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| "Sound Prints" led by Dave Douglas and Joe Lovano at the Detroit Jazz Festival |
© Andrea Canter
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| The Renaissance Center above the Carharrt crowd |
It was my 5th consecutive Labor Day Weekend at
the Detroit International Jazz Festival. Emphasis on “Detroit,” please. One of the nation’s most
depressed urban centers, every Labor Day Weekend, Detroit somehow comes alive
with civic pride, boastful of a long tradition of American music including
bebop and beyond and a multi-cultural, cross-generational, economics-be-damned
celebration that draws musicians and fans from well beyond the Midwest. This
year, the draw was bigger than ever, both in terms of the cachet of the artists
and the size of the crowd that descended upon downtown’s Hart
Plaza and Camp Maritius
like a human tidal wave.
Why so much hoopla about jazz in Detroit? This is the world’s largest free jazz festival, with attendance
likely approaching a million this year. There are no tickets, no admission, no
reservations. Sure, you can donate $100 or more and get VIP seating at every
stage. But VIP seating, if the best in the “house,” is but a fraction of the seating.
And I use the term “seating” loosely. There are folding chairs and bleachers at
the Chase/JP Morgan Main Stage and Mack Avenue Riverfront Stage. There are
cement tiers at the Carhartt Amphitheater and Pyramid Stage. And many bring
their own chairs, which often end up
lined around the peripheries of each venue. Sooner or later (sooner, this
year), there’s a phalanx of standees, some times many rows deep.
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| Sonny Rollins, opening night |
Contributing to even larger crowds this year, the weather
was as perfect as it gets in late summer. The line-up was as fantastic and
frustrating as it gets at a jazz festival, with headliners like Sonny Rollins,
Wayne Shorter, Pat Metheny, Chick Corea & Gary Burton, Wynton Marsalis,
Terence Blanchard, Joe Lovano & Dave Douglas, Kenny Garrett, Kevin Eubanks,
Lew Tabackin & Randy Brecker, and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band all
pulling at our ears, sometimes concurrently. And take away the those “big
names” and the list of bright rising stars and seasoned, under-appreciated
veterans would have sufficed – Fred Hersch, Curtis Fuller, Louis Hayes, Marcus
Belgrave, Gregoire Maret, Gerald Cleaver, Tia Fuller, Ellery Eskelin, David
Binney, Charles McPherson & Tom Harrell, Judi Silvano, Alfredo Rodriguez,
Geoffrey Keezer & Donny McCaslin, Rick Margitza….Mack Avenue All-Stars
including Fuller, Garrett, Rodriquez, Eubanks, Sean Jones, Aaron Diehl…
“sidemen” John Patitucci, Brian Blade, Craig Taborn, Tony Malaby, Linda Oh,
Francisco Mela, Joey Baron, Ray Drummond, Kobie Watkins, Johnathan Blake, J.D.
Allen…. Veteran Detroiters like singer Ursula Walker and saxman George “Sax”
Benson who should be well known coast to coast; young upstarts like Monk
Competition winning-vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant and pianist Lawrence
Fields.
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| Chick Corea |
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| Ursula Walker |
And for the three days following the opening night gala gigs,
it seemed like the entire world was in Detroit,
that jazz was the only music. Even the “smaller” acts of up-and-comers drew
strong crowds; I never hit a sparsely attended set. Sometimes you could find
seating pretty easily. More often you could only find seating by arriving early
in the afternoon and staking out your own territory, hedging your bets at one
stage while resigning yourself to the possibility of standing at the others.
Vice President Biden’s entourage might have fallen victim to thievery on the
streets of Detroit before his Labor Day rally;
we’ve never lost chairs or coolers on Hart Plaza
during jazzfest.
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| Wayne Shorter |
The schedule was more tightly packed this year as the
festival downsized from five to four stages, giving up the small student stage
on Woodward while at the same time booking more acts—bigger acts—than ever, and
still maintaining a strong schedule of student ensembles. With start times
closer together across the stages, there was more “sound bleeding,” especially
between Carhartt—the big amphitheater that presents most of the big bands and
biggest names—and the smaller Mack Avenue River Front Stage, where many of the
smaller, often quieter, ensembles performed. If you were sitting or standing on
the edges of either venue, there were
times when your right ear strained to hear a piano trio while your left ear
failed to block out sizzling trombones and trumpets.
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| Fred Hersch |
Despite the challenges (which also include finding food
vendors that are not committed to grease and sugar), there is something almost
sacred about the Detroit Jazz Festival—the determination of its leaders to keep
it free and family-friendly; the commitment to reinforcing the jazz traditions
of the city; the support of student musicians through presentation of college
bands on the big stages with headliner guest artists and young artist
competitions; the definition of jazz from trad to rad, including a nod to
Motown (this is Detroit!) and gospel,
but maintaining the focus on “jazz”; the support of new works through
commissions. Perhaps a free urban
festival with such high standards for the art guarantees logistical hassles. It
also guarantees exposing thousands of children, student musicians, educators
and fans at all levels of interest to a music that otherwise struggles for an
audience; it brings revenue and positive attention to a city that badly needs
both. For one weekend, Detroit is the jazz capital of the world and
the only place I want to be. Even if I have to decide between Pat Metheny and
Fred Hersch. Or between dinner and music.
A more music-oriented
review of the 33rd Detroit
Jazz Festival will appear soon at www.jazzpolice.com
and www.jazzink.com
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| Craig Taborn (with Uncle June) gave the festival a big thumbs up! |
