The Detroit International Jazz Festival announces this year's line-up of Detroit-based jazz, blues, contemporary and gospel musicians. "The quality and quantity of musicians in Southeast Michigan is overwhelming. Because we can't possibly have enough slots at the festival, we have created a pre-festival club series in August" says festival director Terri Pontremoli. "But it still isn't enough!"
Detroit Jazz Fest, which showcased 160 Detroit-based musicians last year, will have no less than that again in 2008.
Artists slated for Labor Day weekend are:
Pat Prouty Quintet, Ellen Rowe Quartet, Naima Shamborguer, Sean Dobbins Quintet, Mikhal Caldwell Project, Shahida Nurullah and Good Company, Bugs Beddow Band, Johnnie Bassett, Planet D Nonet, Bill Meyer & Friends, Johnny Allen Quintet, DeSean Jones Quintet, Perry Hughes, Chris Collins' Detroit-Torino Project, Jahra Michelle McKinney and Marion Hayden.
The "Come Monday gospel program will feature The 2nd Ebenezer Majestic Voices and Dorinda Clark-Cole. Other special projects will include:
- A tribute to Donald Walden, led by Detroit bassist extraordinaire, Marion Hayden. The program will be in three parts, with a session by the Free Radicals (Rick Roe, Thaddeus Dixon, Cassius Richmond, Diego Rivera) and "walk-ons" with visiting national artists, Geri Allen, Barry Harris and Charles McPherson. As Donald was a renowned teacher, students from far and wide will also be invited to play.
- Directly following the annual Labor Day Parade, Bill Meyer will present "Jazz Digs Labor" - a concert of jazz-infused Labor songs. The show will cap the Labor Day Parade and kick off the day of Jazz Fest presentations at the Carhartt Amphitheatre Stage.
- A Philly-Detroit Summit with Karriem Riggins (Detroit) and Christian McBride (Philly) will showcase Detroiter Perry Hughes and Philly tenor great, Bootsie Barnes, among others.
- An all-star big band of Southeast Michigan musicians will play a central role in the Marvin Gaye Tribute on opening night with Lalah Hathaway, Rahsaan Patterson and Jose James.
"The Budweiser Pre-Fest Club Series gives a nod to the clubs that keep the music going all year long," says Pontremoli.
Dates, locations and artists are:
- Christian McBride/ Perry Hughes/Dwight Adams, July 22, Baker's Keyboard Lounge
- Jesse Palter Quintet, August 1, Music Hall Jazz Café
- GEQ, August 8, Bert's Marketplace
- Steve Nardella, August 15, Memphis Smoke
- Randy Napoleon Sextet, August 22, Cliff Bells
- Sheila Landis, August 22, The Dirty Dog Jazz Café
Other special events include collaborative partnerships with the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and the Detroit Institute of Art:
- July 18: Children's Jazz Day at the MAAH around the Jazz Quilts exhibit, featuring vocalist, storyteller Lisa Henry with the Marion Hayden Quartet
- August 15: Chasin' the Trane at the DIA with Steve Wood, Wendell Harrison, Carl Cafagna, Sean Dobbins, Paul Keller and Rick Roe.
For more information contact:
Don Lucoff | DL Media
(610) 667-0501
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Matt Lee | Mack Avenue Records
(248) 931-2443
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