Detroit Jazz Scene

[Lois Gilbert]

Hometown pros add depth to jazz fests

If it's July, then jazz festival season is in full swing, beginning with Sunday's 13th annual Michigan Jazz Festival at Schoolcraft College, an all-day orgy of local jazz, featuring more than 9 hours of continuous music on five stages, and all of it offered free.

In the next few weeks, we can look forward to the Community House Jazz Fest in Birmingham (July 19-21), the Idlewild Jazz Festival (July 21) and the inaugural edition of the Bob-Lo Island Jazz Fest (July 28). A trio of events -- Flint Jazz Festival (Aug. 2-5), Jazz on the River in Trenton (Aug. 4 and 5) and River Raisin Jazz Festival in Monroe (Aug. 11 and 12) -- carries us into next month, setting the table for the granddaddy of them all, the four-day 28th Detroit International Jazz Festival on Labor Day weekend.

But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. This weekend's Michigan Jazz Festival remains one of the most indispensable events on the jazz calendar. Why? Three reasons: Focus. Quality. Intimacy.

The festival eschews the visiting artist approach for an intense survey of the local scene. No festival features more Michigan pros. Performing on Sunday are 18 small groups, five big bands and six solo pianists. With every set, the festival reminds you of the remarkable range of home-grown jazz talent available 365 days a year in Detroit and environs. And with everything happening within the cozy confines of the VisTaTech Center, there is an up-close-and-personal warmth that turns the festival into a kind of family reunion.

Stylistically, the music ranges from ragtime and Chicago-inspired hot music to swing, boogie-woogie, bebop and modern mainstream. You won't hear anything on the cutting edge, but neither do you have to endure the kind of commercial fusion and other pap that mars other festivals.

The lineup seems especially deep with pianists this year, including bands led by invigorating modernists like Terry Lower and Cliff Monear, the Oscar Peterson-styled trio fronted by Steve Richko and solo sets by such diverse personalities as Buddy Budson, Taslimah Bey, Bob Seeley, Bess Bonnier, Dennis Tini and Alma Smith.

Other highlights:

Steve Wood's Tribute to Yusef Lateef. A brawny tenor saxophonist, Wood honors the Detroit-bred reedman whose experiments in the 1950s and '60s were prescient in their importation of Middle Eastern, African and Asian exotica into a fundamentally modern jazz conception. (1:30 p.m. Lear Stage)

Ed Nuccilli & Plural Circle. The veteran bandleader and composer's ever-fresh big band arrangements breathe with invention, wit and a deftly structured balance of composition and improvisation. (4 p.m. Cohen/Steinway Stage)

George Benson Quartet. A bebopper to the core, Benson's high-spirited approach to swinging a standard and his lovely way with a ballad are guaranteed to put a smile on your face. (12:30 p.m. Inmar/CRH Stage)

Los Gatos. Ann Arbor's long running Latin-jazz quintet ensemble has a terrific new CDt, "Insight" (PKO Records), that reveals its stylistic flexibility and alluring simmer, with Cary Kocher's vibes in the front line offering a cooling effect on the hot rhythm section led by drummer and percussionist Pete Siers. (4:30 p.m. Lear Stage).

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[Dr Dave]

Once upon a time, giants walked the streets of Detroit:

The Joneses (Hank, Elvin, Thad)
Tommy Flanagan
Barry Harris
Pepper Adams
Donald Byrd
Betty Carter
Curtis Fuller
Yusef Lateef
Kenny Burrell
Paul Chambers

[Lois Gilbert]

Although not born there certainly Gerald Wilson is part of the early Detroit scene

Then there's

Kirk Lightsey
Regina Carter
Marcus Belgrave
to add to the list

[Ron Thorne]

And...

Kenny Clarke
Faruq Z. Bey
Joe Henderson (not a "native", but began his career there)
Frank Rosolino
Kenny Cox

[Al in NYC]

This could go on awhile. Especially if you go back and mention folks like
Milt Jackson
Lucky Thompson
Sonny Stitt (from Saginaw, played on the Detroit scene a lot)
Wardell Gray

And, of course
Hank Jones
Thad Jones
Elvin Jones

I could go on...

[Enforcer]

Rodney Whitaker is my man.

[Lois Gilbert]

A blast from jazz's past

For a fleeting moment, Kenny Cox and the Contemporary Jazz Quintet seemed on the brink of steady work, if not stardom. The band of young Detroit firebrands -- Cox on piano, Charles Moore on trumpet, Leon Henderson on tenor sax, Ron Brooks on bass, Danny Spencer on drums -- made two outstanding LPs for Blue Note, a premiere label. But "Introducing Kenny Cox and the Contemporary Jazz Quintet" (1968) and "Multidirection" (1969) quickly fell out of print, and the CJQ dissolved in the '70s.

The records, however, morphed into collectors' items. Blue Note has combined both in a new reissue, and the band, strongly rooted in the weightless, modal universe defined by the Miles Davis Quintet, still sounds fresh with adventure. Zigzag melodies, most by Cox or Moore, launch turbulent solos of swirling rhythm, harmonic tension and aggressive interaction.


Moore's "Number Four," for example, is a jittery theme that turns back on itself, with deft metric changes that build excitement without destroying the fierce propulsion. Henderson, younger brother of tenor man Joe Henderson, echoes both his famous sibling and Wayne Shorter in his loose, stop-and-go phrasing. Moore's trumpet jabs like a boxer. And the rhythm section comes and goes as it pleases, sparked by Cox's sly accompaniment, Brooks' backbone and Spencer's fiery displacements.

The range of material and emotional moods is impressive, from abstract ballads to lyrical waltzes and nascent jazz-rock, all played with a striking unity of conception and technique. Detroit has always been known as a bebop town, but the CJQ proves that city has a post-bop heritage worth celebrating, too.

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[Lois Gilbert]

Ron Carter is another Michiganian

[Enforcer]

Yep. Some outstanding bass players. Don't forget Robert Hurst. I actually had a musical encounter with him many years ago. He wouldn't remember. I won't ever forget.

[bruce massey]

I saw Norma Bell with Lyman Woddard a long time ago. Lyman was cool but goog God, Norma could BLOW! I'm pretty sure she is still a part of the
Detroit scene.

[Frisco]

Originally Posted by Lois Gilbert

For a fleeting moment, Kenny Cox and the Contemporary Jazz Quintet seemed on the brink of steady work, if not stardom.

Some brilliant person at the festival scheduled Kenny Cox's set overlapping with Charles Tolliver's.