Detroit Jazz Festival Highlights

While the focus on this year’s festival was obviously on Detroit, only a few of the originally scheduled outside guests from the spring remained on the program, most prominently Pharaoh Sanders. Few living today embody the legacy of John Coltrane’s late in life explorations or the spirit of Sun Ra and the spiritual jazz movement as does Sanders, who although approaching his eight decade, has developed his art in different directions and continues to play with vigor. His approach to music has gone through various permutations from his full-powered Ayleresque shouts, through more laid back but no less expressive chants, to R&B and more traditional modern jazz, but throughout this journey he has maintained his own, immediately identifiable expressive saxophone sound. He remains one of the great individualists of the music and his set did not disappoint. He now has to pace himself and provides plenty of space to his accompanying trio, but that wonderful sound is still there, and he went through a well-structured set that included his signature old tunes mixed with newer compositions. It was a treat to hear him again.

On Friday the headliner may have been Sanders, but the most ambitious and original project of the night was the suite Justice!, performed by four different Detroit ensembles. The first movement was the traditional spiritual “Kumbaya” with vocalist Naima Shamborguer and Sister Strings (violinists Michelle May and Tia Imani Hanna, violist Leslie DeShazor, bassist Marion Hayden), pianist Pamela Wise, and percussionist Mahindi Masai. It was a moving piece that also featured the recorded voice of recently passed Congressman John Lewis talking about Martin Luther King. The second movement, “Fear and the Fearless” by Chris Collins, featured the Detroit Jazz Festival All-Star Generations Band led by the composer on tenor sax and featured strong solos by Collins and bassist Rodney Whitaker. The third movement, “Promise and Perseverance” by pianist Michael Jellick, featured his evocative piano, a tap dancer, and additional excerpts from John Lewis. The fourth and last movement, “Just Us 4 All,” was composed by bassist Robert Hurst and featured several singers and solos by trumpeter Dwight Adams and tenorist Rafael Statin. The refrain “justice is all we want” rang in my ears for long after this moving performance ended.

Saturday began with the Tartarsauce Traditional Jazz Band on the Absopure Soundstage, providing some old time sounds in a festival more focused on more recent musical trends. This band has been around for decades and they easily reveled in the sounds of traditional jazz. Next, on a different stage, baritone saxophonist Alex Harding has become a mainstay on the Detroit scene since returning from a long sojourn in New York. In New York he performed with musicians of all styles, including the Mingus Big band, Hamiett Bluiett, and Julius Hemphill. He was also a member of the Afro Horn group led by drummer Francisco Mora-Catlett and convinced them to visit the Detroit festival, apparently taking over leadership for this gig. It was an exhilarating set with Harding’s usual take-no-prisoners muscular saxophone and stellar soprano sax contributions by Sam Newsome. The tight rhythm section provided stirring patterns for the two unique saxophonists to ride upon, interacting with each other with easy familiarity.

Harding’s set was followed by Gayelynn McKinney’s McKinney Zone band that provided a wide range of stylings, from bebop to funk, including the leader’s sometime vocals and exuberant solos by multi-instrumentalist Rafael Statin. The band is tight and meshes together perfectly, offering an exciting and most satisfying set.

The Saturday Carhartt Soundstage presentations ended with another traveling guest, trombonist and conch shell explorer Steve Turre, leading a sextet. Turre, who has always known how to put together a satisfying set, did not disappoint, proving once again that he is one of the best trombone players in modern jazz, a master of everything from tender ballads to expressive blues. And indeed, one of the highlights of his time at bat was a classic blues, with his wide-ranging, emotional solo followed by a characteristically rambunctious tenor saxophone solo by James Carter, who sat in to great effect.

Drummer, composer, and leader Leonard King has played the DJF with a big band before, honoring the legacy of organist Lyman Woodard. Organist Gerard Gibbs took over Woodard’s chair for this performance while King directed the band from his drum set and did some charming singing/scatting on a few tunes. Another veteran of the Woodard band, guitarist Ron English (who had earlier played banjo with Tartarsouce) also contributed to this exciting set particularly on “Rainbow Sunrise.” The group’s version of “Ko Ko” was exhilarating with short solos from all members. This band has an unusual instrumentation with six saxophones and two trombones, played with precision and skill with many newer players on the scene who soloed impressively. Some tunes used three soprano saxophones playing in tune, which is no small feat, with soprano solos demonstrating the varied potential of the instrument. Gerard Gibbs showed his mastery of the Hammond organ on Woodard’s lovely “Dedicacion.” King is not only a fantastic musician but also a great entertainer, providing appealing introductions to the tunes and identifying soloists. This was important at a festival that should do more to provide personnel listings.

Saturday evening ended with Something to Live For, a Billy Strayhorn tribute band that included tenor saxophonist and clarinetist Janelle Reichman, vocalist Emma Aboukasm, and pianist Scott Gwinnell, with Rob Bickley on bass and Pete Siers on drums. They pulled off an inspired set Saturday night. The focus was clearly on Reichman who, as usual, more than rose to the occasion; she played with great feeling and subtlety on “Isfahan” and then on the rarely heard “Multi-Colored Blue” she got funky. Her clarinet playing is always exquisite and “Chelsea Bridge” was a chance for her to shine, as did singer Aboukasm.

The second group on Sunday was a pleasant surprise: The Cosmic Music Collective, led by Kenneth Green, representing the more adventuresome side of Detroit’s jazz legacy, which has not been featured at the festival in recent years. This was a profoundly spiritual set, embracing the legacy of more exploratory sounds but also rooted in the tradition, at times invoking well known songs only to take them out when appropriate. Green is a deliberate pianist, who takes his time selecting just the right notes, but can explode when the music requires it and he paced the band so that the recital developed into one musical exploration, rather than a collection of tunes. Throughout, Rafael Statin’s numerous horns provided the main voices, proving once again that he is one of the most impressive players on the scene today, with an amazing control of all the saxes, bass clarinet and the bass flute. Indeed, his artistry was much in view at this year’s festival, as he played with at least five bands, if our count is correct.

Drummer Henry Conerway III led a trio with bassist Noah Jackson and pianist Ian Finkelstein on Labor Day. The three met in the Civic Jazz Orchestra when Marcus Belgrave was its leader and, in this reunion, they sounded like a tight unit, playing music from an upcoming CD that should definitely put them on the map. The trio has its own musical profile, working as an intricate unit rather than as piano and accompanists, creating complex musical works that shift and turn, bending rhythms and moods.

Tenorist saxophonist Dave McMurray has been on the Detroit scene for a good number of years and his Black Light Collective with trumpeter Allen Dennard pulled off a powerful set that included some of Max Roach’s path breaking, politically tinged pieces from the 1960s like “Freedom Day.” Singer Isis Damil reprised the Abbey Lincoln vocals from the original release, while Bassist Ibrahim Jones and drummer Jeff Canady provided rock solid support, with irresistible groves that moved you to dance. And indeed, McMurray, whose charisma and stellar, deep-voiced funky saxophone playing dominated the set, rode above it with power, complexity, and great skill, sometimes mixing it up with the younger Dennard, who also soloed with expressive power. This is deep music that is also irresistibly entertaining. Afterwards, Chris Collins carried out a serious interview with Dennard focusing on the connection between the civil rights/black power movement of the 1960s and today’s Black Lives Matter movement. This connection was also made in the music by Robert Glasper and his DJ that ended a truly memorable festival. Glasper wore a t-shirt proclaiming, “Imagine Black Culture Without Detroit,” succinctly capturing the spirit of this year’s festival.

TOP: John Douglas and Vincent Bowens

ABOVE: Leonard King; Isis Damil