Over the Labor Day weekend, Detroit will once again host their international Jazz Festival. The lineup this year is impressive, which is surprising due to the economy. We are planning on visiting the festival for a few hours on Saturday, if the planets align themselves properly and we can be in the area for the weekend. Highlights include Terrence Blanchard, Yellowjackets, Branford Marsalis, Allen Toussaint, and dozens of others in a three-day festival of jazz.
I do have a few good memories of the festival over the years. I did have a few missteps, like the time I tried to go see Wynton Marsalis and couldn’t even get near the Hart Plaza stage to see what was happening. But I did get to be a part of the festival a few times in various capacities.
In 1981, when I was starting my senior year in high school, some of our band alumni put together a big band, and a handful of us seniors were invited to participate. We had a really tight jazz ensemble over the 1980-1981 school year, and we still “had it” when we got together to rehearse. When the day came to play at the festival, we almost got rained out. The outdoor stages were, of course, covered up for part of the day, but our alternate venue was a huge, historic church downtown. I don’t know if anyone recorded it, but it would have made for some nice natural acoustics. That was likely my own fifteen minutes of performing fame in my life.
That same year, two of us volunteered to go down and offer some help to the festival. We got down there and despite running around for an hour, couldn’t find anyone associated with the festival who had any clue as to what we were to volunteer to help out with. We ended up at one of the older downtown hotels (pretty sure it was the Pontchartrain, but could have been the Book Cadillac), and finally, someone there with the festival told us that some artist (we didn’t catch the name) was rehearsing in one of the ballrooms, and that we were welcome to go listen. In the ballroom was a trio from Europe with an unusual configuration: guitar, drums/percussion…and a harp. Quite an interesting sound! We stayed for about 45 minutes while the group rehearsed, the leader stopping every so often to give a few tips. (Not that we could understand any of them!)
A few years later, I came across a CD (keep in mind this was very early in the CD era), and noticed that it had the name of a harpist I’d read about in a music review. Andreas Vollenweider. And it was his first US release: Behind The Gardens… That’s who we had heard, and it only took me a handful of years to actually find out his name!
Another memorable moment came when the festival started to feature a Latin lineup on Friday night. When I heard Tito Puente was going to close out the night, I planned on going, no matter what. That Friday evening turned out to be a damp, dreary affair where the air was as thick as the crowd around the Hart Plaza amphitheater. I forget who was on beforehand, but right after their set finished, the sky broke and we were stuck in a downpour. Just about everyone fled the area. Taking a cue from a couple of other brave souls, we ran up and grabbed chairs, holding them over our heads. After about ten minutes, the rain quit…and we ended up with two seats only about three rows from the stage, and got to see Tito Puente up close.
I’d had a few other visits to the Festival that were nothing remarkable–the aforementioned Wynton Marsalis gig was right around the time he recorded J Mood with his new lineup. On another, we saw a chaotic local drummer who really did nothing more than confuse the audience with his antics. The band would finally settle into a groove, and he’d start waving his arms for everyone to start. He’d tap around on his drums for a bit (which were sent through a guitar amp with the echo turned up), then the band would start coming in again.
There were also two “virtual visits.” A friend of mine in the Air Force Band told me that their jazz big band, the Airmen Of Note, were playing the festival, and while I couldn’t be down there, I tuned into the live radio broadcast. I did the same for Latin Night that year as well, and I ended up taping salsa great Eddie Palmieri’s set off of the radio.
The Detroit Jazz Festival, overall, has always featured world-renowned jazz artists, but it has also supported local bands first and foremost. You will find many local bands and artists represented here, along with numerous university, community college and high school bands. And there is always a jam session or two late in the evening, after the main events have completed. If you are a fan of jazz and are in or near the Detroit area on Labor Day weekend, it is a worthwhile visit!