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.
The
jazz photography of C. Andrew Hovan By C. Andrew Hovan, JazzReview
The 29th annual
Detroit International Jazz Festival brought with it a plethora of spectacular
music that kept jazz fans hopping for the entire fours days of the recent Labor
Day weekend. Even without the themed presentations highlighting iconic musicians
from both Philadelphia and Detroit, there was a feeling in the air that something
special was going down as some of the nation’s finest came together for a festival
that just keeps getting better and better.
Detroit International Jazz Festival 2008 By Matt Marshall, All About Jazz, September
16, 2008
Billed as A Love Supreme: the Philly-Detroit Summit, the 29th Annual
Detroit International Jazz Festival gathered more than just musicians from those
two great jazz cities. The spirit of interchange bubbled over onto all of the
festival's stages, showcasing every swatch that makes up the jazz quilt, and
inspiring the viewer to see anew just how international this music truly is.
Jazz
for all, love for jazz: The 29th annual Detroit Jazz Fest By Andrea Canter, Jazz
Police, September 8, 2008
Jazz of course was not born in Detroit, but the city
nevertheless embraces this music as if it is indeed its native tongue, and when
Labor Day weekend comes around, Detroit is no longer Motown. It’s Bop City.
Jazz Fest full of talent, creative programming By Mark Stryker, Detroit Free
Press, September 2, 2008
The best evidence that the Detroit International Jazz
Festival has dramatically upped the quality of its programming is that aficionados
had scheduling conflicts all weekend long. The chance that you had to mortgage
one can't-miss act for another was perhaps the highest in the festival's 29 years.
Jazz
Fest closes with a bebop feast By Mark Stryker, Detroit Free Press, September
2, 2008
Though it wasn’t billed as such, closing night at the Detroit International
Jazz Festival morphed into a de facto celebration of bebop, the modern jazz movement
of the ‘40s spearheaded by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell and a
few others.
Jam-packed
Sunday challenges a jazz critics stamina By Mark Stryker, Detroit Free Press,
September 1, 2008
If any more evidence was needed that the Detroit International
Jazz Festival has elevated its product in the last two years, the gloriously
stuffed schedule of overlapping talent on Sunday was it. The laws of metaphysics
made it impossible to hear it all, and no sane person would even try to ingest
as much as I did. Of course, jazz critics have never been known for their mental
stability.
Philly-Detroit
Summit Shines By Mark Stryker, Detroit Free Press, August 31, 2008
Jazz festival
jam sessions have a protocol. You typically get lots of bright swingers, a blues,
a Latin tune, perhaps a ballad medley and a de rigueur flag waver at the close.
The opening and closing ensemble choruses of each tune tend to be messy. Dynamics
span the gamut from loud to very loud. Individual moments might quicken the pulse,
but the whole invariably equals less than the sum of the parts.
Eyes and ears turn toward Philly early today at Jazz Fest By Mark Stryker, Detroit
Free Press, August 31, 2008
The Detroit International Jazz Festival has been
celebrating two great cities of jazz this weekend, Detroit and Philadelphia,
but the focus narrowed to Philly history early this afternoon at Hart Plaza.
Jazz Fest opens with tribute to Marvin Gaye By Mark Stryker, Detroit Free Press,
August 30, 2008
The Detroit International Jazz Festival has sharpened its artistic
profile in the last two years by re-embracing its pure jazz roots and creating
more thematic programming. But the festival still likes to give opening night
a populist punch. This can be a tricky tightrope, but Friday’s exhilarating Tribute
to Marvin Gaye, led by bassist Christian McBride and delivered at a jam-packed
Cadillac Square, was
Local acts prove homegrown talent is still strong By Mark Stryker, Detroit Free
Press, August 30, 2008
While the national stars get the lion’s share of the attention
at the Detroit International Jazz Festival, the event remains a critical showcase
for the local heroes that invigorate the Detroit scene 365 days a year.
Jazz Festival worth $90 million to region By Sherri Begin, Crain’s Detroit Business,
June 2, 2008
The Detroit International Jazz Festival had an estimated economic
impact of $90 million on the region last year, according to numbers released
today by the festival.
