$1.5 million in arts grants awarded to Michigan groups
By Mark Stryker, DETROIT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
The National Endowment for the Arts announced 22 grants to Michigan organizations today totaling nearly $1.5 million. The grants, the second and final round of major funding for 2011, are aimed at increasing access to the arts, education programs, expanding arts programming on TV and radio and partnerships with state and regional arts agencies.
Kenny Barron & Mulgrew Miller Blindfold Test By Dan Oullette, Downbeat Magazine
Shortly before performing their duo concert at the 31st Annual Detroit International Jazz Festival on Sept. 5, Kenny Barron and Mulgrew Miller appeared at the Talk Tent before a live audience to listen to and reflect on a range of piano-based music. The Barron-Miller performance took place on the Carhartt Amphitheatre Stage.
A Tribute to the Blues, Jazz and One Young Man’s Words By Karen Dybis, Detroit Unspun
Jermaine Fields-Tisdale, a 15-year-old Detroiter, will take the stage tonight. He is not nervous; in fact, the chance to perform energizes him. For he will be speaking the words of a great man, something all actors relish.
Detroit's jazz fest one of the best By Susan Whitall, The Detroit News
The Detroit International Jazz Festival was voted one of the top four jazz festivals in North America by the readers of JazzTimes, one of the major jazz publications in the world. The festival, which takes place over Labor Day weekend, was in good company; the other three top festivals are the Newport Jazz Festival, the Monterey Jazz Festival and the Montreal International Jazz Festival.
Theme, artist in residence announced for Detroit jazzfest By Susan Whitall, The Detroit News
As we eagerly await the January thaw, news from this year's jazz festivals is a warm reminder of spring and summer. The Detroit International Jazz Festival announced the theme for its 32nd festival, which takes place Sept. 2-5. "We Bring You The World" will spotlight world influences on jazz, keeping a special eye on Detroit. The 2011 Artist in Residence will be Grammy Award-winning drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts, who's played with Wynton Marsalis, George Benson, Harry Connick Jr., McCoy Tyner and Branford Marsalis. Watts was also a member of "The Tonight Show" band for three years.
Detroit jazz festival will have a global perspective this year By MARK STRYKER, Detroit Free Press Music Writer
Jazz has turned increasingly global in the last 15 years as artists have emerged from nearly every country you can think of and frequently married native musical languages with contemporary trends in jazz improvisation.
Under the Big Top: Detroit's 31st Year Hits a High Note By C. Andrew Hovan, All About Jazz, October 5, 2010
Last year may have been their 30th anniversary year, but this past Labor Day weekend, The Detroit Jazz Festival pulled out all the stops for what had to be one of the most memorable line-ups of recent memory. Mother Nature would cooperate for the most part, with pleasant temperatures and no precipitation for the majority of the weekend, although a few of the nights got pretty chilly. The mixture of mainstream jazz and other styles was once again handled sagaciously, with a smattering of blues and soul acts thrown in for good measure. There were also some notable 'firsts' making the event something special, including rare appearances from Tower of Power and the Maria Schneider Orchestra.
Round Trip to the Jazz Planet (The 2010 Detroit Jazz Festival) By Andrea Canter, Jazz Police, September 16, 2010
My friends Keith and Linda and I have this routine down cold. For Labor Day Weekend, we fly out of the South St. Paul airport on Friday morning in Keith’s 4-passenger Bonanza. We arrive at Willow Run airfield in Ypsilanti midday, rent a car, and take off for 3 ½ days of nonstop (really) jazz that runs the gamut from early swing to avant garde, with big helpings of Detroit-spiced bebop and sprinklings of Motown and soul.
Detroit International Jazz Festival 2010: An Embarrassment of Riches
Downtown Detroit comes alive with countless jazz performances By Carlo Wolff, JazzTimes, September 13, 2010
Downtown Detroit was paradise for music lovers over Labor Day weekend when thousands of jazz aficionados enjoyed more than 100 intelligently programmed acts. The Sept. 3-6 event showcased talent on six stages spanning the retro swing of Defenders of the Groove, the modern mainstream of the Branford Marsalis Quartet, and the avant-garde, cerebral improvisations of Trio M. The Detroit International Jazz Festival’s 31st iteration was large and free and fabulous (members of the Rhythm Section got special seating, a meal and a few drinks for $100 a day).
