The theme “We Bring You the World” played out as Artistic Director Terri Pontremoli intended  --“to share global interpretations of jazz and to experience the influence it has had on musicians from other cultures.” Artist in Residence Jeff “Tain” Watts assembled a “Drum Club” of global percussionists; Angelique Kidjo, Dianne Reeves and Lizz Wright channeled the legacies of Miriam Makeba, Abbey Lincoln, Odetta, Aretha Franklin, Mahalia Jackson and more; the Brazilian connection came to life through Luciana Souza, Vinicius Cantuária and Ivan Lins; Belgian harmonicist Toots Thielmans paired with American pianist Kenny Werner; Regina Carter explored African roots through her Reverse Thread project; Amina Figarova (Azerbaijan), Anat Cohen (Israel), Paquito D’Rivera (Cuba) and Vertical Engine (Japan) brought music to Detroit that infused their native cultures with the already-multicultural stew of American jazz. And American born Vijay Iyer and Sachal Vasandani (India), Helen Sung (Japan) and Sammy Figueroa (Puerto Rico) similarly brought that multi-cultural sensibility to the stage. As always, the heritage of Detroit was well represented, with Curtis Fuller, Geri Allen, Regina Carter, Karriem Riggins, Gerard Gibbs, Kimme Horne, Walt Szymanski, Kathy Kosins and more playing for hometown crowds.  

Friday Night: “Sing the Truth” (Angelique Kidjo, Dianne Reeves, Lizz Wright)

A powerful threesome of vocalists opened the festival to "Sing the Truth"--Diane Reeves, Angelique Kidjo and Lizz Wright, with a band that included Geri Allen on piano, Terri Lynne Carrington on drums and Romero Lubambo on guitar. The trio has performed on a limited tour this summer, honoring the great women of jazz, R&B, gospel and blues. Lizz Wright started off with soaring “So Strong”, Labi Siffre’s anti-apartheid anthem; following a dynamic piano solo from Geri Allen, Reeves delivered the modern spiritual, “I Know Who I Am.” The trio rotated solo’s on Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now,” taken at a slowly emoting pace, while the audience was invited to join in their arrangement of Aretha Franklin’s “Baby I Love You.” Kidjo most notably added flamboyant dance to her voice, while Wright’s “Heart and Soul” was fabulously far removed from the little ditty most of us learned in our first piano lessons. It was a high-spirited, soulful opening night. 

Saturday

Before the storm, there was plenty of jazz, including a double dose of trumpeter Sean Jones fronting the Detroit Civic Jazz Orchestra and leading his own sparkling quintet; the ageless Curtis Fuller with a sexet boasting a St Paul favorite, saxophonist Eric Alexander and his frequent cohort/pianist Mike LeDonne; upstart vibraphonist Warren Wolf and his dynamic “Wolf Pack” with saxophonist Tim Green; the charming and golden-voiced Brazilian Luciana Souza with very sympathetic guitarist Romero Lubambo; the perfect partnership of Kenny Werner and 89-year-old Toots Thielmans. The youngest of a magical pool of vibraphonists at the festival (including Gary Burton and Joe Locke), Warren Wolf was the most physical, yet he shined most brightly on the more restrained and elegant “Senor Mouse,” a duet with pianist Lawrence Fields that recalled Corea and Burton. The ever-young Curtis Fuller seemed to draw energy from his much younger cohorts, particularly Josh Bruneau whose flugelhorn mourned through “Up Jumped Spring” and LeDonne whose piano thundered and rolled through a solo spin on “Round Midnight.” The master trombonist was at his beboppin’ best on his own “The Court.” 

Toots Thielmans and Kenny Werner have been musical partners for years, and their mutual admiration was palpable on such favorites as “Days of Wine and Roses” and “I Loves You Porgy”; “All the Things You Are,” arguably played way too often by too many, was given new life as 89-year-old Toots quoted snippets of other tunes and Kenny’s solo revealed unique voicings and phrasings. Perhaps played too infrequently, the pair offered Jacques Brel’s “Don’t Ever Leave Me,” Werner opening a wide space for Toots to shine. Their scheduled finish was pre-empted by the first wave of storms, but thankfully not before their renditions of “Autumn Leaves,” “The Dolphin” and “One Note Samba.”   

Sunday

Come Sunday, with much cooler temps, some errant sprinkles and a brief afternoon shower, there was no stopping the music.  From Hart Plaza to Campus Mauritius, the gray skies were offset by international colors. In the Talk Tent, Amina Figarova, Anat Cohen, and Yocouba Sissoko discussed jazz in the context of gender, culture and politics. (For Cohen, “music survives political oppression…music is about peace”). On the Pyramid Stage, local favorites Hot Club of Detroit, boasting the most recent Thelonious Monk Sax Competition winner, Jon Irabagon, brought ultra modern edges to the gypsy jazz tradition, and featured special guest, French vocalist Cyrille Aimee, who went “solo” as she engaged in a four-part harmonic experiment with self-generated loops on a song dubbed “501.”  

