Palmer Woods Music in Homes showcases the best of Detroit’s jazz, classical and world-music artists — musicians with international acclaim — in the ambiance of magnificent Palmer Woods mansions and cool homes.

Nine concerts will be held from Saturday, December 26, 2009  through our three-day Jazz Fest on June 25, 26 and 27, 2010. Outstanding music, captivating homes and luscious treats to delight your palate. Nine evenings to treasure in Detroit’s wooded oasis, Palmer Woods!

For information on concert and transportation packages to some of our concerts through Feet On the Street Tours, click here. 

If you have more questions, please call
Barbara or Spencer Barefield, 313-891-2514
or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  

2009-2010 MUSIC in HOMES CONCERTS

Saturday, March 27, 8 pm
Nadim Dlaikan’s Dearborn Traditional Ensemble
Some of the best traditional Middle Eastern music in the world can be heard right here in metro-Detroit, home to one of the largest Arabic populations in North America. Flutist Nadim Dlaikan and oud player Abdu Karim Bader, National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellows, join with tabla player Mustapha Atat to share the beautiful melodies and engaging rhythms of their ancestors. Although this music has graced the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., we can enjoy it in the entrancing intimacy of our own series, in the aura of an elegant, spacious manor. Read more

Saturday, April 24, 8 pm
Orquesta La Inspiracion
Led by Puerto Rican-born 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 into a musical tour de force. They honor the traditions of merengue, cumbia and Afro-Caribbean jazz while forging new directions in Latin music. When these beats start to percolate don’t be surprised if a bit of that inspiration gets into your hips. Sway in the grandeur of one of our most alluring homes. Read more

Saturday, May 22, 8 pm 
Flutist Eric Lamb & Pianist Paul Vasile
Can it be anything else but Spring with the music of Mozart, Schubert, Doppler, Bach, Debussy, Barber and Saint-Saens? Lamb and Vasile are more than capable of bringing these classical masters to life in a stunning hall, surrounded by stained glass and especially designed for chamber music. Detroit-born Lamb, a core member of New York’s International Contemporary Ensemble, recently returned from Germany, where he soloed and performed with many of Europe’s most celebrated ensembles and orchestras. Vasile, Minister of Music at Park Avenue Christian Church in NYC, takes the fusion of music and spirituality to a higher plane. Read more

JAZZ FEST in the WOODS

Friday & Saturday, June 25-26, 8 pm
Sunday, June 27, 2 pm
Spencer Barefield & Friends
at the Frank Lloyd Wright-Turkel home
Our own acclaimed jazz guitarist A. Spencer Barefield joins with Juno award winner bassist Dave Young and drummer Djallo Keita to team up with three of Detroit’s jazz greats in a world-famous abode. Read more

Friday, June 25, 8 pm:
Tribute to Trumpet Masters with Rayse Biggs
Rayse Biggs, a dynamic horn player who’s worked with Freddie Hubbard, Dizzy Gillespie and the rock bands Was (Not Was) and Kid Rock, will play works by Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, Dizzy Gillespie, Lee Morgan, Clifford Brown and more. Read more

Saturday, June 26, 8 pm:
Grove with Sax Virtuoso David McMurray
Saxophonist David McMurray, international recording artist, Bob James, Kid Rock and Kem sideman, and a longtime Barefield collaborator, will play originals from the Barefield Quartet repertoire and works by Thelonius Monk, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus and more. Read more

Sunday, June 27, 2 pm, Grand Finale:
Horn Master Wendell Harrison
Jazz Master saxophonist-clarinetist Wendell Harrison, a Sun Ra alumnus and cofounder of the legendary Tribe collective, has worked with jazz giants Grant Green, Eddie Harris and many others. Recently he has been performing with Carl Craig and the Tribe project. He will present originals and works from the many greats he has played with. Read more

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.

SOLD OUT! Saturday, Dec. 26, 8 pm
Thornetta Davis Trio
The holidays would certainly be blue without Motor City Blues Queen Thornetta Davis to warm things up in a breathtaking Old English Castle. Davis’s powerful voice has helped keep the local Blues, R&B and Soul scene alive for more than two decades and earned her a spot in the Detroit Music Hall of Fame. She’s graced the stage with the likes of Kid Rock, Bonnie Raitt and Katie Webster, and on the sound track of HBO’s Sopranos. International jazz stars Spencer Barefield, guitar, and Don Mayberry, bass, help her keep the season jazzy and merry. Read more

SOLD OUT!
Sat., Jan. 30, 8 pm
Dwight Adams Ensemble Mardi Gras Celebration
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. Adams’s savory sound began simmering in Detroit’s jazz stew when he joined Teddy Harris’s New Breed Bebop Society at age 16 in 1981. Since then he’s become a regular in Stevie Wonder’s touring band and recorded with the likes of James Carter, Marcus Belgrave and Rodney Whitaker — not to mention stirring things up with his own ensembles. Celebrate Mardi Gras in one of our most magnificent and palatial homes. Read more

Sunday, February 28, 7 pm
Lotus Ensemble with Joe Striplin,
Velda Kelly, Rick Robinson, & John Madison
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 receive the spotlight. They get the string treatment with violinists Joseph Striplin and Velda Kelly, bassist Rick Robinson and violist John Madison. Striplin and Robinson, more regularly heard with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and Kelly and Madison, with the Michigan Opera Theatre Orchestra and DSO, will bow away the blues in a exquisitely-crafted Tudor. The Takeaway’s new star radio host Celeste Headlee, Grant Still’s granddaughter, will join us. Read more