- Coming up on "American Black Journal," it's almost time for one of Detroit's most popular annual events.

We are gonna talk about this year's Detroit Jazz Festival, and we'll have the first look at the event's official poster.

The head of the Jazz Festival Foundation is here along with two of this year's musicians, and we we'll end the show with a performance by the festival's artist-in-residence, Jason Moran.

Don't go anywhere.

This is one of my favorite shows of the year.

"American Black Journal" starts right now.

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Thank you.

(upbeat jazz music) - Welcome to "American Black Journal."

I'm your host, Stephen Henderson.

We are coming to you today from the Gretchen C. Valade Jazz Center at Wayne State University, and over the Labor Day weekend, the world's largest free jazz festival is gonna host artists from around the globe here as well as at Hart Plaza and Campus Martius Park in Downtown Detroit.

Here to talk about the 46th Annual Detroit Jazz Festival are Chris Collins, he's the president and artistic director of the Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation, and he's got two of this year's performers with him, bassist Marian Hayden and drummer Louis Jones III.

Welcome to all three of you.

- Thank you.

- So, first of all, I just gotta say, this is my first time in this theater since they have redone it.

It is amazing, and I'm already excited (chuckling) about the festival being here this year.

Chris, this is number 46.

It seems like you and I do this every year.

It's been a long time.

- Yes, we started in high school and here we are.

- (laughing) We're still here.

Tell me about the 46th Festival and what people can expect.

- Yes, indeed, well, as always, they can expect a lot of musical and artistic surprises.

It is a true jazz festival, one of the premier jazz festivals of the world.

As you said, it is completely admission free.

- It's free - All the venues.

And as you mentioned too, we added the venue this year of the Gretchen C. Valade Jazz Center.

It's a perfect place 'cause it was acoustically designed specifically for jazz, one of the few in the world of that nature.

So we have a chance to have an indoor venue and have some fun with that, along with the three stages on Hart Plaza and Campus Martius, so it's gonna be a lot of fun.

People can take the rail car right up Woodward to one block from the Gretchen C. Valade Jazz Center and right back to the north end of the festival.

- You know, I hadn't thought about that, but that is a nice little bonus there, that you can come from Hart Plaza here without getting in a car.

- Indeed, and then you can actually park here.

- Yeah, right, and go around.

- Go to the festival, come back for the evening things, and then be on your way.

And we are even gonna have some little interesting performances on the M1, which would make it a lot of fun.

- Oh, on the M1?

- Yeah.

- There you go.

- So keep an eye out for that, but throughout the festival, I mean, as always, you know, the great legends are incredible world-class Detroit artists and some blending of the two, all different generations.

Some real surprises.

I mean, our artists in residence, Jason Moran, an incredible musician.

And, you know, he's kicking off opening night with a set brand new to him, brand new to everybody, collaborating with a Detroit great.

Jeff Mills is gonna be with him and bringing together the worlds of electronic, Detroit electronics and jazz.

- I was gonna say.

Techno.

- And the other things throughout the festival, including working with some of our aspiring players, a very unique redoing of Duke Ellington music.

And, you know, Chucho Valdes and Paquito D'Rivera together, 80 years of relationship.

Branford Marsalis, Marion Hayden, Louis Jones III, Allen Dennard, some real up and comers, Hiromi and Sonicwonder and Lakecia Benjamin.

It's just a parade of great artists throughout the festival from all different perspectives of this great music.

- Yeah, you know, every year I sit and I wonder where you start to plan the lineup of people that we see at the festival, because as you point out, it is this incredible range.

I mean, jazz, of course, is itself very diverse and very broad, but there's always an act or two that I'm just like, "Oh, wow, I would never have thought to include that in this festival," and yet, there it is.

- Well, you know, as the musicians on the bandstand, we engage with a lot of musicians.

I travel around the world.

Some, couple European releases, so I'm over there all the time.

Asia, we have exchange programs and things, so I'm always listening, I'm always talking to people, but, you know, we also have an open submission from February to June, so I can hear from anybody.

And we get about 1,500 of those that come to my ears, and that's all attempts, a lot of old-school attempts, to know what's going on out there and bring the very best and those in at an artistic threshold in their life to the festival.

