Music In Homes: Gayelynn McKinney McKinfolk Septet
TENTATIVELY rescheduled to June 16, 2021 due to concerns about the safety and preventing the spread of COVID-19.
Garden Concert
Gifted, multi-genre percussionist/composer Gayelynn McKinney grew up in a home enveloped in music, a hub for some of Detroit’s most important jazz musicians. Her Dad, jazz master pianist/composer Harold McKinney, her mom, opera and jazz singer Gwendolyn Shepherd McKinney, along with jazz luminaries Marcus Belgrave, Wendell Harrison, George Davidson, Max Roach, and other friends and fellow artists, filled their home with music and passion from sunup to sundown.
By age two, Gayelynn had her own drum set, and knew her path followed the magic of music. This journey has led her to multiple awards, including the 2014 Kresge Arts Fellowship, and recently to become Aretha Franklin’s drummer. She is well known for the Grammy-nominated work with her all-female Atlantic recording jazz band Straight Ahead, and has performed as a side musician with notables such as Geri Allen, Marcus Belgrave, Chaka Kahn, Sonny Fortune, Larry Coryell, James Carter, Regina Carter, Freda Payne, and many others. She has performed all over the globe from the Kennedy Center and 1996 Olympics, to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and Montreux-Switzerland Jazz Festival.
On this Father’s Day weekend it is an honor to showcase Gayelynn’s McKinFolk, an ensemble that rekindles and celebrates the music and mentorship of her beloved dad, the late jazz legend Harold McKinney. “You’re gonna hear some of my father’s great compositions and have a good time just listening to the interpretations of his music.” Gayelynn told the MetroTimes preceding her performance at the 2017 Detroit Jazz Festival. “It’ll be a little bit of funkiness, definitely some swinging-ness, and some wonderful, beautiful ballads that he wrote.”
Her Dad’s music, along with her own compositions and selection of jazz classics will be featured on the Palmer Woods concert, as well as on a soon to be released recording for Detroit Music Factory, McKinFolk: The New Beginning.
McKinney’s stellar group includes long time partner from Straight Ahead, bassist Marion Hayden (see page 27 for info on Hayden) vocalist and step-momMichelle McKinney, trumpeter Dwight Adams, uniquely expressive trombonist Vincent Chandler, and some of Detroit’s younger rising stars, tenor saxophonist Alex Colista and pianist Michael Malis.
It will be a perfect Father’s Day concert celebration.
Tickets: $50; VIP seating in front rows with additional leg room: $60.
