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JazzTimes
readers’ poll:
2007 winners
By David Adler, JazzTimes,
December 2007
Detroit
Jazz Fest named one of the top five festivals in North America
Most
influential women: Grethen Carhartt Valade
By Marcia Danner, Crain’s Detroit Business, October 9, 2007
Detroit
doesn’t need another black eye,” was Gretchen Valade’s
reaction in 2005 when she heard the Detroit International Jazz Festival was
in danger of folding. Valade, 82, came to the rescue with an infusion of
$250,000, making her Harper Woods-based jazz record label, Mack Avenue Records,
the equivalent of a title sponsor. The following year she assumed stewardship,
setting up a $10 million endowment and creating a separate production company
to take over the Detroit Music Hall’s role in staging the event.
WMU
students hit high notes at Detroit Jazz Festival
By Mark Schwerin, WMU News, October 1, 2007
The Western Michigan
University Jazz Studies Program won high accolades at the 28th Annual Detroit
International Jazz Festival. First, the program was honored with a prestigious
invitation for the WMU Jazz Octet to perform. Then, two of its members won
Outstanding Jazz Soloist awards. Finally, an incoming WMU freshman took home
an Outstanding Jazz Soloist award while performing with his high school band.
Jazz
Notes
By W. Kim Heron, Metro Times, September 6, 2007
Steve Wood turned
in a killer set at the recent Detroit International Jazz Fest, reprising
the late ’50s work of Yusef Lateef.
Both on the originals by Lateef and Lateef’s colleagues, and on standards
(like a haunting “Angel Eyes”), saxophonist Wood and company
reminded listeners how exciting Lateef was just then — think of him
as working within the house of hard bop, but even then leaning out the window.
Return
to jazz roots makes 2007 fest one of the best
By Mark Stryker, Detroit Free Press, September 4, 2007
There are
many reasons why the 28th annual Detroit International Jazz Festival was
the most inspired since the event expanded its footprint into the downtown
core in 2005. In fact, with the possible exception of 1999, this year's festival,
which closed Monday, was the most memorable in my 12 years in Detroit.
Clayton-Hamilton
Jazz Orchestra caps jazz festival with a roar
By Mark Stryker, Detroit Free Press, September 4, 2007
Is the Clayton-Hamilton
Jazz Orchestra the best big band on the planet? It’s
a silly question, of course . . . But I’ll say this after hearing the
Los Angeles-based Clayton-Hamilton band close out the Detroit International
Jazz Festival Monday night at the Hart Plaza Amphitheatre: There’s
no band in the world right now that swings as hard as this one, and any group
willing to take them on in a battle of the bands might want to have a chaplain
standing by just in case.
Jazz
legend comes home with the blues on his mind
By Mark Stryker, Detroit Free Press, September 3, 2007
Jazz aficionados
have been buzzing for weeks about the rumor that Yusef Lateef was going to
play the blues when the 86-year-old Detroit-born legend returned home to perform
Monday night at the Detroit International Jazz Festival. In this case, “the
blues” was meant literally as in the 12-bar elemental
musical form, as well as a metaphor for the kind of fundamental modern jazz
that the tenor saxophonist, flutist and oboist used to play back in the day.
All
bases were covered at Jazz Fest
By Charles L. Latimer, Metro Times, September 3, 2007
During drummer Carl
Allen’s Monday afternoon set with
his new ensemble, the Carl Allen & Rodney Whitaker Project, at
the 2007 Detroit International Jazz Festival, Allen told the audience that
Detroit's jazz festival is the hippest in the world. I took Allen’s
pronouncement to heart. Who better than a world-class jazz musician to determine
how our jazz fest measures up to others? I can’t make that claim as
expertly as Allen can, but as a jazz journalist who has covered this event;for 10
years now, I can safely state that this year’s fest was the best I
ever attended.
Keeping
the party goin’ at Jazz Fest
By Charles L. Latimer, Metro Times, September 3, 2007
I kept
wondering as I listened to the various acts Sunday at the Detroit International
Jazz Festival if it were possible for the music get any better that it
already was. I started the day at the Absopure Waterfront Stage, enjoying
a fine duet between pianist Kenny Barron and violinist Regina
Carter.
They then performed selections from their album Free Fall -- and
the duo sounded as if they were sending love letters to each other.
Detroit
International Jazz Festival
By George Kanzler, JazzTimes, September 3, 2007
You only had to hear
violinist Regina Carter at the 28th annual Detroit International Jazz Festival,
where she was the event’s first ever artist-in-residence,
to appreciate how much she has been influenced, both musically and temperamentally,
by Ella Fitzgerald.
Herwig takes Miles and Trane for a post-bop ride south of the border
By Mark Stryker, Detroit Free Press, September, 3, 2007
In terms
of truth in advertising, Sunday night’s set by Conrad Herwig’s
Latin Side of Miles, Trane & Wayne was 33 percent false. The septet, led
by an A-list New York trombonist, certainly played music by Miles Davis and John
Coltrane, but never got around to anything by Wayne Shorter. Ok, bygones. The
important point is that the band’s blend of Afro-Cuban rhythm with post-bop
harmony and improvisation ranks with the most fiery and compelling music heard
over the weekend at the Detroit International Jazz Festival.