Detroit Jazz Festival By EJazz News, May 20, 2008
Lem Barney, the former Detroit
Lions cornerback and Hall of Fame standout who played in seven pro bowls, was
on hand to support Christian McBride at this year's official Detroit International
Jazz Festival announcement and kickoff breakfast held at the Guardian building
in downtown Detroit.
A Love Supreme’ unites Detroit, Philly for 2008 Jazz Fest By K. Michelle Moran,
C&G News, April 30, 2008
The 29th annual festival — the largest free jazz
festival in North America — will salute the jazz and soul music of Philadelphia
and Detroit under the theme, “A Love Supreme.”
Donald Walden ‘kept jazz alive’ By Mark Stryker, Detroit Free Press, April 8,
2008
Walden, who died Sunday at his Detroit home at age 69 from complications
due to cancer, was a child of bebop. He matured during the golden age of modern
jazz in Detroit in the 1950s and carved his own style from saxophonists Dexter
Gordon, Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane, whose steely tone imprinted itself on
Walden's DNA.
Most influential women: Grethen Carhartt Valade By Marcia Danner, Crain’s Detroit
Business, October 9, 2007
Detroit doesn’t need another black eye,” was Gretchen
Valade’s reaction in 2005 when she heard the Detroit International Jazz Festival
was in danger of folding. Valade, 82, came to the rescue with an infusion of
$250,000, making her Harper Woods-based jazz record label, Mack Avenue Records,
the equivalent of a title sponsor. The following year she assumed stewardship,
setting up a $10 million endowment and creating a separate production company
to take over the Detroit Music Hall’s role in staging the event.
WMU students hit high notes at Detroit Jazz Festival By Mark Schwerin, WMU News,
October 1, 2007
The Western Michigan University Jazz Studies Program won high
accolades at the 28th Annual Detroit International Jazz Festival. First, the
program was honored with a prestigious invitation for the WMU Jazz Octet to perform.
Then, two of its members won Outstanding Jazz Soloist awards. Finally, an incoming
WMU freshman took home an Outstanding Jazz Soloist award while performing with
his high school band.
Return to jazz roots makes 2007 fest one of the best By Mark Stryker, Detroit
Free Press, September 4, 2007
There are many reasons why the 28th annual Detroit
International Jazz Festival was the most inspired since the event expanded its
footprint into the downtown core in 2005. In fact, with the possible exception
of 1999, this year's festival, which closed Monday, was the most memorable in
my 12 years in Detroit.
Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra caps jazz festival with a roar By Mark Stryker,
Detroit Free Press, September 4, 2007
Is the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra
the best big band on the planet? It’s a silly question, of course . . . But I’ll
say this after hearing the Los Angeles-based Clayton-Hamilton band close out
the Detroit International Jazz Festival Monday night at the Hart Plaza Amphitheatre:
There’s no band in the world right now that swings as hard as this one, and any
group willing to take them on in a battle of the bands might want to have a chaplain
standing by just in case.
Jazz legend comes home with the blues on his mind By Mark Stryker, Detroit Free
Press, September 3, 2007
Jazz aficionados have been buzzing for weeks about the
rumor that Yusef Lateef was going to play the blues when the 86-year-old Detroit-born
legend returned home to perform Monday night at the Detroit International Jazz
Festival. In this case, “the blues” was meant literally as in the 12-bar elemental
musical form, as well as a metaphor for the kind of fundamental modern jazz that
the tenor saxophonist, flutist and oboist used to play back in the day.
Herwig takes Miles and Trane for a post-bop ride south of the border By Mark
Stryker, Detroit Free Press, September, 3, 2007
In terms of truth in advertising,
Sunday night’s set by Conrad Herwig’s Latin Side of Miles, Trane & Wayne
was 33 percent false. The septet, led by an A-list New York trombonist, certainly
played music by Miles Davis and John Coltrane, but never got around to anything
by Wayne Shorter. Ok, bygones. The important point is that the band’s blend of
Afro-Cuban rhythm with post-bop harmony and improvisation ranks with the most
fiery and compelling music heard over the weekend at the Detroit International
Jazz Festival.
