A city that needs a big break from the slow and painful legal drama surrounding its mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, Detroit is about to get one when its four-day heavy-hitting jazz festival starts off at 5:15 p.m., with the Duke Ellington School of Performance Arts Jazz Ensemble taking one of its six stages.

The Detroit Jazz Festival, almost into its fourth decade (this year witnesses the 29th annual edition), is filled to the brim with performers forming complete spectrums of both visibility in the local, regional and national jazz scenes as well as the various denominations of jazz.  Read more »

When a music festival chooses "A Love Supreme" as their tagline, that festival's lineup better be as big time as the nerve it takes to adopt the name of John Coltrane's quintessential soul searching masterpiece-no second chairs or stand in players allowed.  In the case of the Detroit International Jazz Festival, the name is not only apt, but seems as natural a fit as when Trane put his lips to that first saxaphone reed.

“I’m using the word ‘love’ (to describe) this (festival) a lot,” festival Executive and Artistic Director Terri Pontremoli says in a recent article from C and G News.  And with good reason.  Read more »