Saturday, April 24, 8pm
Concert sponsor: Be Well Medical Center

Feet On The Street Tours is offering a special package with transportation from Southfield for this concerts. Visit www.FeetOnTheStreetTours.com or call (248) 353-8687.

By Larry Gabriel, www.gumbospot.com, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  

Led by congero Ozzie Rivera and music director-pianist Bill Meyer, Orquesta La Inspiracion is the hottest Latin band in the Motor City. This 10-piece unit, featuring the golden voices of Mickey Figueroa and Armando Vega, fuses local salsa and jazz veterans with new voices into a musical tour de force. They specialize in music derived from the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and a mix of Yoruban, Congolese, and Dahomaen elements. While honoring these traditions, they forge innovative Latin music for a new generation.

Flutist Eric Lamb with Pianist Paul Vasile
Saturday, May 22, 8pm

Feet On The Street Tours is offering a special package with transportation from Southfield for this concerts. Visit www.FeetOnTheStreetTours.com or call (248) 353-8687.

By Larry Gabriel, www.gumbospot.com, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   

Can it be anything else but Spring with the sounds of flute and piano singing through the greenery? Eric Lamb and Paul Vasile are more than capable of accompanying Mother Nature while she spreads the warmth and beauty of the new season around us. The first set will take on some big works for flute and piano by Mozart, Schubert, Doppler and Bach. The second set features more contemporary works by Debussy, Barber and Saint-Saens. Our musicians bring these classical masters to life in a stunning hall, surrounded by stained glass and especially designed for chamber music.

JAZZ FEST in the WOODS

Friday & Saturday, June 25-26, 8 pm
Sunday, June 27, 2 pm
Concert sponsor: Creative Arts Collective

By Larry Gabriel, www.gumbospot.com, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  
Photo by Barbara Barefield

Our own internationally known jazz guitarist A. Spencer Barefield joins with bassist Dave Young and drummer Djallo Djakate Keita to collaborate with three Detroit jazz greats.

• Friday will feature a Tribute to the Trumpet Masters with the dynamic Rayse Biggs. Read more
  
• Saturday’s star is saxophonist David McMurray. Read more
  
• Sunday’s Grand Finale features Jazz Master saxophonist-clarinetist Wendell Harrison. Read more

The core rhythm section for the weekend is a headline group all on its own. Detroiter-composer Barefield has been a lion in creating and breathing life into the Creative Arts Collective since the 1970s, garnering grants from the Lila Wallace Readers’ Digest fund, the National Endowment of the Arts, Michigan Council of the Arts, Arts Midwest and others. He’s toured and recorded extensively with musical explorers such as Roscoe Mitchell, Oliver Lake, Andrew Cyrille and Richard Davis. His compositions and ensembles have molded soul, jazz, avant garde, classical and African traditions into a bold pastiche that refuses to be bound by expectations. A reviewer in JazzTimes magazine referred to Barefield’s style as melding “Segovia and Jimi Hendrix into a startling jazz lexicon.”

JAZZ FEST in the WOODS
Rayse Biggs: Tribute to Trumpet Masters

Friday, June 25, 8 pm
Concert sponsor: Creative Arts Collective

By Larry Gabriel, www.gumbospot.com, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  
Photo by Barbara Barefield

Our own internationally known jazz guitarist A. Spencer Barefield joins with bassist Dave Young and drummer Djallo Djakate Keita to collaborate with trumpeter Rayse Biggs.

A dynamic horn player who’s known for his dual horn-playing techniques, Biggs will play works by Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, Dizzy Gillespie, Lee Morgan, Clifford Brown and more.

Biggs, who came out of Marcus Belgrave’s Jazz Development Workshop, has worked with Freddie Hubbard, Dizzy Gillespie and the rock bands Was (Not Was) and Kid Rock, among others. His performances are captivating as he illuminates ears and souls with audible works of art.

 
JAZZ FEST in the WOODS
Groove with Sax Virtuoso David McMurray

Saturday, June 26, 8 pm
Concert sponsor: Creative Arts Collective

By Larry Gabriel, www.gumbospot.com, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  
Photo by Barbara Barefield

Our own internationally known jazz guitarist A. Spencer Barefield joins with bassist Dave Young and drummer Djallo Djakate Keita to collaborate with saxophonist Dave McMurray.

