Music In Homes: Memorial Day Weekend: Detroit Jazz Ambassadors

Garden Concert (tour a portion of the home prior to concert)
Dave McMurray, saxophones • A. Spencer Barefield, guitar • Dwight Adams, trumpet • Jeff Pedraz, bass • Djallo Djakate, drums

We know it’s been a long winter, so we’ve planned a dynamic way to celebrate the beginning of the summertime season with a quintet of fierce, fabulous and world-renown jazz musicians.

Saxophonist David McMurray’s Music Is Life was released last May on the legendary Blue Note label and is receiving rave reviews. “McMurray delivers solos with gritty intensity and a blunt attack, and he avoids music-school patterns and jazz-funk clichés in favor of more idiosyncratic ideas,” writes Mark Stryker in DownBeat. Blue Note describes McMurray as having “cemented his reputation for versatility by playing with a vast array of musicians that include B.B. King, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, Bonnie Raitt, Johnny Hallyday, Gladys Knight, Albert King, Nancy Wilson, KEM, Bootsy Collins, Herbie Hancock, Geri Allen, and Bob James.

“McMurray sounds as assured and inspired in a rock, R&B, funk, pop or folk setting as he does playing hard bop.” His credits also include the trailblazing groups Was (Not Was) and Griot Galaxy.

Soul, R&B  and jazz inspired trumpeter Dwight Adams tours with Stevie Wonder’s band, but in between he has performed and recorded in ensembles some of Detroit’s top musicians, including Gayelynn McKinney, James Carter, Marcus Belgrave, Donald Walden, and Rodney Whitaker.

A. Spencer Barefield, the artistic director of Music in Homes, is “an extraordinary guitarist/composer” according to JazzTimes. A widely acclaimed guitarist, soloist, composer and ensemble leader, Barefield has performed and recorded extensively throughout Europe, Canada, the U.S. and elsewhere with jazz greats Roscoe Mitchell, Lester Bowie, Oliver Lake, Richard Davis, Andrew Cyrille, James Carter, Leroy Jenkins, and Reggie Workman, to name a few.

His recordings have received international acclaim, and he has received numerous grants and honors, including the prestigious 2010 Kresge Artist Fellowship. His compositions have been commissioned by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet-the-Composer/Readers Digest/Lila Wallace Fund, Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, Arts Foundation of Michigan, Meet-the-Composer/Commission USA, Arts International, and others.

Jeff Pedraz is a native of Philadelphia, and yet another outstanding composer/educator. While there, he worked with jazz luminaries, such as drummer Mickey Roker, saxophonist Cecil Payne and others. He has toured internationally with jazz guitar legend Pat Martino. In the faculty of the University of Windsor, Pedraz is known for his versatility and virtuousity on both the double bass and electric bass. A sought after bassist, he has worked in a range of musical genres ranging from orchestral to jazz and beyond.

Well respected for his versatility, Djallo Djakate is one of the most in-demand drummers, equally at home hitting the bebop rhythms as he is playing techno, reggae, gospel, avant garde or blues. He’s performed countless gigs at the Detroit Jazz Festival, as well as at the Montreux Tokyo International Jazz Festival and the Detroit Electronic Music Festival. He has toured and recorded internationally with Marcus Belgrave, Charlie Gabriel, Harvey Thompson, Alvin Waddles and many others. 

Along with guitarist A. Spencer Barefield, organist Jim Alfredson and drummer Djallo Djakate, this ensemble will perform music filled with imagination, innovation and virtuosity. 

Tickets: $50; VIP seating in front rows with additional leg room: $60.