Michigan the 2003 Detroit International Jazz Festival

¶ … Michigan

The 2003 Detroit International Jazz Festival gave me a welcome introduction to the complexity and variety of jazz music. Prior to the Festival, my exposure to jazz was limited, but Festival acts like the Caribbean Jazz Project revealed that jazz could be exciting and contemporary. Overall, I would highly recommend the Festival to anyone from a newcomer to jazz to a long-time jazz fan.

Officially titled the Ford Detroit International Jazz Festival, the Festival began in 1980. It was founded by the Detroit Renaissance, and has seen tremendous success since that day. Since 1994, the Festival has been produced by the Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts. The Festival was originally called the Ford Montreux Detroit Jazz Festival (Ford Detroit International Jazz Festival).

The festival aims to provide exposure for a wide number of artists, from international stars to emerging artists to high school and college music groups. Musical styles include a "wide spectrum of styles, disciplines and genre's, including swing, bop, Latin, modern, contemporary, smooth, avant garde and straightahead jazz" (Ford Detroit International Jazz Festival).

In 2003, over 500,000 people attended the Festival over the Labor Day weekend to take in close to 1000 musicians and 100 separate performances. The festival's success has marked it as "The Largest Free Jazz Festival in North America" (Ford Detroit International Jazz Festival). Festival events take place within Hart Plaza, and incorporate a number of different settings, including a small night club to a large arena in the outdoors (Ford Detroit International Jazz Festival).

For me, the Jazz Festival was a unique chance to explore a type of music with which I was not greatly familiar. The Festival provided me with an opportunity to broaden my musical horizons, so its greatest obvious significance was in expanding my musical education and understanding.

Like most North Americans, I was raised on a steady diet of mainstream pop and rock and roll music, with limited exposure to jazz in private or public spheres. I occasionally heard jazz played in a nice restaurant, or upscale shopping centers, but neither my close friends nor family were fans of jazz music. As such, my understanding of jazz music was largely limited to the types of soothing jazz played in commercial environments like restaurants or shopping malls. Before attending 2003 Detroit International Jazz Festival I had no idea of the diversity of jazz styles, or the incredible complexity of some of the music.

The Festival provided a number of unique insights into jazz. At the Waterfront stage, the Caribbean Jazz Project introduced me to a style of jazz that was much more energetic and hard-hitting than the soft sounds I had heard in restaurants and shopping malls. The band's music had a definite Latin rhythm and influence, and kept my foot tapping. The trumpeter was especially talented, giving a number of long solos that would have left an ordinary human gasping for breath. As C. Andrew Hovan notes in his review in All About Jazz, the drummer Dafnis Pireto was "poetry in motion," dazzling with his "with his pyrotechnic displays and a great musical ability to build the excitement over the course of the solo statements." Overall, the music of the Caribbean Jazz Project, although not one of the festival's headliners, was one of the highlights of the weekend for me.

The Waterfront Stage was a fantastic venue for this group.

It was large enough to accommodate the crowd, and yet small enough to create a feeling of intimacy. The Stage is located alongside Lake Michigan, creating a fantastic view and ambiance. At the same time, the Waterfront Stage has seen several important renovations in recent years, and provides a shade from the sun. Seating was comfortable, although the infectious rhythm of the Caribbean Jazz Project made it difficult to sit still. At the same time, the choice to place the group at 6:45 P.M. On Saturday night (The Detroit News.com) was effective, as it helped to create a party atmosphere that would have likely been missing had the group played in the afternoon or morning.

While the Caribbean Jazz Project was likely the highlight of the Festival for me, a number of other groups stood out. Chaka Khan, who appeared at 9:30 PM on the Ford Motor Company Amphitheatre Stage (The Detroit News.com) was a surprising choice for the Festival. I was familiar with Chaka Khan's music from the 1980s, and was not sure what to expect. While her music seemed to be a lot less jazz-inspired than many of the performers, I have to admit that her presence was a bit of a draw for me. I am not a Chaka Khan fan, but I was curious to see her perform. As such, her inclusion in the Festival was likely a success, as I would expect that she was included as a headliner in order to take advantage of her name recognition, and to increase attendance.