JAZZ PIANIST ELLEN ROWE'S OCTET HONORS WOMEN TRAILBLAZERS AT THE DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS

Pianist Ellen Rowe

Before the jazz pianist Ellen Rowe's all-female octet hit the stage at the Friday Night Live concert series at the Detroit Institute of Arts, the bassist Marion Hayden assured me I'd like the octet. Hayden, a jazz Goddess was right. The octet is comprised of Ingrid Jensen, Melissa Gardiner, Sharel Cassity, Virginia Mayhew, Kalkeigh Wilder, Allison Miller, and Hayden. They performed music from Rowe's terrific date, Momentum Portrait of Women in Motion. Listening to Rowe's octet execute her originals, I wondered if the jazz world will ever gift her with accolades befitting her genius as a jazz educator, composer, and bandleader. I never met Rowe personally, but I'm acquainted with her chops. As a pianist, she is as complete as they come with a stark command and genuine respect for the piano equal to the greats Hank Jones and Tommy Flanagan. Rowe's hour-plus concert honored trailblazing women from entertainment, politics, sports, and social activism. The octet set the street on fire with the concert opener The Soul Keepers dedicated to the late pianists Marylou Williams and Geri Allen. Then the octet moved into the thirst-quenchers RFP (Relentless Forward Progress) Ain't I A Woman and Game, Set and Match. Unlike too many bandleaders, Rowe explained the impetus for each selection the octet played. Rowe undoubtedly designed the to be a tribute to badass women and glorify the octet members. The octet is devoid of imperfections. There was a surplus of arresting moments and noteworthy solos. Trombonist Melissa Gardiner blew the upholstery off the auditorium seats during her solos. Allison Miller drumming on lol and For the Girls in the Band stirred up the congregation. Near the end of the concert, Rowe finally turned the zoom lens on herself, giving the band members a coffee break as she played Song of the Meadowlark alone. Rowe played that number with such red-blooded emotion I had to fight back the desire to rush the stage and kiss her hands. Hayden's assuring me I'd like the octet was an understatement. They caused a euphoria I hadn't experienced at a jazz concert in a long time. Sadly, the octet doesn't have a residency at an area club where jazz lovers could experience them regularly.

JAZZ VOCALIST SAMARA JOY'S VOICE COVERS AUDIENCE LIKE A WARM BLANKET AT CLIFF BELL'S

Vocalist Samara Joy

JazzTimes magazine scribe Veronica M. Johnson turned me on to the jazz vocalist Samara Joy, noting she's the embodiment of Ella Fitzgerald. That's an attention-grabbing declaration. At 22, Joy is building quite a name for herself, having won the prestigious Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Essentially Ellington Competition, and dropped her self-titled debut in July. Lately, the Brooklyn native has toured nationally with guitarist Pasquale Grasso's trio. After hearing Joy with the trio Sunday night at Cliff Bell's in downtown Detroit, I must second Johnson's declaration. The Fitzgerald likeness slapped me in the back of the head when Joy performed duets with bassist Ari Roland and Keith Balla, the core of Grasso's trio. Listening to the duets' intimacy reminded me of Ella and Oscar, Fitzgerald's 1976 collaboration with pianist Oscar Peterson. It was Joy's inaugural performance in Detroit. The set seemed unnecessarily long, but she had the near-capacity audience enthralled for the entire journey. She possesses an abundance of stage presence and a veteran performer's understanding of building camaraderie with an audience. She literally had the guy seated behind me so worked up. He was cheering and carrying on as if courtside at a Detroit Piston's home game. Joy opened the set by jokingly showing off a black faux fur cape she purchased at a boutique in the Eastern Market. Then she sang Like Someone in Love, dedicating it to the late Barry Harris, one of her mentors. A renovated version of Stardust and If You Never Fall in Love with Me followed. Her voice on ballads landed on the audience like a warm cashmere blanket. The highlights were plentiful. My favorites were the duet with Grasso on But Beautiful, and her retooling of I'm Confessing That I Love You. If Ella Fitzgerald had a great-great-granddaughter who had chops, chances are she'd sound like Joy and have her magnetism. 