Saturday’s guest, saxophonist David McMurray, joins with his longtime associates and fellow quartet members to perform works from the Spencer Barefield Quartet repertoire of originals and works by Thelonius Monk, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus and more.

McMurray, a bandleader with several releases of his own, has played and toured with a startling variety of performers — Geri Allen, Terrance Blanchard, Albert King, Herbie Hancock, Bob James, Mark Isham, Don Was, the B52s, Bonny Raitt, Gladys Knight, Griot Galaxy, Kem, Was Not Was, the Rolling Stones, Kid Rock and others.

JAZZ FEST in the WOODS
Grand Finale with Horn Master Wendell Harrison

Sunday, June 27, 2 pm
Concert sponsor: Creative Arts Collective

By Larry Gabriel, www.gumbospot.com, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Photo by Riva Sayegh, www.riva sayegh.com

Our own internationally known jazz guitarist A. Spencer Barefield joins with bassist Dave Young and drummer Djallo Djakate Keita to collaborate with saxophonist Wendell Harrison.

Sunday’s show features reedman Wendell Harrison, cofounder of Detroit’s legendary Tribe collective — recently revived with the backing of techno impressario Carl Craig.
Harrison came up In Detroit’s storied bebop scene in the late 1950s. For a decade he worked from a New York base, playing with the likes of Big Maybelle, Betty Carter, Sun Ra, Grant Green, Eddie Harris, Hank Crawford and others.

Harrison pioneered a modern movement of clarinet composition, performance and recording during the 1980s and was named a Michigan Jazz Master by Arts Midwest in 1993. In addition to the recent revival of avant-funk fun with Tribe, Harrison is active on the licorice stick playing traditional swing

Thornetta had people singing, dancing and cheering at her recent Palmer Woods concert! Now our Detroit-based star is going global:

THORNETTA GOES TO MEMPHIS, with your help!
The Mid-North Michigan Blues Society asks all Thornetta fans to help raise funds so that she can represent Michigan and compete at The International Blues Challenge in Memphis January 21, 22, 23, 2010. More about the Challenge: www.blues.org and www.mnmbs.org Donations can be mailed to: The Mid-North Michigan Blues Society (non-profit 501-C3), P.O. Box 351 • Vanderbilt, MI 49795.

Vocalist Thornetta Davis with
Guitarist A. Spencer Barefield & Bassist Don Mayberry
Saturday, December 26, 2009, 8pm
Concert sponsor: Doss Foundation

By Larry Gabriel, www.gumbospot.com, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   
Photo by Cybelle Codish

It certainly would be a blue Christmas without Motor City Blues Queen Thornetta Davis to warm things up around the fireplace. Her powerful voice could be the best present of all these holidays. This past July Davis brightened up the Concert of Colors Detroit all-star showcase by headlining her own set, and backing up such legends as ? of the Mysterians as well as Sir Mack Rice as he took Mustang Sally out for another dream cruise.

Saturday, January 30, 8pm

By Larry Gabriel, www.gumbospot.com, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  
Photo by Barbara Barefield

When Dwight Adams calls out Mardi Gras on his trumpet, it connects the entire history of jazz from old New Orleans right up to today. That’s the mark of an accomplished musician who puts it all together. Not bad for a guy who didn’t start playing music until he was in high school. He quickly made up for lost time and moved quickly up the ranks of local brass blowers. Adams’ savory sound began simmering in the spicy Detroit jazz stew when he joined Teddy Harris’ New Breed Bebop Society at age 16 in 1981.

Sunday, February  28, 7pm
Concert sponsor: Elegance By Design

By Larry Gabriel, www.gumbospot.com, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   

Black History month is even more meaningful when great composers such as Duke Ellington, William Grant Still, Scott Joplin, and Detroit’s own Rick Robinson get the spotlight. These legendary composers get the string treatment with the Lotus Ensemble — violinists Joseph Striplin and Velda Kelly, bassist Rick Robinson and violist John Madison, as they bow away the blues on a cold winter evening. Striplin and Robinson are members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Kelly and Madison play in the Michigan Opera Theatre Orchestra, as well as regularly with the DSO.