Ron Carter DJF 2016 Artist‑in‑Residence
The Detroit Jazz Festival held its press conference about this year’s Labor Day festival on April 18. Native son Ron Carter will be this year’s artist in residence, and he gave us a taste of his bass in a short performance. Carter was also chosen as the subject of this year’s festival poster (right).
Festival director Chris Collins announced the lineup, which was impressive with a nice combination of local and national talent in many styles of jazz. Some of the highlights will be a celebration of the music of Kenn Cox and Charles Moore with pianist David Weiss, Stanley Cowell Quintet with Billy Harper and Charles Tolliver, a Kirk Lightsey/Louis Hayes homecoming band, and the Charlie Gabriel Quartet. Among the purely national acts several names were noteworthy: guitarist George Benson, John Scofield, Brad Mehldau, Freddy Cole, Roy Hargrove, Randy Weston, Jason Moran, Jimmy Heath, Marcus Roberts, and Alfredo Rodriguez.
SEMJA will have the complete schedule in our August/September issue. In the meantime you can visit the Festival website.