 

THE ORRIN EVANS TRIO OPENS A THREE-NIGHT ENGAGEMENT AT CLIFF BELL’S WITH VERVE AND PANACHE

Pianist Orrin Evans

I'm not sure if the jazz pianist Orrin Evans would take kindly to me believing he's unsung. The Philadelphia native belongs to a generation of jazz musicians that includes Christian McBride, Cyrus Chestnut, Joshua Redman, Jason Moran, James Carter, and Roy Hargrove. From where I sit, Evans deserves the same level of praise heaped on his peers. His track record is worth bragging about. For starters, he has 22 albums on the market, two Grammy nods, and a Downbeat Critics Poll Risings Star honor. I thought about the unsung thing Thursday night during his first of three scheduled concerts at Cliff Bell's with bassist Robert Hurst and drummer Mark Whitfield Jr. They performed cuts from some of Evans's popular albums, opening with the standard All the Things You Are, followed by Smoke Rings. Burning through those numbers was just the beginning of the special night Evans had planned. The trio is the best context to witness Evans's genius and virtuosity. He didn't perform any of his originals. Instead, he called Ralph Peterson, Geri Allen, and Andrew Hill tunes. The trio played their compositions with verve and panache. The set felt like a tribute to those departed musicians. Hurst and Whitfield Jr. aren't Evans's regular band-mates, but they jelled perfectly. It was Hurst's first time playing with Evans. Their chemistry felt like they'd been on the road together for years. Hurst is a blessing to every band I've heard him swing in. Thursday evening, he walked the bass to the moon and back on every tune on the set-list. Whitfield Jr. received the lion's share of adulation from the audience. His drumkit was gasping for air after the workout he subjected it to on Ralph Peterson's Smoke Rings and Geri Allen's Feed the Fire. Like Peterson was, Whitfield is a drummer brimming with passion and fire. Evans turned the zoom lens on himself on the ballad OEM (Orrin Evans Maybe). His touch was soft as snowflakes landing on bales of cotton. It's worth braving the December cold to experience Evan's trio.

 

MIKE MONFORD & DETROIT EFFERVESCENCE BRINGS BACK TO LIFE 'WE INSIST! -MAX ROACH'S FREEDOM NOW SUITE' AT THE FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE! SERIES

 

Saxophonist Mike Monford

Jazz saxophonist Mike Monford’s group Detroit Effervescence presentation of Max Roach’s We Insist!-Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite was a rare concert experience where every waking moment was breathtaking. Monford’s group brought the suite back to life and paid tribute to three Detroit jazz legends the late Kenn Cox, Donald Walden, and Roy Brooks. Monford, an unsung master swinger and a selfless leader on the Detroit jazz scene, pulled off the ambitious undertaking with a goosebump-inducing, all-star group comprised of music director Vincent Chandler, Marion Hayden, Pam Wise, Dwight Adams, Marcus Elliot, Tariq Gardner, Akunda Hollis, Mahindi Mausi, and Naima Shambourger. The 90-minutes concert was another installment of the Detroit Institute of Arts Friday Night Live! Series and was meticulously executed. Before diving headfirst into the suite, the group opened with Monford’s Ja Ja and Kenn Cox’s Mandela’s Muse, after which the vocalist Naima Shambourger joined in and pushed the set into the stratosphere, one of her signature gifts. She has participated in or led plenty of memorable projects such as Me & Sarah: A Tribute to Sarah Vaughan, the homage to the acclaimed pianist Geri Allen titled Lifetime: Tribute to Geri Allen with Detroit Young Jazz Giants, and the hippest concert—in my opinion—of 2020 Sister Strings: Roots, Voice, & Drums. Well, Shambourger was a crowd-favorite again, singing Driva Man, Freedom Day, and Triptych: Prayer, Protest, Peace with such unadulterated pizzaz Abbey Lincoln-- the featured vocalist on the Freedom Now Suite, who had one of the more unique voices in jazz-- would’ve been a bit envious of Shamborguer. Another standout was Tariq Gardner, who has grown from a young lion to a complete and in-demand jazz drummer. He was the perfect complement to Shamborguer. Throughout the concert, his drumming channeled the ghost of Max Roach. And as expected, Marcus Elliot’s and Dwight Adams’s solos were spotless. Monford deserves a bearhug for Detroit Effervescence’s skillful handling of Roach’s landmark work.

