Wayne Shorter
Detroit Jazz Festival 2017 Artist-in-Residence

At a Detroit Athletic Club news conference on April 19, Detroit Jazz Festival director Chris Collins announced that Wayne Shorter will be this year’s Artist-in-Residence. Shorter was honored to be in Detroit, and we also had the privilege to hear from him in his speaking voice and with a soprano sax. Shorter joined a Detroit Jazz Festival student group on the soprano, which he claimed he had not played for half a year. We look forward to hearing him again on opening night (September 1) with his innovative quartet, which includes the marvelous pianist Danilo Perez. Other performances with Shorter include a concert with pianist Geri Allen, bassist Esperanza Spalding, and drummer Terri Lyne Carrington on Sunday, and with the Detroit Jazz Festival Symphony Orchestra on Labor Day (the last day of the festival).

Collins outlined some of the other highlights of this year’s festival:

Opening night

  • Herbie Hancock
  • a jam session honoring our own George Benson

Saturday

  • A supergroup with drummer Jack DeJohnette and guitarist John Scofield
  • vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater
  • pianist Chucho Valdes with tenorist Joe Lovano
  • Danilo Perez’s PanaMonk group

Sunday

  • keyboardist John Beasley’s MONK’estra celebrating Monk’s centennial
  • tenorists Benny Golson and Kamasi Washington

Labor Day

  • Jason Marsalis’ Vibes Quartet
  • Stanley Clarke
  • Johnny O’Neal’s Trio

We will have a complete program for the festival in late summer.