But the first thing we have to do, literally the week after the festival, is we have to begin raising the...

It's about $5 million a year to produce the festival, and 85 cents of every one of those dollars, according to our auditors, goes directly to programming, so it's not like we're keeping big overhead.

We want it.

We don't do free on the backs of the artists or the thousands of craft folks that work there.

It's about infusing the art along the way.

So it's all about, you know, generous donors and sponsors and everyone that steps up when they can in order to keep it free for future generations, which is not easy.

So unfortunately, you know, the financial side has to be first and foremost in order to avoid that $20, $50 ticket at the door.

So, you know, that's really the first effort, and then the music is sort of like planning a record.

You plan the tracks.

It's just a joy, you know?

(everyone chuckling) - Yeah, yeah.

Marion, you know this, but I'm gonna tell our viewers that you are one of my absolute favorite Detroit artists.

- Aw.

- I just swoon when you are on stage, and so I'm really excited that you're part of the festival.

Tell me about what you're doing this year.

- Well, first of all, I'd like to say thank you very much for having me this year, Chris.

This is a really great year for me.

I was chosen as a 2025 Kresge Eminent Artist.

And so that, it just means so much to be able to be recognized in my hometown and to also be a part of the festival, yeah.

And I'll just say, it's kind of a little mini homecoming for me.

I'm having with me someone who is near and dear to my heart as my featured artist with me, a man named Kamau Kenyatta.

Kamau is a fantastic... First of all, Kamau is actually my godbrother, so we've known each other since birth.

- Oh, I didn't know that.

(Stephen chuckling) - Yes.

Yes.

His father's my godfather.

- Wow.

- And we've just been, we've been in each other's lives since we were born.

And he's also, what I like to say, a peer mentor.

He's someone that I tell him he's my shadow producer on all of my projects.

(Stephen laughing) So we talk a lot about music and everything.

And he's a fantastic, so he's a fantastic saxophonist, pianist.

He's a producer of several records for the great vocalist Gregory Porter, for which he has a Grammy for that.

And so we're gonna do a set that includes some things that we just really love.

We're gonna do some Herbie Hancock.

We grew up listening to a lot of Herbie.

We're gonna do some originals.

- All right.

- From Kamau, from my book, and just kinda sprinkle it in with some Detroit.

I always like to lift up our great Detroit artists.

We're gonna do some Ken Cox work.

And then I have with me two people that are in my regular band, my band legacy, the great Steve Wood, fantastic saxophonist and educator, and Tim Blackmon on trumpet.

And then we have with me two of the young folks coming up, the next steps, one being my son Tariq Gardner on drums.

So I'm always happy to that generation on the 20 somethings.

And then even younger than he, Kamau's great protege, Kahlil Childs, wonderful, wonderful saxophonist from San Diego, since Kamau's been in San Diego for many years now.

So I'm really looking forward to this band, and we're gonna do what Detroit does, you know?

- Right, right.

- Present everything and authentically.

Authentically.

- When you're at the festival, is it different for you than it is in other places?

- The Detroit Jazz Festival, it's like being in the largest living room you could think of, for me.

- (laughing) Right.

- Yes, it's like having your friends come and say, "Come on out.

Let's hang right here in this space for a moment."

You have people that know you, then, of course, you have a lot of people that don't that are come from outta town, the folks that don't know.

And they find out when they come here.

They find out that Detroit is truly one - How you doing?

(chuckling) - of the greatest music cities in the world, and that's one of the things you find out when you come to the Detroit Festival.

- Yeah, yeah.

Louis, Chris was talking about the inclusion of many different generations of artists in the festival, and maybe you are on the sort of smaller, younger end of that, (laughing) I guess.

But interestingly, I learned before the interview that you came up through the program that the Jazz Festival runs to make sure that young people in Detroit have the opportunity to learn music and get into the history of it and all of that.

Tell me about your music and your journey.

- Yeah, so to start back a little further, my dad is a great jazz lover and one of my number one supporters.

He supports me through everything.

(Stephen chuckling) But his birthday is around Labor Day weekend, and he's always going to the Jazz Fest.

(Stephen laughing) And I've always accompanied him.

