- Hi, I'm Satori Shakur and here's what's coming up on One Detroit Arts and Culture.

Renowned musician Chucho Valdes talks about his role as artist in residence for this year's Detroit Jazz Festival, then a play set in 1967 Detroit plus the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's 2022-23 lineup.

And Baira performs.

It's all this week on One Detroit Arts and Culture.

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- Hi, and welcome to One Detroit Arts and Culture.

I'm your host Satori Shakoor.

Thanks for joining me here at Anthony Lee's Artist Studio.

He's putting the finishing touches on his mural honoring Vincent Chin.

This month marks the 40th anniversary of the murder of Vincent chin, a Chinese American who was killed in Highland Park by two white men who blamed the Japanese for the downturn in the US economy.

The killing sparked the modern Asian American Civil Rights Movement.

Now you can see this mural on display at Peterborough and Cass, in what used to be Detroit's Chinatown.

Coming up on the show.

Detroit public theater presents Detroit 67 at the General Motors Theater in the Charles H. Wright Museum.

Then we get to hear the lineup for the 2022-23 season of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

Plus a performance by dance company Baira.

But first Grammy award winning Cuban pianist Cucho Valdes sits down with WRCJ's Linda Yohn to talk about performing at this year's Detroit Jazz Festival.

(piano playing) - Chucho, welcome back to Detroit, and please give us your thoughts on the Detroit Havana connection.

- In my opinion, is one of the most important festival in the world of jazz.

I've been lucky enough to play before, but this time as an artist-in-residence, it really a huge honor for me I will be able to present a lot of projects that I've been working on.

First of all, the one called The Creation, is a suite in three parts.

And you describe the influences of the African music in the Caribbean in the United States, African and everything else.

The second, second one is Duet with Diane Ribs, one of my favorite singers, Joe Lovano and the third one is gonna be with the Super Quarts.

Is my understanding that it's an excellent relation between the festival between Havana and Detroit.

- Tell me what it means to be communicating through music internationally.

- Music is universal language and all musician that, in this moment we are talking about jazz, we are a big family.

The festival is the place to meet, is like our home in this moment.

And we exchange knowledge and we play together, is a wonderful thing for me.

- Tell us about the relationship of the piano in Cuban music to other instruments, especially the drum.

- Piano is a harmonic instrument, but at the same time, very rhythm.

The drum is an instrument of rhythm.

When they both play together the piano just feel resting because the drum is helping the piano.

- You had a great group with drummers and other instruments including Paquito D'Rivera with Irakere.

Tell us a little bit about the difference that Irakere made for the world.

- Irakere changed everything, all the structures.

I think it was the brass section most important.

The one that plays more inferences in all the history of Cuba Paquito D'Rivera, Arturo Sandoval, Jorge Varona and Carlo Averhoff.

That's the section more incredible that have just go through the Cuban music.

And the most respected musician that even today.

We had a lot of elements of the jazz to the Afro Cuban music.

And we also introduced so many African percussion instruments that were not used before in the Cuban dance music.

- Yeah.

La bata.

- La bata.

- La bata.

Yeah.

Beautiful.

- You know.

- Yeah, I do.

I do.

Jazz Bata 2.

Mm.

Beautiful recording, and Mirror Mirror.

You have won Grammy awards for both of these.

And I hope people will re-listen to them.

What should we listen for in Jazz Bata 2 and Mirror Mirror with Chick Corea and Eleane Elias.

- First of all, in Jazz Bata, the language is totally different.

The vocabulary is totally different to what he has made before.

And the piano I used to just, apart from the harmony as a percussion instrument that was playing with the drums, and it's totally different language.

Mirror Mirror is one of the most beautiful experiences in all my life.

I adore Eliane Elias.

Brazilian music is incredible, but she also managed just to deal with the Afro Cuban music, all the languages.

And Chick Corea who, by the way, is one of my heroes.

I felt very comfortable in that language among us.

- Give us some of your other dreams and jazz hopes for the world.

- I'm working on it.

I'm working on vocabulary and language, Cuban, Afro Cuban jazz, but with another way of expression and with a harmonic feeling totally different to the one that we have done so far.

I think it could be something different to everything that we have done before.

- Bueno.

Muy bueno.

Oh, Chucho.

