pop standards. Their debut, self-titled disc received rave reviews and national airplay. Full bio and sound samples can be found at trioreenactment.com

Band Bio

Sven Anderson - piano

Sven Anderson is a pianist specializing in jazz, but well versed in many styles, including funk, fusion, Brazilian, Afro- Cuban, Broadway shows and pop. His original compositions and arrangements have enhanced many recordings or performances. Adding to his arsenal of sound, is his soulful nylon string guitar playing of Brazilian music. He has served as musical director for the legendary Jimmy Scott and has performed with Earl Klugh, Cindy Blackman, Franz Jackson, Marcus Belgrave, J.C. Heard, Paul Keller, Larry Nozero, Tom Saunders, Charlie Gabriel and Ernie Krivda. He has headlined at the Ottawa Jazz Festival and Washington Street Jazz Festival. Sven has a M.M. in composition and was the first student at Oakland University to win for an original piano concerto. He has studied with David Sporney, Marvin "Doc" Holliday and Dr. Billy Taylor. He has had master classes with renowned composers Aaron Copland, George Crum and Virgil Thomson. John Barron - upright bass

Clarence Penn

Born: March 2, 1968

Clarence Penn is one of the busiest jazz drummers in the world, a leader of multiple bands, a composer, a prolific producer, and an educator. Since 1991, when he arrived in New York City, Penn has placed his unique blend of mega-chops, keen intellect, and heady musicianship at the service of a staggering array of A-list artists—a chronological short-list includes Ellis and Wynton Marsalis, Betty Carter, Stanley Clarke, Steps Ahead, Makoto Ozone, Michael Brecker, Dave Douglas, Maria Schneider, Luciana Souza, Richard Galliano, and Fourplay. Penn’s impressive discography includes several hundred studio albums (including the Grammy-winning recordings 34th and Lex by Randy Brecker and Concert in the Garden and Sky Blue by Maria Schneider) representing a 360-spectrum of jazz expression, and he’s toured extensively throughout the United States, the Americas, Europe, Japan, and Southeast Asia

Karriem Riggins

Born: August 25, 1975

If jazz and hip-hop passionately and cleverly intertwined with one another, the hybrid result would be a musically gifted lovechild. Or, perhaps, if ones bloodline is to blame father, Emmanuel Riggins is a musician and used to perform with guitarist Grant Green a musical rarity is nonetheless the result. Whatever the reason, whatever the description, a musical talent by any other name is still well a musical talent. And such a musical talent has manifested itself into musician, producer Karriem Riggins. Born August 25, 1975 in Detroit, MI, Riggins parents realized their son was gifted at an early age: not only would Riggins dig through his parents record collection as a young child but he would also accompany his father to the studio and play with instruments in the likeness of a musical great

Gerald Cleaver

Born: May 4, 1963

Drummer Gerald Cleaver was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and is a product of the rich music tradition found there and also in his home. Inspired by his father, John Cleaver, also a drummer, he began playing the drums at an early age. He also played violin in elementary school and switched to trumpet during junior high and high school. While in his teens, he gained early working experience with Ali Muhammad Jackson, Lamont Hamilton, Earl Van Riper, and Pancho Hagood and later with Marcus Belgrave, Donald Walden, Rodney Whitaker, A. Spencer Barefield and Wendell Harrison. Cleaver earned a B.A

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