Detroit Jazz Festival Highlights for today Sunday 8/31/14 JP MORGAN MAIN STAGE 11:30 a.m. Mason County Central High School, Detroit School of Arts and Meridian High School 1:30 p.m. USAF Airmen of Note Big Band The U.S. Air Force big band, one of the top jazz ensembles in the stable of American military bands. 3:15 p.m. Joshua Redman Quartet For his second appearance of the weekend, Redman, the 2014 festival’s artist-in-residence, presents his long-running working quartet, a well-seasoned band that gives the tenor saxophonist plenty of elbow room to stretch out in contemporary post-bop mode and lets the sidemen shine both individually and as a unit. With pianist Aaron Goldberg, bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Gregory Hutchinson 5 p.m. The Dirty Dozen Brass Brand Rooted in the second-line parade and brass band tradition of New Orleans, the Dirty Dozen creates an exuberant mélange of funk, jazz and blues. 6:45 p.m. Regina Carters “Southern Comfort” Carter, a Detroit-born violinist and MacArthur Fellow, has a restless muse that has taken her in a lot of directions. Her latest album, “Southern Comfort” (Sony), explores the folk music of the South. It’s a search-for-roots project that finds Carter mining a deep well of feeling with a uniquely voiced ensemble that includes Will Holshouser on accordion. Her touring group also includes guitarist Marvin Sewell, bassist Chris Lightcap and drummer Alvester Garnett. 8:30 p.m. Straighten Up and Fly Right: The Nat King Cole Tribute featuring Ramsey Lewis and John Pizzarrelli Lewis, whose bluesy, gospel-influenced pianism made him a crossover star as early as the ’60s, teams with Pizzarelli, a smooth-voiced singer and fleet guitarist, to honor a mutual hero of both: Nat Cole. CARHARTT AMPHITHEATER STAGE 12:15 p.m. University of Michigan Jazz Ensembles 2:15 p.m. Elio Villafranca Quartet featuring Eric Alexander Villafranca, an incisive Cuban pianist, offers his take on the mainstream with a quartet that includes Alexander, a brawny tenor saxophonist and hard-bop standard bearer. 4 p.m. Tom Harrell’s Colors of a Dream Harrell, a veteran trumpeter and flugelhornist, has long been one of the most poetic improvisers and composers in jazz, He’s a storyteller of infinite imagination, and his latest band, which folds star vocalist and bassist Esperanza Spalding into the mix, gives him another lyrical character to deploy. With tenor saxophonist Wayne Escoffery, alto saxophonist Jaleel Shaw, bassist Ugonna Okegwo and drummer Johnathan Blake. 5:45 p.m. Tim Ries and the East Gipsy Band The versatile Tecumseh, Mich.-born saxophonist — who also happens to hold down the saxophone chair with the Rolling Stones — has surrounded himself with a gaggle of master Hungarian musicians. The results are a jazz-meets-Eastern European folk music hybrid filled with vibrant rhythm, alluring melody and engaging spirit. 7:30 p.m. Dave Holland and Prism. Holland, a veteran bassist and bandleader of sweeping authority and indomitable strength, introduced his scintillating Prism quartet last year. With guitarist Kevin Eubanks, keyboardist and University of Michigan alum Craig Taborn and drummer Eric Harland, the band traverses an acoustic-electric fault line, slipping transparently between jazz, rock and funk and juggling razor-edge rhythms and middle-earth vamps. As always in Holland’s bands, the name of the game is group dialogue and a mesmerizing balance of form and freedom. 9:30 p.m. Wallace Roney with Orchestra: “To Miles, From Wayne” Some of Wayne Shorter’s earliest large-ensemble works were written for Miles Davis in the late ’60s, but the pieces were never performed. Shorter, one of the most influential composers in jazz history, forgot about them, but after rediscovering the scores to “Universe,” “Legends” and a few others recently, Shorter gave them to Wallace Roney, an invigorating trumpeter rooted in Davis’ aesthetic, who has been spearheading performances wherever he can. Bob Belden will conduct the ensemble — a chamber orchestra of 23 players including woodwinds and brass, a core jazz quintet and violin. Few audiences have heard this music so far, so this is a coup for the Detroit festival. MACK AVENUE WATERFRONT STAGE 2 p.m. Walter White Quartet White, a Detroit trumpeter with an A-list résumé (Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Harry Connick Jr., Dave Holland, etc.), combines muscular chops with imagination and taste. His quartet features the same lineup as on his strong recent CD, “Most Triumphant”: pianist Gary Schunk, bassist Miles Brown and drummer Sean Dobbins. 