Carter and Barron inspire the best in each other
By Mark Stryker, Detroit Free Press, September 2, 2007
Violinist Regina Carter made a duet CD with veteran pianist Kenny Barron
about five years ago, and the charismatic flow of ideas makes it the most
compelling studio document of her gifts. The chemistry between the pair
remains sharp to judge by Sunday afternoon’s free-flowing tête-à-tête
on the Waterfront Stage at the Detroit International Jazz Festival.
A
suave pianist feels the spirit and turns up the heat
By
Mark Stryker, Detroit Free Press, September 2, 2007
Bill Charlap is
an elegant pianist, with a satiny touch, a natty trio and a classicist
approach to repertory and style. But his set Saturday night at the Detroit International
Jazz Festival with longtime colleagues Peter Washington on bass and Kenny Washington
on drums had an extra dash of vim and vinegar.
Garrett
returns home; skyscrapers at risk
By Mark Stryker, Detroit Free Press, September 2, 2007
If the Waterfront
Stage at Hart Plaza had been turned around 180 degrees so the musicians
faced east rather than west, then the Detroit-born alto saxophonist Kenny
Garrett might well have blown down the Renaissance Center Saturday night
with the gale force of his playing. Garrett’s Quartet -- with pianist
Benito Gonzales, bassist Dezron Douglas and drummer Jamire Williams --
opened their set at the Detroit International Jazz Festival with the fury
of a tropical storm.
Huge
talent, eager donors keep jazz festivals in tune
By Jon W. Poses, Columbia Tribune, September 2, 2007
The Detroit
Jazz Festival represents a new experience for yours truly…What
first struck me was the event’s oh-so-hip slogan/theme: "Music
On All Cylinders."
The
maturation of Regina Carter
By
Charles L. Latimer, Metro Times, September 1, 2007
A decade ago, violinist Regina
Carter was one of the most
fiery jazz soloist around, something I believed from the first time I heard
her perform in 1997 at the Ford Montreux Detroit International Jazz Festival.
She played with such unadulterated energy back then that I thought she was
going to burst into flames. These days, however, the native Detroiter is
mellower.
Festival
finally warms up to free jazz
By Mark Stryker, Detroit Free Press, September 1, 2007
The festival
. . . had already started like a rocket with Herbie Hancock and Regina
Carter on Friday. Now, under spectacularly blue skies with crowds swelling
to impressive proportion by late afternoon, there was a feeling in the
air that something special was afoot this year – a reaffirmation
of the Detroit festival’s historic willingness to embrace all of
the tradition without timidity or excessive commercialism.
Carter
swings, Hancock rocks and the Jazz Festival opens with a nod to its past
By Mark Stryker, Detroit Free Press, September 1, 2007
Violinist
Regina Carter and pianist Herbie Hancock opened the 28th annual Detroit
International Jazz Festival Friday night with a sound that’s largely
been missing from the first night of the event in recent years – jazz.
Focus
will be on jazz at Detroit music fest
By David Yonke, Toledo Blade, August 30, 2007
In the recent past,
the Detroit International Jazz Festival has offered a wide range of musical
styles including pop, blues, world music, and R&B. This
year, the free four-day Labor Day weekend festival is focused like a laser
beam on traditional jazz.
Festival
celebrates a tale of 2 jazz cities
By Mark Stryker, Detroit Free Press, August 26, 2007
For all of
the talk of a rumble between Detroit and Chicago at this weekend's 28th
annual Detroit International Jazz Festival, the battle royal promises
to be more of a celebration than a boxing match. Some of the top
talent produced by two of America's greatest jazz meccas will be on display,
beginning with tonight's double bill of Detroit-born violin star Regina
Carter and the iconic Chicago-born pianist Herbie Hancock. One of the
largest free jazz festivals in North America, the four-day downtown festival
has sharpened its programming this year, introducing several thematic
twists, including the Rumble in the Great Lakes.
Jazz Fest seeks to be an arts organization, fiscally secure
By Mark Stryker, Detroit Free Press, August 5, 2007
When philanthropist Gretchen Valade founded the Detroit International Jazz Festival
Foundation last year with a $10-million bequest, fans of the event breathed a
sigh of relief. Finally, it seemed, the future of the beleaguered Labor Day weekend
festival was secure. Yes and no.
Jazz
fest turns music rivalry into music revelry
By
K. Michelle Moran, C&G Newspapers, May 24, 2007
Gas prices may be cutting into people’s travel plans, but metro
Detroiters won’t have to go far to hear some great music. The Detroit
International Jazz Festival has assembled a sparkling lineup of jazz all-stars
and jazz stars of tomorrow for the 28th annual Labor Day weekend festival,
which takes place at Hart Plaza and elsewhere in downtown Detroit Aug. 31-Sept.
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