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2010 Detroit International Jazz Festival
News
DIJF
Headliners Resurrect Modern Jazz Era
The 31st Detroit International Jazz
Festival arrival is right around the corner. Come September 3-6,
2010, the acclaimed Motor City jazz bash boasts another world-class
menu of jazz luminaries playing on stages from Hart Plaza to Campus
Martius, and down Woodward Avenue. Pianist Mulgrew Miller wears
the Artist-in-Residence hat this time playing with his group
Wingspan, featuring vibraphonist Steve Nelson, and with
four other headliners.
The festival theme, 'Flame Keepers -
Carrying the Torch for Modern Jazz' gives kudos to an era made
famous by Art Blakey, Horace
Silver, Betty Carter, Ray Brown, Miles Davis and Gil Evans. A major
league
roster of musicians who played with these jazz immortals will jam in
Detroit, including Miller, Bobby Watson,
Branford Marsalis, Terence Blanchard, Randy Brecker
and Benny
Green -- all ex-members of Blakey's Jazz Messengers.
  
(l-r, Danilo Perez, The
Manhattan Transfer, Barry Harris)
Additional DIJF all-stars:
Allen
Toussaint
Barry Harris
Carl Cafagna & North Star Jazz
Danilo Perez
Dave McMurray
Dennis Tini Trio
Dominick Farinacci
Freddy Cole Trio
Gary Smulyan
HORIZON: Featuring Bobby Watson,
Victor Lewis, Terell Stafford,
Edward Simon
& Essiet Essiet
Kenny Barron & Mulgrew Miller
Kirk Whalum
Kurt Elling Quintet with special
guest Ernie Watts
Louis Hayes and Melvin Sparks
Mambo Legends Orchestra
Manhattan Transfer with the
Detroit Jazz Festival Orchestra
Maria Schneider Orchestra
Roy Haynes Fountain of Youth Band
Take 6 with
Mulgrew
Miller Trio
The Defenders of the Groove with
Ernie Andrews, Louis Hayes,
Bobby Watson
The Fabulous Thunderbirds
The Yellowjackets
Tia Fuller Quintet
Tierney Sutton Band
Tribute To Ray Brown with
Christian McBride, Benny Green &
Karriem Riggins
Tower of Power
Trio M with Myra Melford, Mark Dresser & Matt
Wilson
Wingspan featuring Mulgrew Miller, Steve Nelson
William Patterson University
Jazz Septet with Mulgrew Miller
View the entire DIJF
line-up here.
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DIJF Jazz
Education Plans
Diversify in 2010
This year's jazz education activities get a big
boost and stretch out beyond performance areas to include nearly
something for everyone attending the four-day free festival.
Keeping step with the festival theme, 'Flame Keepers: Carrying
the Torch for Modern Jazz', jazzfest organizers plan their most
diverse and aggressive footprint for the festival yet thanks to grants
from the Kresge
Foundation, Erb Family Foundation, NEA and support from Meijer and
Pepsi. Additional tie-ins with a host of cultural and
educational institutions happen throughout the year leading up to
jazzfest weekend.
High School Bands
Reserve a lawn space facing the Meijer Education Stage at Campus
Martius and hear the region's best high school jazz groups. Bands
performing include:
- Allen Park Middle School Jazz Ensemble
- Cousino
High School Jazz Ensemble
- Detroit
Jazz Fest High School All Stars
- Detroit
School of Arts Jazz Ensemble with special guest George Bohanon
- Detroit
School of Arts Vocal Jazz Ensemble
- Detroit
Symphony Civic Jazz Orchestra with special guest Matt Wilson
- Grand
Rapids Northview High School Jazz Ensemble
- Grosse
Pte. South HS Jazz Band
- Ionia
High School Jazz Ensemble
- Livonia
Stevenson High School Jazz Band
- Mt.