Gracias.

Thank you.

(piano playing) - Let's go to the Charles H. Wright Museum where Dominique Morisseau presented her masterpiece, Detroit 67, thanks to Detroit Public Theater.

The show was set in 1967 and focuses in on racial tensions when a white woman is introduced to a black family just as the streets of Detroit erupted in a revolution.

- I don't wanna lose my son's future to no bar, too shaky.

I want him to have something solid.

- Me too.

- Then promise me you won't blow our money on this deal.

- Oh, come on Chelle.

- Promise me we gonna keep this house and this family together.

- From your perspective, what is Detroit 67 about?

- Well, Detroit 67 is about the Poindexter family really.

It takes place in the family of the Poindexter's home.

The brother and sister having recently inherited this home from their their parents and their legacy from their parents.

And so they are really figuring out what the next steps are for them as a family.

And while they're going through kind of a transformational moment as a family our city is also going through a really transformational moment and the conflicts that the city is having find their way right into the Poindexter's basement.

So it's really about a family but it becomes about our whole city.

- You in this, just as much as me.

- How am I in this just as much as you?

I ain't the one who grabbed it.

- No, you just stood there to somebody tell you what to do.

- Tell me what to do?

I got hands and feet.

- Ain't I ain't so sure.

- Don't nobody tell me what to do.

I tell me what to do.

- Well, okay then.

You said it.

- Say what?

- You did this cause of you not cause of me, just like you said.

- This is the third time we've produced Detroit '67 actually.

And this is a piece that we plan on going back to time and again.

The rebellion, obviously, that took place in our city in, in Detroit, in 1967 has shaped a lot of who we are as a city and how we function and and the questions that come up with this play and with what happens in the Poindexter family and in the community in Detroit in 1967 is really powerful.

It really brings history to life and gives us kind of a much more intimate understanding of what the people who were really affected by the rebellion and who lived in the neighborhood.

What happened in these homes?

- What you think is going to happen when this white woman wake up in a house full of colored folks in the middle of the ghetto?

You think she gonna be happy and thankful you save her when she see all these gashes on her face?

You think she gonna be able to distinguish one colored fool from the next?

- Well, how do you know it's a colored fool?

- I pray it wasn't, but if it was we in trouble.

- What would you want audiences to take away from having watched this production?

- Well, I hope that they would want to see more work by Detroit Public Theater.

I hope that they would really look into who Dominique Morisseau is and what her other plays are about and have to say.

So I want people to also look at their community differently to really understand how some of these things happen, how people are affected by by the choices that we make.

So really a deeper understanding of our own humanity is what I would hope for our audience members and for the humanity of the people around us and the people in our community.

So we always hope that our work helps us connect, helps audiences connect with their humanity and with what's happening in the world.

- And I know Dominique can't be with us today, but is there anything that you think she would want to say if she, she were able to be here?

- Yeah.

I mean, I think that she would, would tell people to to check out Detroit Public Theater.

She's the executive artistic producer of Detroit Public Theater.

And we're building a new space in Midtown.

We'll be opening with her play Mud Row in the fall.

So if you miss Detroit 67 this time you can come see Dominique's play Mud Row.

Her play Ain't Too Proud, the musical that she's doing, that she did on Broadway and was nominated for Tony award for will also be in Detroit this summer with Broadway in Detroit.

- I think she in trouble.

- Lord doesn't mean we in trouble with her.

You ain't get her to tell you nothing.

- She worried about something.

I ain't sure what or who, but that trouble from last night, ain't over.

That's all I know.

- I don't want that trouble following her here, Lank We gotta find out who her people are and get her back to them.

That's what we gotta do.

- How do you think productions like Detroit 67 add to Detroit's theater scene and the arts and culture scene of Detroit today?

- Yeah, I mean, I think these productions are really important.

I mean, Dominique's plays are being produced all over the country and all over the world.

It's really important to her that these stories are being told in the city that she writes so much about us and about Detroit.

- Can't tell whether she coming or going, look like a wild animal, didn't win a strike.

- Oh, you ain't seen her like I seen her.

Standing out there on the side of the road looking like a devil himself don't came to claim her.

I just can't send her back out there just yet.

Can't add that on my soul.

