Labor Day Weekend and Detroit are inseparably linked, given that city’s working-class history. The holiday is often celebrated in Motown by the Detroit Jazz Festival, and this 47th anniversary featured such notable musicians as Ravi Coltrane, Ron Carter, Cindy Blackman Santana, Kurt Elling, Catherine Russell, Bob James, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Joe Lovano, who was the event’s artist in residence.
You’d better believe Lovano worked overtime, performing at several events; most significantly with his quartet — drummer Will Calhoun, bassist Asante Santi Debriano, and guitarist Julian Lage. Each tune was remarkably rendered, including their interpretation of Wayne Shorter’s composition “Lady Day.”
The intricate interplay between Lage and Calhoun was particularly engrossing. Equally rewarding was Coltrane and his quartet — the old expression about the fruit not falling from the tree was given fresh currency when Ravi and crew lit into “Countdown,” one of his father’s great recordings.
Drummer Johnathan Blake, during his solo, matched the explosions exuded from Ravi’s tenor saxophone. The horns of Lovano and Coltrane were like a fanfare to my homecoming as I worked my way through the crowd, encountering many old friends and former students from Wayne State University.
In a brief interview with Lovano, he summed up the occasion, noting that “this festival is absolutely amazing, when you consider the turnout and the number of world class musicians here. I don’t think there’s anything like this anywhere and I am proud to be part of it.”