Pleasant High School Jazz Band
- Northville
High School Jazz Ensemble I
- Renaissance
High School Jazz Ensemble
- Troy
High School Jazz Ensemble
- Warren
Mott Marauder Big Band
A DownBeat Student Award-winning ensemble from
Fort Wayne, Indiana - Memorial Park Middle School's 'Big Noise' -
will
make their DIJF debut opening night.
College Bands
College ensembles appearing in downtown Detroit will represent Berklee
College of Music (Boston, MA), The Brubeck Institute
(Stockton, CA) and the Juilliard School of Jazz Studies (New
York,
NY). The Michigan State University Jazz
Orchestra (directed by Rodney Whitaker) will be joined by
guest trumpeter Randy Brecker, the William
Paterson University Jazz Ensemble will feature Mulgrew Miller,
the Western
Michigan University Jazz Orchestra (directed
by Scott Cowan) will
perform with Bobby Watson, and
trumpeter-composer Terence Blanchard will join the Wayne
State
University Big Band (directed by Chris Collins).
Jazz Talk Tent
The Jazz Talk Tent, hosted by Detroit jazz historians Jim Gallert and
Lars Bjorn, pays homage to the trailblazers of modern jazz, with
discussions on Horace Silver, Ray Brown, Art Blakey and Betty Carter.
Many DIJF national performers, such as Randy Brecker, Bobby Watson,
Christian McBride and Barry Harris, are scheduled for jazz talk tent
sessions. In addition, the legendary DownBeat Blindfold Test will put
pianists Kenny Barron and Mulgrew Miller together in the hot seat. The
wildly creative and entertaining drummer Matt Wilson will do a clinic
and both Juilliard and Berklee students will hold workshops for high
school students beginning at 11am daily. Gallert and Bjorn are
co-recipients of the 2010 DIJF Jazz Guardian Award.
JazzWeek@Wayne
This past July 19-23, the Detroit Jazz Fest
partnered
with Wayne State University on Jazz Week@Wayne, an intense week of jazz
study for 40 select high school students, who earn a chair playing in
the Detroit Jazz Fest High School All-Stars. The group performed
Friday, July 23 at noon on Campus Martius as part of the '4th Fridays
in
the Park' concert series, and they do a return performance as a
festival headliner Monday, September 6. During the same week, DIJF
sponsored a day-long residency July 21 by vibraphonist Steve Nelson, a
Pittsburgh native and a member of Wingspan, the
group headed by 2010 DIJF Artist-in-Residence Mulgrew Miller.
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DIJF Live Stream
Injects Social Media Appeal - 'Jazz Planet.tv' Nets Global
Audience Online
A
first-time innovation at jazzfest should make history in Detroit, while
boasting about the decorated jazz history made famous in the Motor City
the past 50-plus years. The Detroit International Jazz
Festival will launch a live stream -- DIJF Jazz Planet.tv --
on the
Internet, direct from Campus Martius (Woodward Ave @Monore Street) the
entire weekend in
downtown Detroit. In partnership with Show Ads Network,
Livestream.com and Detroit Public Television, DIJF’s Jazz Planet stage
will stream via the web what is cool about Detroit
and in particular, Detroit Jazz Fest, in real time. Users around
the globe – artists as well as fans - can send Skype, Twitter, and
Facebook messages to fans, artists and media hosts in Detroit through
detroitjazzfest.com and DIJF social media networks.
The operative goal, says DIJF festival management, is to give online
viewers everywhere – from London to Afghanistan - a chance to
experience the
uniqueness of one of the world’s largest free jazz festivals, to see
how it
blends urban chic and a hip and diverse audience with some of the best
music on the planet, and to allow jazz artists to reveal insights
on their own special recorded projects. Jazz Planet.tv will stream live
and taped performances, news flashes, interviews and ongoing
behind-the-scenes commentary thanks to student interns from the Specs
Howard School of Broadcast Arts (located in Southfield).
Watch a sneak peak preview
of Jazz Planet.tv here.
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