Mack Avenue Buys Another Label
Detroit's most important jazz record label, Mack Avenue Records recently expanded by acquiring Artistry Music Group of Los Angeles. This adds more jazz artists to Mack Avenue and also gives it a wider range of musical offerings reaching from jazz into smooth jazz, and "urban adult contemporary." In 2005, one of Artistry Music Group's jazz artists, pianist Alan Broadbent, was nominated for a Grammy for Round Midnight.
Mack Avenue is based in Harper Woods and is owned by Gretchen Valade. Valade has also made an important contribution to the jazz life of the city by backing the Detroit Jazz Festival. She is about to open a new jazz club, The Dirty Dog Jazz Café, at 97 Kercheval in Grosse Pointe Farms the last week of February (call 313-882-5299 for more information).