3:45 p.m. Louis Armstrong’s Musical Legacy featuring Marcus Belgrave, Nicholas Payton and Wendell Brunious The patriarch of Detroit’s jazz scene, Belgrave‘s reputation as a bebop trumpeter par excellence shouldn’t obscure that he’s also been deeply influenced by Louis Armstrong both as a player and singer. For this tribute to Armstrong’s legacy, Belgrave will be joined by two trumpeters who, like Armstrong himself, are native sons of New Orleans. 5:45 p.m. Cyrille Aimée Aimée, a young French-born singer with a feathery voice, revels in a spirited eclecticism encompassing material ranging from bebop tunes and standards to contemporary songs and rhythms from around the world. The multi-guitar cast of her ensemble, which can be heard on her recent Mack Avenue debut, “It’s a Good Day,” underscores a deep connection to Gypsy jazz and Brazilian idioms, though she scat sings, too. 7:30 p.m. Joey DeFrancesco Quartet A Detroit favorite, DeFrancesco is a master organist whose gutsy attack and lightning technique cut across the entire jazz organ tradition. This time, he’s got a bass player along for the ride — Detroiter Ralphe Armstrong — as well as two Chicagoans, guitarist Jeff Parker and drummer George Fludas. ABSOPURE PYRAMID STAGE 1:45 p.m. Orrin Evans Quintet Anchored in the mainstream, pianist Evans likes to push boundaries, so his brand of contemporary post-bop comes with an extra edge of abandon that makes it impossible to predict exactly where he’s going next. He’s celebrating a new recording, “Liberation Blues,” with native Detroiter JD Allen on saxophone, Vincente Archer on bass, Bill Stewart on drums and likely Sean Jones on trumpet. 3:30 p.m. Rodney Whitaker & Soul-R Energy Whitaker, a Detroit-born bassist with a big beat and a big heart, has a winning new CD on Mack Avenue, “When We Find Ourselves Alone,” that emphasizes his melodic original compositions, fresh takes on standard repertory and deep commitment to the fundamentals of blues and swing. With saxophonist Tim Warfield, pianist Bruce Barth, drummer Clarence Penn and vocalist Rockelle Fortin. 5:15 p.m. Randy Weston and Billy Harper Duo: “The Roots of the Blues. A promising duet between two revered elders. Weston, 88, remains a pillar of strength at the piano, while Harper, 71, is every bit the fire-breathing post-Coltrane tenor saxophonist he was in his younger days. 6:45 p.m. Gary Burton Quintet The veteran vibraphonist, a leading figure and influence since the 1960s, has always had a knack for assembling bands of younger colleagues in which the whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts. Guitar virtuoso Julian Lage is familiar from past appearances but the rest of the group — pianist Vadim Neselovskyi, bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Henry Cole — will be making its local debut. 8:30 p.m. Al Foster Quartet A long overdue appearance at the Detroit festival by a drummer’s drummer. Foster has worked and recorded with just about every major figure in jazz over 40 years — everyone from Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson and Herbie Hancock on down. He combines unrelenting fire and interactive flexibility with a unique cymbal beat that grooves deeply without closing off any borders for improvisation. His quartet includes tenor saxophonist Dayna Stephens, pianist Adam Birnbaum and bassist Doug Weiss.
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 15:12:18 +0000
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