31st Annual Detroit International Jazz Festival - Sept 3-6, 2010
A superb jazz festival from beginning to end…. By Jeff Krow, Audiophile Audition, September 12, 2010
Every major metropolitan jazz festival needs a supporting “angel” in these trying economic times to remain viable. In Detroit, the owner of Mack Avenue Records, and family member of the Carhartt clothing line, Gretchen Valade, is that jazz angel, whose wings and foundation have permitted Detroit to continue its reign as one of the country’s premiere (and FREE!) jazz festivals.
Jazz festival envelops downtown in rhythm By Susan Whitall and Lawrence B. Johnson, The Detroit News, September 7, 2010
The Detroit International Jazz Festival wrapped up its 31st year Monday, once again enthralling fans from all over the world with a dazzling array of free music.
The rhythm heats up at Jazz Fest By Susan Whitall and Lawrence B. Johnson, The Detroit News, September 6, 2010
Jazz is an art form that speaks in many accents, many dialects. And a tasty stew of them filled the air with heady aromas Sunday at the Detroit Jazz Fest.
Detroit’s jazz festival turns into labor of love for violinist By Jon Poses, Columbia Tribune, September 5, 2010
I have really come to appreciate the Detroit International Jazz Festival, which at press time was a few days away but is now in full swing through Labor Day. This is my third visit here, and each time surpasses the previous experience — and they all have been good.
Day two of the Detroit Jazz Festival
Blowin' sessions abound By Jessica Webster, AnnArbor.com, September 5, 2010
Chicago may be called "The Windy City," but it had nothing on Detroit during the Detroit Jazz Festival performances at Hart Plaza on Saturday. Cooler than normal temperatures and gusty winds had jazz fans bundled up and huddled together, but the draw of great music kept them in their seats.
Before Motown, Detroit Had Jazz By Karen Dybis, TIME, September 2, 2010
Get ready, Big City. The Detroit Jazz Fest is about to blast off. This annual Labor Day tradition is free, free, free and features top talent in a family-friendly setting. No excuses; this is a must-attend event.
Jazz Fest staying power
How Barry Harris and Roy Haynes found their niches By Charles Latimer, Metrotimes, September 1, 2010
Pianist Barry Harris and drummer Roy Haynes have things in common. Both octogenarians, major jazz figures for more than a half-century, are still going strong. Last month, Harris, 80, released Barry Harry Live in Rennes. At 85, Haynes hasn't released a disc in three years, but the last one was a doozy, a 3-CD 1949-2006 retrospective with an accompanying DVD.
Tributaries
Jazz Fest looks back to greats, known and less-so By W. Kim Heron, Metrotimes, September 1, 2010
Pianist Horace Silver hasn’t performed in public for years. Betty Carter, Pepper Adams, Clifford Brown, Ray Brown and Donny Hathaway have been dead as long as a half-century.
As the Detroit jazz fest's artist-in-residence, pianist Mulgrew Miller celebrates the icons who shaped him By Mark Stryker, Detroit Free Press, August 22, 2010
The apprentice system was once the lifeblood of jazz. Gifted young musicians moved to a major city like New York, signed on with one of dozens of working bands and assimilated the subtleties of the tradition on the bandstand. Read more: As the Detroit jazz fest's artist-in-residence, pianist Mulgrew Miller celebrates the icons who shaped him.
Mulgrew Miller talks about jazz By Mark Stryker, Detroit Free Press, August 22, 2010
Pianist Mulgrew Miller, artist in residence of the 2010 Detroit International Jazz Festival, speaks his mind: Read more: Mulgrew Miller talks about jazz.
Jazz festival in Detroit to salute the “Flamekeepers” By Lee Mergner, JazzTimes, March 1, 2010
The folks who organize the Detroit International Jazz Festival love themes. According to Terri Pontremoli, executive director of the festival, it started back in 2007, when she decided to have the festival pay tribute to the local jazz legends. “I like to take that thematic canvas,” explained Pontremoli. “The media approaches us differently. The musicians love it. And audiences love it.” In subsequent years, the festival’s themes were: Detroit vs. Chicago (besides whatever intra-city rivalry there may be, the two fests take place the same weekend): The Detroit-Philadelphia connection and, most recently, “Keeping Up With the Joneses—and Other Jazz Family Dynasties.”