Carter and Barron inspire the best in each other By Mark Stryker, Detroit Free
Press, September 2, 2007
Violinist Regina Carter made a duet CD with veteran
pianist Kenny Barron about five years ago, and the charismatic flow of ideas
makes it the most compelling studio document of her gifts. The chemistry between
the pair remains sharp to judge by Sunday afternoon’s free-flowing tête-à-tête
on the Waterfront Stage at the Detroit International Jazz Festival.
A suave pianist feels the spirit and turns up the heat By Mark Stryker, Detroit
Free Press, September 2, 2007
Bill Charlap is an elegant pianist, with a satiny
touch, a natty trio and a classicist approach to repertory and style. But his
set Saturday night at the Detroit International Jazz Festival with longtime colleagues
Peter Washington on bass and Kenny Washington on drums had an extra dash of vim
and vinegar.
Garrett returns home; skyscrapers at risk By Mark Stryker, Detroit Free Press,
September 2, 2007
If the Waterfront Stage at Hart Plaza had been turned around
180 degrees so the musicians faced east rather than west, then the Detroit-born
alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett might well have blown down the Renaissance Center
Saturday night with the gale force of his playing. Garrett’s Quartet -- with
pianist Benito Gonzales, bassist Dezron Douglas and drummer Jamire Williams --
opened their set at the Detroit International Jazz Festival with the fury of
a tropical storm.
Huge talent, eager donors keep jazz festivals in tune By Jon W. Poses, Columbia
Tribune, September 2, 2007
The Detroit Jazz Festival represents a new experience
for yours truly…What first struck me was the event’s oh-so-hip slogan/theme: "Music
On All Cylinders."
Festival finally warms up to free jazz By Mark Stryker, Detroit Free Press, September
1, 2007
The festival . . . had already started like a rocket with Herbie Hancock
and Regina Carter on Friday. Now, under spectacularly blue skies with crowds
swelling to impressive proportion by late afternoon, there was a feeling in the
air that something special was afoot this year – a reaffirmation of the Detroit
festival’s historic willingness to embrace all of the tradition without timidity
or excessive commercialism.
Carter swings, Hancock rocks and the Jazz Festival opens with a nod to its past By Mark Stryker, Detroit Free Press, September 1, 2007
Violinist Regina Carter
and pianist Herbie Hancock opened the 28th annual Detroit International Jazz
Festival Friday night with a sound that’s largely been missing from the first
night of the event in recent years – jazz.
Focus will be on jazz at Detroit music fest By David Yonke, Toledo Blade, August
30, 2007
In the recent past, the Detroit International Jazz Festival has offered
a wide range of musical styles including pop, blues, world music, and R&B.
This year, the free four-day Labor Day weekend festival is focused like a laser
beam on traditional jazz.
Festival celebrates a tale of 2 jazz cities By Mark Stryker, Detroit Free Press,
August 26, 2007
For all of the talk of a rumble between Detroit and Chicago at
this weekend's 28th annual Detroit International Jazz Festival, the battle royal
promises to be more of a celebration than a boxing match. Some of the top talent
produced by two of America's greatest jazz meccas will be on display, beginning
with tonight's double bill of Detroit-born violin star Regina Carter and the
iconic Chicago-born pianist Herbie Hancock. One of the largest free jazz festivals
in North America, the four-day downtown festival has sharpened its programming
this year, introducing several thematic twists, including the Rumble in the Great
Lakes.
Jazz Fest seeks to be an arts organization, fiscally secure By Mark Stryker,
Detroit Free Press, August 5, 2007
When philanthropist Gretchen Valade founded
the Detroit International Jazz Festival Foundation last year with a $10-million
bequest, fans of the event breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, it seemed, the
future of the beleaguered Labor Day weekend festival was secure. Yes and no.
Jazz fest turns music rivalry into music revelry By K. Michelle Moran, C&G
Newspapers, May 24, 2007
Gas prices may be cutting into people’s travel plans,
but metro Detroiters won’t have to go far to hear some great music. The Detroit
International Jazz Festival has assembled a sparkling lineup of jazz all-stars
and jazz stars of tomorrow for the 28th annual Labor Day weekend festival, which
takes place at Hart Plaza and elsewhere in downtown Detroit Aug. 31-Sept. 3.