- You go with him.

Right (laughing).

- And it was a great experience for me, seeing all the musicians and all, just everything that happened at the festival.

And then the Jazz Fest started coming in our schools and started exposing us to some of the mentors in the city, and then I started to hear about some of their programs.

And like since eighth grade, I've been Jazz Fested.

(Stephen laughing) - You've been, yeah.

- I've been right there, and it's a full circle moment to be there in my own group.

- What drew you to the drums?

I will admit that I was a high school drummer.

Not great, but good, but I loved playing the drums.

I play a lot of different instruments, but that one was kinda special for me.

What's special about the drums for you?

- Well, I was destroying houses, (Stephen laughing) and anything I could get my hands on is getting beat.

- Right.

Just beating on it, right?

- I really couldn't stop myself, but I think for me, when I played drums, it's just the freedom of expression.

Whatever comes to my head, I can just play it and be happy and be proud of what I played.

I played saxophone through high school.

I can do some, I can do blue scale, that's about it.

(Stephen laughing) But the drums, I really feel like it's an extension of myself, so I love it.

- I'll just add too that Louis is also a wonderful composer, which is one of the reasons I want him to have this year.

He is about to release his first record.

It's a lot of his original music, and he was selected as a member of the All-Star Generations Band that just, a couple months ago, toured Japan.

- Oh, wow.

- Yeah.

He's really out there.

- Yeah, no, that's really great.

(everyone laughing) Chris, he's working PR for you as well.

- Yeah (laughing).

- So, Chris, we have this tradition here on "ABJ," you and I do, where when we do this show each year.

- The dance number?

- Well, we're gonna skip that this year (laughing), but the poster.

Yeah, we always reveal the poster here on "ABJ," and I love that we do that.

I never see it before the show either, so I'm in the same seat as the viewers here.

- Would agree.

- But before you unveil it, tell me about this year's poster 'cause I know there's always a story.

- There's always a story, and there's always an artist, which is what generates a story, and we go, you know, just international artists, youth artists.

We've done open artist calls and things.

This year, Laura Hilbert, she's with the Pets Creative Group, incredible graphic designer and artist, and we've talked about her doing a piece for a long time.

And this one came out and, typical of, you know, great graphic designers who have an artistic flair, she came up with several prototypes that really were meaningful.

And I was looking at them all, and I said, "What I really want to know from you as an artist, what was your motivation?

Which one do you feel comes from your heart?

Just forget about the commercial aspect for a while."

And, you know, she told me about the things that inspired her to do the piece and some of the vintage color elements that were important to her.

And this was entirely her design, and it brought out something that is very unique in our 45, 46 year collection.

And as I tell everyone, and we can point it out if you like, but there's a very subtle cue that we've been through 45 years and we're up to our 46.

And the piece is just a beautiful, and I think artistic, meaningful but still very descriptive of the moment, so.

- Yeah, yeah, they're always great, so I'm sitting here just anticipating.

- Yes, all right.

- What's it gonna be, so.

- Well, is it time?

(Stephen laughing) - It's time.

- Let's do it.

Drum roll.

(Stephen laughing) (Louis imitating drum roll) - Yeah, that's right (laughing).

- The 2025 Detroit Jazz Fest poster.

(Louis imitates hi-hat) - Oh, look at that.

- Oh!

- [Stephen] Oh, I love that.

- [Louis] Love the O.

- [Stephen] I love the O, right?

Like a little record.

- Yeah, that's priceless.

- [Chris] So the O is the cue, right?

For 45 years.

- For 45.

- Anyone who's into vinyl, and it's just such a, again, you know, each one is very, very unique because we're looking for an artist with a vision, which is what produces it, but it's just stands out as a beautiful, and it's the colors that really draw me into the- - I love the color scheme there.

- Yeah, so on your wall, it'll fit in?

- Ah, right, right.

- You do.

- I think the dining room piece.

- I have several of those.

You mentioned 45 and the nod to moving forward from that.

We're getting close to 50, which is an incredible milestone for anything, but especially, you know, for a festival and especially for a free festival, 50 years.

Are you starting to think about like what that gonna be?

- Always artists and residents and different plans.

