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A diverse crowd cheer The Blind Boys of Alabama performing during the Detroit Jazz Festival by Knight Foundation – Wikimedia Commons
Top 10 Facts about the Detroit Jazz Festival
The Detroit Jazz Festival is a free jazz festival held every year during Labor Day Weekend at Hart Plaza and Campus Martius Park in Detroit, Michigan. The festival began in 1980. Until 2000, it was known as the Montreux-Detroit Jazz Festival. The festival again changed names in 2005, becoming the Detroit International Jazz Festival after Ford Motor Company removed its sponsorship.
In January 2006 Gretchen Valade, Chairman of Mack Avenue Records founded the Detroit International Jazz Festival Foundation, which took over production and management of the festival. Since 2012 the festival has been called the Detroit Jazz Festival. Performers have included Dave Brubeck, Gary Burton, Regina Carter, Chick Corea, Dave Holland, Joe Lovano, The Manhattan Transfer, Wynton Marsalis, Pat Metheny, Mulgrew Miller, Paquito d’Rivera, Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter, Take 6, and Tower of Power.
Here are 10 facts about the Detroit Jazz Festival.
1. The Detroit Jazz Festival is the world’s largest free Jazz Festival
The Detroit Jazz Festival is a free jazz festival held every year during Labor Day Weekend at Hart Plaza and Campus Martius Park in Detroit, Michigan. It has an audience of 325,000 people over the course of the four days, thus setting the world record for being the World’s Largest Free Jazz Festival, according to the World Record Academy.
2. The Detroit Jazz Festival has been happening for over 40 years
Sharel Cassity on-stage at the Detroit Jazz Festival in 2014 by Jeff Dunn – Wikimedia Commons
The Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation has celebrated Detroit’s rich history of jazz music by providing year-round concerts and educational programming for over 40 years.
They have been organizing the world’s largest free Jazz festival, featuring world-class talent, over Labor Day weekend
3. It costs about four to five million dollars to hold the Detroit Jazz Festival annually
With the support of corporate sponsors, philanthropic organizations, individual donors, and volunteers, the Detroit Jazz Festival is free to music fans looking to revel in the artistry and improvisation of jazz legends, rising stars, legacy, and homecoming artists. Having over 400,000 people attend a free jazz festival every year without fail is no small feat, however, a lot of monetary resources are dedicated to this cause.
Keeping the event free for visitors is no easy task. Four to five million dollars need to be raised each year to make this event happen.
4. The Detroit Jazz Festival was first held in 1980
Hart Plaza which is the venue of the annual Detroit Jazz Festival by Pchampion3 – Wikimedia Commons
The Detroit International Jazz Festival was founded in 1980 by Robert McCabe and the Detroit Renaissance. Along with the Detroit Grand Prix and the International Freedom Festival, the Festival was intended to bring people into the city and to provide all segments of the population with world-class entertainment.
From 1980 to 1991, the Festival flourished through a partnership with the highly regarded international jazz festival in Montreux, Switzerland. In 1991, the Festival merged with Detroit’s Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts, where it resided until September 2005.
5. The Detroit Jazz Festival lasts four days over the Labor Day weekend
Labor Day is a federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday in September to honor and recognize the American labor movement and the work and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the United States.
The three-day weekend it falls on is called Labor Day Weekend. The Detroit Jazz Festival is always scheduled to happen during this weekend. It is held in the streets of the city, so the city is their backdrop.
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6. The Detroit Jazz Festival is managed and produced by the Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation
Sonny Rollins at Detroit Jazz Festival by NYCultureBeat – Wikimedia Commons
This is a non-profit organization formed in 2006. Through the generosity of Detroit philanthropist and Mack Avenue Records Chairman Gretchen Valade, the Foundation also established a significant endowment to support Festival operations.
The staff and advisory committee continuously work to raise the balance of operating costs through corporate partnerships, contributions, and earned-income opportunities.
7. Jazz musician Chris Collins was appointed to run the Detroit Jazz Festival
Looking to attract new audiences to jazz and the Festival, in 2011, jazz musician Chris Collins was appointed as artistic director and has since taken on the role of president of the Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation.
With Collins’ vision and the support of the Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation Board of Directors, led by Chair Gretchen Valade the Foundation has continued to integrate new and exciting artistic elements and opportunities into the signature event, in addition to year-round programming.
8. The Festival is held to celebrate the rich Detroit Jazz heritage
Stefon Harris 30th Detroit International Jazz Festival by Marek Lazarski – Wikimedia Commons
From an artistic perspective, Detroit and jazz have a symbiotic relationship that few cities can brag about. It’s an amazing collection of artists: Joe Henderson, Donald Burke, Kenny Burrell, Pepper Adams, The Jones Brothers, and so on.
It’s an amazing part of the jazz heritage. So, there’s a legacy that infects every jazz artist, and in fact, every citizen of the area. It’s in the DNA of Detroit. To have a jazz festival here, it’s not just about having a jazz festival in the city of Detroit. It’s the Detroit Jazz Festival, which for jazzers and patrons and everybody, that represents something very special.
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9. The Jazz Festival Foundation works with community outreach programs
The Jazz Festival Foundation works year-round with various educational and community outreach programs, performances, and opportunities to engage communities and artists. Much of this culminates at the festival.
They created a competition for young people, up to 18 years old. They culminate at the festival, everyone hears the winner each year. They not only get cash, but they get coaching to prepare for their festival performance. Many of those young people have gone on to wonderful professional careers.
10. In 2020, they introduced the Detroit Jazz Festival Live
To try to amplify the Festival beyond Detroit, they added something called Detroit Jazz Festival Live, thanks to the Doris Duke Foundation.
They have an app that allows patrons at the festival or anyone throughout North America to stream on any mobile device, Apple TV, phone, or any other device, all four stages all four days in real-time. It’s free to register for the app and it’s ten dollars for the whole weekend.
They say that this is a way of not only giving something to people on the footprint or maybe those who can’t leave their home because maybe they’re not feeling well or they have a physical disability or someone who’s just not in town to not only experience the jazz but to experience the culture of Detroit.
