The DJF is THIS weekend.Feels like it kinda snuck up on me. There's alot of great acts to see, particularly on Sunday.Benny Golson & Roy Hargrove will be performing.as wells many others.Monday will see The Derek Trucks Band & The Heath Brothers.Hope to see some of you guys down there.


Grumpy this means you....



David

See you Sunday, bud. Gonna be a great time.

I'm going to try to make down for the Derek Trucks Band too.

Great stuff, have the big fun guys! :)


Carl

I really enjoyed the 29th annual Detroit Jazz Festival. David and I had a great time. We arrived on Sunday around 2 pm and had a few brews at a local pub. At 3 pm it was off to the Here & Now Stage for the Brubeck Institute Jazz Quartet w/ Christian McBride. After that we moved down to the Carhartt Amphitheater for Ravi Coltrane's tribute to Alice Coltrane with Charlie Haden, Jack DeJohnette and Geri Allen. Didn't stay long as we had to get good seats for what I really wanted to see, Benny Golson. The walk to the Absopure Waterfront Stage took only a few minutes and we found ourselves in the second row. Great set and very informative with Benny's between tune dialogue. I only wished he had played Killer Joe (I'll get to that later.). Roy Hargrove followed at the same stage (we moved to the first row) and brought the house down. By far the cookingest :) set yet. This band was hot. Had the whole crowd screamin'. After that we tried to see some of Kenny Burrell with the Gerald Wilson Orchestra but they were very late on stage and we got tired. We did see Kenny perform though.

Monday brought us a new day. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera so there's no photos. Day started at 1:45 pm with local legend Johnny Allen and his Trio which ended up being a quartet with the most marvelous saxophonist. Up to that point the sound systems hadn't been that great but this performance at the Mack Ave. Records Pyramid Stage (our first time at this stage) sounded so good. They had it dialed in and these old dudes cooked. Wow! Off to the Waterfront Stage again for the Kenny Barron Trio. If you haven't seen Kenny Barron do so . His Asain bass player was amazing. After that we caught the Temple Univerity Jazz Band with Benny Golson. Oh yeah, another chance for Benny and as luck would have it, they played Killer Joe. Highlight of my day. Next was the Gerald Clayton Trio but we could only stay 15 minutes. A bummer but we wanted to get good seats for Derek Trucks. Anyway, Gerald is the pianist from Roy Hargrove's band and he has his own little trio and is simple fantastic. Man, this youngster can play a piano. Really hated to leave so soon. Which brings me to Derek Trucks. We got to the Chase Main Stage around 5:40. Show started at 6:00 and it was getting crowded. David and I got seats twenty or thirty rows back in the center. Derek Trucks and his band went on to perform the most amazing blues performance I'd ever seen. The crowd, middled aged and pony tailed, were more than enthusiastic. Freakin' great show. Man, can Derek play that slide guitar. He was awesome.

That was the end of our Jazz Festival. At 7:30 pm we left Detroit and had dinner around 8:pm in Milford. I look forward to next year's event.

Darren

Oh sure rub it in. Last minute plans found me at my grand daughters 2nd B day party...

I spent the weekend up north helping work on my parents new cottage. The DJF would have been much more fun.

Great mix of talent,from the up 'n' comers, to the seasoned vets,for me it was a learning experience.I had thought that Roy Hargrove was an old-timer,but no he turned out to be in his late thirties.He has what looks to a very cool catalog to explore.His pianist, Gerald Clayton is an up 'N' comer,watch for him he's gonna be great.What can I say about the Derek Trucks Band,he did a cover of The Derek & The Dominoes song "Anyday"that totally blew me away with his slide playing,Something for everyone....