PARADISE JAZZ SERIES ENDED SEASON WITH SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE'S TAKE ON MICHAEL JACKSON'S HITS

SFJazz Collective

Yearly, the SFJazz Collective, an all-star octet perform music of iconic musicians past and present. In the octet’s twelve you history, it has performed the music of greats such as Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, and Stevie Wonder. Friday evening, before a sold-out audience at Orchestra Hall in mid-town Detroit, the octet closed the Paradise Jazz Series season with a two-hour presentation of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson’s, hits arranged for a discriminating jazz demographic. The octet also presented original compositions. Sean Jones, Robin Eubanks, David Sanchez, Miguel Zenon, Warren Wolf, Edward Simon, Matt Penman, and Obed Calvaire are the current members of the SFJC. That’s some major muscle. Each musician is an accomplished bandleader with solid discographies. So, how was the octet’s presentation of Jackson’s hits “The Love You Save,” ”Blame It on The Boogie,” “Don’t Stop Until You Get Enough,” ”Thriller,” “Human Nature,” and “This Place Hotel”? If Jackson had attended the concert, he would’ve been moonwalking up and down the aisles until his feet were blistered. The concert had many high points, Sanchez’s pit-bull mean soloing on his arrangement of “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough,” Wolf stretching out on “Human Nature,” and Jones and Eubank trading measures on “Thriller”. The octet’s originals “Fall Prelude,” “Beauty of Space,” and “Franklin & Fell” made the concert extra special. When the octet switched from Jackson’s hits to its originals it appeared the audience was being treated to two concerts for the cost of one