Detroit

All in the family

Festival honors great jazz families, Detroit jazz musicians

DETROIT — The Detroit International Jazz Festival is taking its family-friendliness a step further this year.

The Labor Day weekend event — one of the largest free jazz festivals in the world — focuses on legendary jazz families and Detroit composers and performers this year, with a special tribute to Thad, Elvin and Hank Jones. Hank Jones — who received a Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s Grammy Awards — will appear on behalf of his family. In addition, members of the Brubeck, Pizzarelli and Monk families will perform.

Other headliners include Detroit natives like Geri Allen, as well as Chick Corea, Sheila Jordan, Christian McBride and Wayne Shorter, and jazz alumni from Detroit’s own Northwestern High School will perform on the festival’s opening night.

“I’m really excited,” said Festival Executive Director Terri Pontremoli. “This festival is celebrating 30 years. This is really significant. A lot of festivals started in 1980 and not all of them are still around, and of those that are still around, not all of them are free.”

Pontremoli said the top-notch attractions in 2009 range from a celebration of the 100th anniversary of big band king Benny Goodman to brand-new work. One of the highlights this year will be performances of two original works written for the festival: a six-movement piece by jazz veteran Gerald Wilson, who spent his formative years in Detroit, and a new work by Grammy winner John Clayton, who composed a tribute to the Jones brothers.

Clayton’s piece has particular local significance because it will not only make its world premiere as it closes out the festival at 8:30 p.m. Sept. 7 at the Carhartt Amphitheatre, but it will also be performed jointly by the Clayton Brothers Quintet and metro Detroit’s own Scott Gwinnell Jazz Orchestra.

Gwinnell credits Pontremoli with putting together the project with Clayton, who is also serving as the festival’s artist-in-residence, for which Clayton has worked with jazz bands at schools in Warren, Detroit and elsewhere.

“Terri was a genius because she just saw how the dynamics would play out,” Gwinnell said.

Since meeting Clayton in April, Gwinnell has been mentored by the jazz legend — a man the young composer calls “one of the nicest, most supportive people I’ve ever met.” Gwinnell even spent a week in Clayton’s hometown of Los Angeles, where he observed a recording session of Clayton and his band at Capitol Records, had private lessons with Clayton and hung out with him at jazz clubs.

“It’s been an amazing summer,” Gwinnell acknowledged, saying he’s grown as a writer and a person thanks to this experience. “He’s someone in so many ways that I’d want to be. He’s such a skilled writer.”

Clayton’s composition “evokes different feelings” in its four movements, including a “beautiful ballad,” hard-swinging segment and a bombastic closing movement dedicated to drummer Elvin Jones, Gwinnell said. Gwinnell and Clayton will share conducting at the festival; when Clayton’s and Gwinnell’s bands teamed up for a rehearsal recently at Detroit jazz club Cliff Bells, Gwinnell said the song got a standing ovation and moved some listeners to tears.

“When something is good, it reaches out and grabs you,” he said.

Gwinnell said he couldn’t do this without a strong band.

“These guys are some of the best professionals in the city, so if anyone could pull it off, they could,” he said.

The Scott Gwinnell Jazz Orchestra has members from as far away as Toledo and Kalamazoo, but the majority are metro Detroiters, hailing from cities such as Troy, Harrison Township, Mount Clemens, Grosse Pointe Farms and the east side of Detroit. Harper Woods native Gwinnell is an eastsider himself, having graduated from Grosse Pointe North High School.

Clayton’s work with local students is one of the many educational aspects of the jazz festival, which Pontremoli said has grown into a year-round endeavor, in large part due to its increasing emphasis on jazz education for students.

During the festival, several school bands will perform on the Meijer Education Stage: the Warren Cousino High School jazz band, 11:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Sept. 5; the Utica Eppler Junior High School jazz ensemble, 12:45-1:30 p.m. Sept. 5; the St. Clair Shores Kennedy Middle School jazz ensemble, noon-12:45 p.m. Sept. 6; and the Ferndale High School jazz ensemble, 5-5:45 p.m. Sept. 7.

From gospel and blues to traditional jazz standards and cutting-edge works, Pontremoli said, “there’s something for everyone’s tastes.” About 750,000 are expected to visit downtown over the course of the festival, which has been strengthened by support from many private individuals in recent years.

“(The audience’s) spirits will be lifted by the quality of the artists,” Pontremoli said. “(The festival) makes you very proud to be in Detroit. There’s not (another) festival like this in the state.”

Festival founder and honorary Chairperson Bob McCabe of Grosse Pointe Woods and Gretchen Carhartt Valade of Grosse Pointe Farms, a member of the advisory board and board of trustees who rescued the festival a few years ago, are both slated to receive special awards on opening night. For both, though, the real reward is in seeing the festival continue to flourish 30 years after its inception.

“I feel great,” said McCabe of seeing the festival turn 30. “It has grown. It has attracted more people. … It’s a great cultural (event) and a great economic (shot in the arm for the region), and I’m very pleased it’s (lasted) 30 years. And with the kind of support we’ve received, I (believe) it will go on (another 30).”

The Detroit International Jazz Festival runs Sept. 4-7 in downtown Detroit from Hart Plaza along Woodward to Campus Martius.

For a complete performance schedule and more information, visit www.detroitjazzfest.com.