Results for "Detroit"

Microplastique: Blare Blow Bloom!

by Lawrence Peryer
December 6, 2024

jny: Chicago's experimental music scene welcomes a new voice as Microplastique, four multi-instrumentalists, release their debut album, Blare Blow Bloom! (Irritable Mystic Records), on December 6, 2024. Formed in April 2023, the group includes Ben Zucker, Molly Jones, Josh Harlow and Adam Shead, with Shead composing and leading. Blare Blow Bloom! documents Microplastique's July ...

Planet D Nonet

The PD9 performs Harlem Jive by Fats Waller, swing era tunes by Duke Ellington, Benny Moten, Count Basie and Fletcher Henderson as well as the jumpin' jive of Louis Jordan. Cofounded by RJ Spangler & James O'Donnell in 2007, this band is about to celebrate 15 years of bringing swing music to SE Michigan listeners and swing dancers. In that time the band has performed in 10 states including some memorable gigs in New Orleans. In addition to the vocals of trumpeter James O'Donnell, the band also features the vocals of trombonist John "Tbone" Paxton and often featured artist Camille Price.

Kasan Belgrave Takes Off

by Paul Rauch
August 4, 2024

As a jazz journalist, attending summer festivals is almost a rite of passage, a journey to a place where so many pieces of the international jazz community are gathered in one spot to sample, or to indulge oneself. Over the years, accompanied by repeated visits, the sights and sounds of the festival locations become clearer and ...

Albert "Tootie" Heath: Class Personified

by R.J. DeLuke
April 13, 2024

This article was first published on All About Jazz on March 9, 2015. Albert “Tootie" Heath is among the drummers who lived--and thrived--during what many call the golden age of jazz, the '40s, '50, early '60s. He's enjoyed the fruits of a varied and historic career, but never stayed put. Just kept working. He ...

Jordan VanHemert

Saxophonist, composer and educator Jordan VanHemert has four critically acclaimed releases to his credit, and a fifth on the way in early 2024 (featuring Terell Stafford, producer Michael Dease, Helen Sung, Rodney Whitaker and Lewis Nash). Born in Korea and raised in Michigan, VanHemert makes music rooted in the jazz tradition and guided by a resolute political consciousness, illuminating issues of race and social justice. With a penchant for modern, swinging melodicism, he pays homage to his Korean roots while drawing on the blues-infused hard bop tradition handed down to him by his mentors.

Detroit Jazz Festival 2023: A Celebration of Home

August 13, 2023

The 2023 Detroit Jazz Festival is almost upon us, taking place in its annual Labor Day weekend slot on the yearly jazz festival calendar. The largest free jazz festival in the world brings the music to the people of Detroit, and the world, on September 1-4 in downtown Detroit and in Hart Plaza along the Detroit ...

Harry Gozzard

Born: March 5, 1916

Harry Roy Gozzard was an American jazz trumpeter. He performed with Sam Donahue. (In an article written by Mike Zirpolo, for Swing and Beyond, Donahue was described as "a superlative tenor saxophone soloist.") Other members of Donahue's band included the former The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson bandleader Doc Severinsen, 1946 Esquire Award winner for Best New Female Vocalist Frances Wayne, Grammy Award-winning vocalist and actress Jo Stafford and popular music arranger Leo Reisman. Gozzard and the Donahue band performed a few times with legendary piano-playing bandleader Count Basie. Basie was featured on four Donahue Okeh recordings made in New York on December 26, 1940.

Dorothy Ashby: With Strings Attached, 1957-1965

by John Chacona
July 10, 2023

Imagine if Sidney Bechet, Charlie Christian and Jimmy Smith were barely remembered and recordings of their music were long unavailable and known only on the geekiest corners of Discogs. That is essentially the status of harpist Dorothy Ashby. Like the three figures cited above, Ashby essentially created a language for her chosen instrument, the harp, where ...

Dave McMurray: Grateful Deadication 2

by Geno Thackara
May 12, 2023

Yet another Grateful Dead tribute will probably invite the same reactions from devotees and anyone else--either “oh, these songs again? “ or “Hmm, these songs again?" For anyone willing to take a look, it will (of course) come down to the way the material is presented and retooled, which in Dave McMurray's case means the sound ...

Samara Joy at Christ Church Cranbrook

by Troy Dostert
April 14, 2023

Samara Joy Christ Church Cranbrook Bloomfield Hills, Michigan March 24, 2023 Jazz fans in the Detroit metro area have become well-acquainted with the stately confines of Christ Church Cranbrook, as the church has hosted a series of sacred concerts and jazz masses going back to 2015. These include regular appearances by ...