Surely one of the most exiting sets of the weekend, Anat Cohen and her quartet turned raindrops into steam and turned the Pyramid Stage into a classy jazz club. Anat doesn’t just play clarinet and soprano sax, she literally dances with her instruments. Relatively more subdued but engaging in his own way, saxophonist Steve Wilson and his Wilsonian Grain took us into the evening at the Pyramid with ample support from Orrin Evans, Ugonna Okwego and Clarence Penn. The quartet started out with a swaying “Well You Needn’t” and highlighted the musicians’ composing chops, from Evans’ boppish “Spot It, You Got It” to Okegwo’s prayerful “For You.”  

Another master malletman, Joe Locke elevated the famed Airmen of Note on the Carharrt Stage, where a bit later Artists in Residence Jeff “Tain” Watts rocked the amphitheater with Marcus Strickland, Lawrence Fields, and Christian McBride on Bjork’s “107 Steps” and “Monkey Paw Yelp.” Joe Lovano’s Us Five closed the amphitheater stage with their much-anticipated set, filled with nods to Charlie Parker and the band’s recent release, Bird Songs, but perhaps the best was Lovano’s opening series of virtuosic solo incantations.  

The Mack Avenue Waterfront Stage, the one shady spot along the Detroit River, was nearly ablaze Sunday, with Amina Figarova’s Sextet taking us on a global journey through soaring, original compositions, including the elegant “Four Steps To…, ” the Milesian “Whotsot,” the deep grooving “Ernie’s Song,” and the delightfully lumbering “Breakfast for the Elephant. Detroit native Regina Carter melded African and American roots with her Reverse Thread project featuring kora master Yocouba Sissoko; while virtuosic ham Paquito D’Rivera (with terrific young pianist Alex Brown) and inventive pianist Vijay Iyer (covering Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature”) continued a cross-cultural parade on the waterfront that finished at the Chase Main Stage with the great Brazilian songwriter/singer Ivan Lins. 

Monday

Monday’s early sets were challenging—the weather was cool and generally a relief from the excesses of the weekend, but Labor Day in Detroit means a parade adjacent to the festival grounds, and for the second time in three years, a visit from President Obama that prompted road closures around the perimeter of downtown. (If you have been pondering the purchase of a GPS, this was a defining moment.) Thus Gary Burton’s New Quartet, playing on the Carhartt Stage (too) early in the afternoon, did not draw as well as it should have, but there were many rewards for those in the audience as Burton, Julian Lage, Scott Colley and Antonio Sanchez offered breath-taking tunes from their new Mack Ave release, Common Ground, including “Afro Blue” and Colley’s “Never the Same Way.”

One of the most exciting of the college bands to play at Carhartt, the Northern Illinois University ensemble not only romped through such tunes as “Cottontail” and “On Green Dolphin Street,” but ably supported Paquito D’Rivera and bounced back from a mid-tune drenching when a gust of wind turned the stage’s canvas roof into a sudden waterfall. Later, under drier conditions, guitarist/former Tonight Show bandleader Kevin Eubanks and his quartet (with saxophonist Bill Pierce, bassist Rene Camacho, and drummer Marvin “Smitty” Smith) treated the growing amphitheater crowd to a surging blowing session and some acrobatic string action. 

On the Waterfront Stage, Regina Carter reappeared, this time sitting in the horn section with students from her alma mater, Oakland University. (“This is where I sat when I was a student,” she explained, as there was no violin section in the jazz band. Nor is there today.) The band swung through Thad Jones charts and a Richard Bona tune, Carter taking a few solos but otherwise supporting her young cohorts.  Pianist Helen Sung made her Detroit debut with her Sung With Words project, featuring vocalist Carolyn Leonhart, bassist Reuben Rogers, and drummer Rudy Royston. This was a wide-ranging set, offering the lyrical, cascading original “Hope Springs Eternally” and Sung’s fascinating Philip Glass-inspired “Glasswork,” an abstract composition filled with melodic dissonance. “In Walked Bud” was Monkish and swinging, and the addition of Leonhardt added inventive touches to “It Don’t Mean a Thing.” 

Young vocalists filled the Pyramid Stage mini-arena with song. Returning for his second Detroit festival gig, stylish and hip crooner Sachal Vasandani takes a 40s vibe and gives it a modern edge of melancholy, putting individual stamps on “Monk’s Dream,”  “Love Is a Losing Game,” and Joni Mitchell’s “Don’t Worry About Me.” Think James Taylor as a jazz singer. Later, even younger vocalist/pianist Champian Fulton was a bit over-miked, but her swinging chops were evident on standards like “If I Had You.”  

And More

There was a lot more music throughout the weekend, from local students and local legends to an array of Midwest college big bands to such fast rising national talents as pianist Aaron Diehl, drummer Karrien Riggins and trumpeter Derrick Gardner, as well as the closing Carhartt Stage concert by the Detroit Jazz Festival Orchestra and guest Ernie Andrews performing the music of Christian McBride. If the weather and Secret Service barricades cut down attendance, there was no decline in the spirit of the Detroit Jazz Festival. The official merchandise tent was nearly sold out; there were long lines to purchase CDs and collect autographs at the CD booths; there were generally good crowds at every stage throughout the weekend; the army of orange-shirted festival volunteers kept everyone informed, safe, and orderly, and almost always with a smile.  

There continue to be serious economic and social challenges to the well-being of Detroiters, but to paraphrase Anat Cohen, music survives challenging times.  Once again, Detroit “brought us the world,” with jazz providing the blueprint for global harmony.