30th
Annual Detroit International Jazz Festival: In pictures By C. Andrew Hovan, All About Jazz, September 23, 2009
With perfect
temperatures and wall-to-wall sunshine, Detroit recently celebrated
a tradition that has brought jazz to the city every Labor Day weekend
for the past 30 years. Billed as the largest free jazz festival
in North America, this year's festivities ran September 4-7 and
featured hundreds of performances on four main stages .
30th
Detroit International Jazz Festival celebrates family By Andrea Canter, Jazz Police, September 13, 2009
If my first Detroit Jazz Festival
(2008) was a revelation, my second last weekend was at least as much an ear-opening
and even more inspiring experience. (Also, click
here to review related photo gallery)
Jazz
fest forges community links By Susan Whitall, Detroit News, September 8, 2009
As the 30th anniversary of
the Detroit Jazz Festival wound down Monday night, a light rain was the first
contrary note in a weekend of perfect weather. These four days of music were
a reminder of how jazz serves as a common ether, a bond that creates community
among the most diverse elements of society .
Jazz
festival showcases best of Detroit By Susan Whitall, Detroit News, September 6, 2009
So far, the 30th anniversary
celebration of the Detroit International Jazz Festival, taking place from Campus
Martius down to the riverfront, has been the perfect mix of balmy late-summer
weather, spicy festival food and jazz in all its 20th and 21st century permutations.
Moments
to savor at the Detroit Jazz Festival By The Grand Rapids Press, September 6, 2009
What do you get when you mix a
jazz goddess with an orchestra of young men? A fiery mix that prompted one audience
member to observe, "She's messin' with those boys.” Vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater
put the students in the Michigan State University Jazz Orchestra - some of them
newby freshmen - through their paces. On a smooth version of "Bye Bye Blackbird," she
cooed at the guitarist, who proceeded to nail his solo. He admitted to her after
the song that he was "scared," and she conceded, "That's baptism
by fire."
Detroit
Jazz Festival: The 90-minute Shorter piece By The Grand Rapids Press, September 6, 2009
When I saw Wayne Shorter a while
back in Montreal I had a chance to ask the band a question following the gig. "Who's
holding it all together?" They all laughed, and threw up their hands. "You
have to let go," Wayne answered. On a gorgeous Detroit evening, the same
quartet (Brian Blade on drums, Danilo Perez on piano, John Patitucci on bass)
held forth for a Herculean 90 minutes of improvisation and storytelling.
Alfredo
Rodriguez stuns Detroit Jazz Festival crowd By The Grand Rapids Press, September 6, 2009
When Alfredo Rodriguez ended his
solo piano set Sunday afternoon at the Detroit Jazz Fest, many in the audience
were pretty sure they had just witnessed genius in bloom. The young pony-tailed
pianist, recently defected from Cuba, is the son of a father by the same name
- also an entertainer, but known as "The Elvis of Cuba." It's hard
to imagine that the U.S. Elvis ever would have produced someone quite like Alfredo.
Tribute
to Owosso native Lyman Woodard part of Detroit jazz festival By Lorri Lea, Mlive.com, September 3, 2009
Friends and colleagues of the late
Lyman Woodard will pay tribute to the jazz organist during this year's Detroit
International Jazz Festival, which takes place Labor Day weekend at the city's
Hart Plaza.
Detroit
Jazz Fest celebrates 30 years By Gary Graff, The Oakland Press, August 30,2009
Robert McCabe recalls standing
on Detroit’s Hart Plaza at the start of Labor Day weekend in 1980, surveying
the crowd arriving for the city’s first jazz festival and thinking, “Wow, it
worked!” He’ll feel the same way this year, when the four-day event, now known
as the Detroit International Jazz Festival and considered the largest free jazz
festival in North America, celebrates its 30th year with the tattoo of the 36-member
Alma College Percussion Ensemble.
Bass
line: From the great Ray Brown to the Grammy-winner John Clayton and beyond By Charles L. Latimer, Metro Times, August 18, 2009
John Clayton is too modest
a musician to boast about his considerable accomplishments. The bassist has seven
Grammy nods in various categories. In 2007, he won for Best Instrumental Arrangement
Accompanying a Vocalist for his work with Queen Latifah. And he's likewise handled
arranging for the likes of Whitney Houston, Nancy Wilson and Diana Krall. That's
just a taste of Clayton's credentials as a sideman.
