June Calendar: Waiting for Limited Re-openings
We have no live jazz venue events to announce for the month of May, but the number of artists and venues who have turned to streaming performances is growing. Some venues have started broadcasting concerts live (streaming) online and are sometimes asking for contributions for musicians. Examples are the Blue LLama Jazz Club, the Dirty Dog, the Kerrytown Concert House, and River Raisin Ragtime Revue. To support some venues and their workers you can order food for take-out.
Musicians are suffering due to lost income, and relief is not in sight any time soon. If you want to help musicians, you can buy their music online. Some of the websites that might come in handy are: detroitmusicfactory.com (part of Mack Avenue Records), pkorecords.com, musicwikidetroit.com, cdbaby.com, bandcamp.com, and a number of websites or Facebook pages have been put up by individual musicians. Jennifer Pollard’s excellent Facebook page LiftingUpA2Jazz has a number of these sites. Any suggestions for other sites are welcome.
Governor Whitmer has lifted her “Stay Home” executive order effective June 8 and also relaxed some restrictions. Bars and restaurants can reopen at 50 percent capacity if they follow social distancing guidelines. For our purposes it is worth pointing out that the new order requires people to wear face coverings over nose and mouth when they enter enclosed public spaces, like bars and restaurants. Exactly how many of our regular jazz venues will re-open is unclear as we go to press in early June.