- And Detroit Public Theater hopes that people will start understanding that the the quality of the work that we're doing here and that we're able to produce here at Detroit Public Theater you don't have to travel for that.

You can just come right downtown and see the plays at, at Detroit Public Theater.

So we're really trying to produce work that is of the highest caliber and give Detroit audiences the work that they deserve.

- Thank you so much Courtney.

I really appreciate your time today.

- Well, thank you so much.

It's really nice to, to talk with AJ.

I appreciate the time and look forward to seeing you at the theater soon.

- The Detroit Symphony Orchestra is set for a packed 2022-23 season WRCJ 90.9 FM's Peter Whorf caught up with the DSOs president and CEO, Eric Ronmark, to talk about the highlights that are sure to dazzle the crowd who enter orchestra hall.

- Hello, good morning, Eric.

- How are you, Peter?

- I'm fine.

How are you?

- I'm doing good.

- Can you highlight, Eric, some of the new commissioned works that are being showcased in the coming season.

- Yeah, we joined a few different commissions.

Some are consortium commissions, where we we signed on because we like to be part of the creation of new works and then some that we spearheaded and really are giving the world premieres of.

And so everything from Brian Nabors, for example, or Michael Abels, the very first piece on the first concert is by Michael Abels and probably best known as a as a great movie composer, but he's best known for his work on, on movies, like Get Out and Us.

And, and then there are these other commissions by Jessie Montgomery, Brian Naber, so I mentioned.

Tania Leon who just won a Pulitzer that we got onto early and, and are proud to be part of bringing new works to the world.

But then the Carl Simon piece is, is one of the highlights for me as far as the new works.

And the theme really is about the underground railroad.

And so other orchestras that were stops on this incredibly important historic journey are gonna join in in future seasons.

But Detroit of course, being a very important place in that.

- Your piano soloist line up is pretty epic as usual Emmanuel Ax, Isata Kanneh-Mason, Daniil Trifonov and Garrick Ohlsson return with music director, Leonard Slatkin.

- Yeah, we, we are really fortunate to have built all these relationships with great artists over many, many years.

And Manny is the, just an amazing way to open the new season in the, with the show pan and Daniiel Trifonov who, I try to never say that I have favorites because everyone brings such a unique quality.

But I remember with Daniiel, who we saw here early in his career, really right at the beginning of where, when he started to take off and then build that relationship and he loves coming back to Detroit.

- It's cool to know that Detroit connection too, with composer Florence Price wanted to mention the, the string line up which really excites me, Maria Dueñas, Anna Akiko Meyers, Baiba Skride and Augustine Hadelich.

Of course, it's another season of classical roots.

I think it's season number 45 next year.

- That that's right.

Yeah.

We're it's it started back in '78.

- Anthony Davis's music will be featured.

- Yes.

Anthony Davis was a composer in residence with the Detroit symphony many, many years ago.

And, and we commissioned a few shorter orchestral works of his and his opera X, which I'm seeing in just a couple of days on, on Sunday, I'm catching the final performance.

It's, it's just a milestone work.

And I'm so glad that our, our friends at Detroit opera are bringing back, bringing that back to life.

And it's a work that deserves to be heard.

And Davone Tines, I think is, is just one of the most interesting and fascinating singers to me.

I, I think his voice is, is so special but he's also so convincing in the way that he interprets music.

- Eric Ronmark is president and CEO of the Detroit Simphony Orchestra.

Eric, thanks for sharing your lineup for the 22-23 season with us.

- Thanks Peter.

Always great talking with you.

- For all of our arts and culture stories go to our website at onedetroitpbs.org.

Thanks to Anthony for having me at his studio.

I'm going to leave you with a performance by dance organization Baira from Detroit Performs Live for Marygrove.

Have a great week, and I'll see you next Monday.

(instrumental music begins) - [Announcer] You can find more at OneDetroitPBS.org or subscribe to our social media channels and sign up for our One Detroit newsletter.

- From Delta faucets to Behr paint Masco corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco serving Michigan communities since 1929.

Support for this program is provided by the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit Public TV, the Kresge Foundation - The DTE foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit Public TV.

Among the state's largest foundations, committed to Michigan focused giving.

We support organizations that are doing exceptional work in our state.

Visit DTEFoundation.com to learn more - Nissan foundation and viewers like you.