You know, I'm talking to cats over years sometimes because it has to be a moment, you know, the special moment.

But, you know, 50 years is big.

46 is big.

I mean, we're talking about a legacy event, and it's why we work so hard to keep it jazz and keep it free, because it's up there with the top festivals in the world.

So we brag about that, and sometimes we forget that it's free, but I gotta say, you guys have traveled, you know there's nothing in the world like it, and there's a reason.

It's a real challenge, and our community values jazz, and so they also value the nature of the Detroit Jazz Festival.

It's a long history, and of course, you know, Gretchen C. Valade, we're her temple here.

You know, she stepped up when it was, you know, in fear of going away, and since then, we continue to build on her legacy and her generosity in order to keep it that way.

Nothing easy about it, but at the same time, you know, over 300,000 people a year, 30 million in economic development to the city over four days, two million on the free streams online.

I mean, it serves as an ambassador of the city, and it tells everyone what's important to our citizenry because, as you know, art survives on philanthropy.

And if the culture does not value going back to Bach and Mozart, if they don't value that thing, they're all fragile.

They just (exhales), they go away.

- They go away.

- And future generations look back and they judge cultures on what it is they valued, and here in Detroit, this is a great indicator that creative music and passing on of language, telling stories, and doing it all available and accessible to everybody is really important to us.

- Yeah, I also feel like there's something special about this year, given the hardship that so many in the arts are feeling.

And, you know, we're at a real crossroads, where we're deciding how much we do value these kind of things, and we're about to put on a real display here of, you know, how much we do care about it and that it is a part of us that we would never give up.

We would never let it just disappear.

- And individuals have to make that choice, which is a very personal thing.

And in fact, this place we're in, this is an expansion.

It always evolves.

You know, now the fourth stage is here.

We have what's called the Midtown After Hour Special.

So we have programming early in the day, and then there's all the stuff at the footprint.

And after the last show at the footprint, there's one show, one set on the stage, Friday and Saturday and Sunday.

And it's Emmet Cohen's Trio on Friday, it's James Carter's Organ Trio on Saturday, and Rodney Whitaker with a host of international talent doing music of Joe Henderson on Sunday.

So it's a great way to cap off.

- Yeah, have either of you played this stage since it reopened?

You have?

What is that like?

I mean, this was built, as Chris said, for jazz, for jazz performance.

Does it feel different to be up here than other places?

- Yeah, I played, I think, it was the grand reopening last year.

Fabulous.

It just feels fabulous.

And it feels, you can really feel Gretchen's presence here, Gretchen Valade, because she was such a huge jazz lover.

Just caring, a caring person, and when I played, the sound here is wonderful.

It's incredible.

I can hear my voice in the space, but it's not echoes.

- Yeah, no, there's not an echo in there.

- There's a certain properness of how sound is developed in this space, so you know it was put together with that in mind.

- Yeah.

Louis.

- I did some of the After Hour session here with the live crowd.

(Stephen laughing) The crowd is great.

The room sounds great.

It's really a vibe in here.

It sets a atmosphere to really listen to the music and like enjoy it with the people who you enjoy it with.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- I have to say, I like the size of the space as well.

- I know, it's not too big, it's not too small.

It's just, it's intimate though, my goodness.

So that'll be a great part of the festival coming.

- Yeah, and even the capacity issue is one of the reasons Gretchen... We must have tried a dozen chairs.

You know Gretchen, and she wanted them wide.

(Stephen chuckling) She wanted these seating expanded so there's a lot of foot room.

So it's a really comfortable place, and every seat in the house is a great seat.

- Well, we will look forward to the 46th annual Detroit Jazz Festival.

Thanks to all three of you for being here with us.

- Real pleasure, Stephen.

Thanks for doing this.

- Yes, of course.

- Thank you, Steve.

- It's my favorite show of the year.

(Chris chuckling) We are gonna leave you now with a performance by the Detroit Jazz Festival's artist-in-residence, pianist and composer Jason Moran, recorded here at the Gretchen C. Valade Jazz Center.

For more on the Jazz Festival and today's guest, go to americanblackjournal.org, and you can connect with us anytime on social media.

Take care, and we'll see you next time.

(relaxing jazz music)