(inspiring music) - Tell me about the 46th, the 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 in the world.

It is completely admission free.

- [Stephen] It is free.

- All the venues and 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- - 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 you can actually park here.

- Yeah, right.

- Go to the festival, - And go back home.

- come back for the evening things and then be on your way.

And we're 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, the great legends, our incredible world-class Detroit artists and some blending of the two, all different generations.

Some real surprises.

I mean, our Artist-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 electronic and jazz.

- I was gonna say, techno.

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

And Chucho Valdes and Paquito D'Rivera together, 80 years of a 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?

- Yeah.

- 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.

I have a couple of 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, 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 it'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 an artistic threshold and a 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 there's... We're keeping big overhead.

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

It's about infusing the art along the way.

So it's all about 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, the financial side has to be first and foremost in order to avoid that $20, $50 ticket at the door.

So, 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, (artists chuckling) - Yeah, yeah.

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

I just swoon- - Thank you.

- When you are on stage.

- Aw.

- And so, I'm really excited that you're a 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 the 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.

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 God brother, so we've known each other since birth.

- Oh, I didn't know that.

- Yes.

Yes.

His father's my godfather.

- Wow.

We've just 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.

So, we talk a lot about music and everything and he's a fantastic saxophonist, pianist.

He's a producer of several records for the great vocalist, Gregory Porter, for which he has 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 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 Kenn Cox work.

And then, I have with me, two people that are in my regular band, my band Legacy, the great Steve Wood, a fantastic saxophonist and educator.

And Tim Blackman on trumpet.

And then, we have with me two of the young folks coming up.

The next ups.

One being my son, Tariq Gardner, on drums.

So I'm always happy to have that generation, all the 20 somethings.

And then, even younger than he, Kamau's great protege, Kahlil Childs.

A 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.

- Let's present everything and authentically.

- 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.

(chuckles) I guess.

- Yeah.

- 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.

But his birthday is around Labor Day weekend, and he's always going to the jazz fest and I've always accompanied him- - You go with him, right.

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

- Yeah.

- And then they started...

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 Fest.

(both laughing) I've been right there.

- Yeah.

- And it's a full circle moment to be there with my own group.

- Yeah.

- What drew you to the drum?

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 and anything I could get my hands on is getting beat.

- Just beating on it?

- I really couldn't stop myself.

But I think for me, when I play 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 blues scale.

(Stephen laughing) That's about it.

But drums, I really feel like it's an extension of myself.

- Yeah.

- So I love it.

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

He's 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.

- [Stephen] Oh wow.

- Yeah, he's really out there.

- Yeah, no, that's really great.

(all laughing) And Chris, he's been working PR for you as well.

(Louis laughs) - Right.

- 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.

(all chuckling) But the poster.

We always reveal the poster here on "ABJ".

And I love that we do that, 'cause I never see it before the show either.

So, I'm in the same seat as the viewers here.

- Well, great.

- 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 the story.

And we go... You know, there's international artists, the youth artist, 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 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 beautiful, artistic, meaningful, but still very descriptive of the moment.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

They're always great, so I'm sitting here just anticipating- - Yes, all right.

- What it's gonna be.

- Well, is it time?

- It's time.

- Let's do it.

Drum roll.

(hands chittering) - Yeah, that's right.

- There it is.

- The 2025 Detroit Jazz Festival poster.

(Louis mimic cymbal clash) - Oh, look at that.

- Oh!

- [Stephen] Oh, I love that.

- [Marion] Fabulous.

- [Louis] I love the O.

- I love the O, right?

- Yeah, the O is awesome.

- Right?

With the O record?

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

- Yeah.

- For 45 years.

- [Stephen] For 45.

- Anyone who's into vinyl.