JAZZ VOCALIST LIZZ WRIGHT KICKS OFF THE 2021-2022 PARADISE JAZZ SERIES WITH AN ECLECTIC SET

 

Lizz Wright

The vocalist Lizz Wright sings jazz, the blues, R&B, folk, and gospel so perfectly during her live performance’s someone might feel for a moment she had a hand in creating those genres. That’s how I felt Friday evening hearing Wright’s 90-minute set at the Paradise Jazz Series. Wright put on an eclectic show that might’ve disappointed some of the series regulars expecting a straight-up jazz set offered in the past by jazz vocalists Kurt Elling, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Dianne Reeves, who’ve scored big at the series over the years. Wright is surely in the same league as far as pure talent and stagecraft go. However, what sets her apart is that she offers gospel, folk, pop, blues, and jazz all in one show. Wright hadn’t performed with her band much recently, but they didn’t show any visible signs of rust. She walked on the stage and blessed the audience with an acapella version of “Amazing Grace” that was so touching it could’ve made a hard-ass construction foreman cry. That opening number was so satisfying; I could’ve left the concert after that, confident that I’d gotten my money’s worth. Wright gave the audience every square inch of her gift. Every song she performed and every solo her bandmates took were moving. The most unforgettable part of the set was when she sang “Grace” and Walk with Me Lord!” She had some folks in the audience carrying on like they were in church, thrusting their arms in the air and shouting Amen. 

RAFAEL LEAFAR'S EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC PERPLEXES THE DIRTY DOG JAZZ CAFÉ AUDIENCE

Saxophonist Rafael Leafar

For some time now, the talk around Detroit's jazz scene has been the multi-saxophonist, and the 2020 Kresge Fellow Rafael Leafar has what it takes to be the next James Carter and Kenny Garrett, two globally revered Detroit-born musicians. The talk has merit. Leafar is a hugely gifted musician who's clearly invested considerable time studying Carter's and Garrett's discography, techniques, stage mannerisms, and theatrics. For example, Garrett's swaying back and forth when he's in the throes of a planet-shaking solo and Carter’s crowd-dazzling cadenzas whenever the mood hits him. Those influences were obvious Saturday night at the Dirty Dog Jazz Café during Leafar's closing set of a four-night run. I've experienced Leafar's exceptional playing as a sideman on pianist Glenn Tucker's album "Determination" and drummer Alex White's album "Ubuntu." On those projects, Leafar's blowing stuck to my ribs for days. And Leafar’s soloing during trombonist Vincent Chandler's concert in 2020 at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African-American History had tenor saxophone God's jealous. However, Saturday night, I couldn't make sense of the music his group--drummer Alex White, bassist Josef Deas, and guitarist Sasha Kashperko--played. The music appeared to be all made up on the spot. Leafar bounced from the tenor sax to the electric piano, piano back to the tenor sax. The group, I kid you not, played for 90 minutes straight without coming up for air. Maybe, the music would've been easier to digest had Leafar taken a moment to explain his concept. Many people in the capacity audience appeared perplexed, and others flat out disinterested. In all the years I've reviewed, concerts at the Dirty Dog Lafear's was the most experimental and out of place, given historically, the Dirty Dog has only offered straight-ahead acoustic jazz.

THE PARADISE JAZZ SERIES REOPENS WITH A LIVELY SET FROM BRIAN BLADE & THE FELLOWSHIP BAND

Brian Blade &The Fellowship Band

Seventeen months have passed since the Paradise Jazz Series has put on a live concert. The series returned Friday evening with a memorable set from Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band. The 90-minute set was live-streamed and only available in-person to a limited number of people. Blade is no stranger to the series, having performed there with the Wayne Shorter Quartet and the Chick Corea Trio. Blade is one of the more spirited jazz drummers working. Most know him for his stints with Joshua Redman, Shorter, Corea, and Joni Mitchell. Blade is also a valued bandleader who kept the Fellowship Band running for 24 years. Friday’s night set at Detroit’s Orchestra Hall reaffirmed, for me, his band is unlike any other in jazz I’ve heard. They played cuts from their Blue Note recordings, opening the concert with “Return of the Prodigal Son,” penned by pianist Jon Cowherd. All but one selection Cowherd wrote. Throughout the concert, the band had two identities. Starting out mellow, and midway through a number morphing into a band that straddled the fence of the avant-garde. Saxophonists Myron Walden and Melvin Bulter stood out. Walden wolfed down the changes to “Landmarks,” and “Traveling Mercy like mini-pastries. “The best parts of the concert were Blades improvisational exchanges with Bulter on “Throwing Stones,” and with Cowherd on “Duality. They were the launching pads for Blade’s missile-like rimshots and his goosebump-inducing solos.