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New Orleans is commonly called the cradle of jazz. The early
concentration of the recording industry in New York made that city
the capital of jazz. St. Louis, Chicago, Los Angeles and Kansas
City are all heralded for their distinctive contributions to the
swinging vernacular.
Detroit, too, has played and continues to play an important role.
In the '20s it was a nexus for the development of the big band
jazz style; in the '50s an exodus of Detroit-grown musicians
joined the bebop revolution in New York. Today such Detroiters
as Geri Allen, James Carter
and Kenny Garrett are among the most
widely-praised talents on the scene. Six essays take the story
from the 19th Century to today.
The Beginning: Black Music in Detroit --1850
-1920 by Herb Boyd :
There is no way to determine just when and where jazz began -- or
when it came to Detroit. For many years it was commonly believed
that jazz was born in New Orleans and then moved north via the
Mississippi River. This conclusion is slowly being toppled…
Stompin' at the Graystone: Jazz in Detroit --
1917-1940 by Lars Bjorn :
One of the high points in Detroit's jazz history must have been the
spring of 1927 when you could hear both the McKinney's Cottonpickers
and the Jean Goldkette Orchestra. These two bands were on the
forefront of big band jazz, but in two separate worlds: the black
and the white…
Bebop in Detroit: Nights at the Blue Bird
Inn by Lars Bjorn and Jim Gallert :
In the jazz world, one sure sign of veneration is having tunes
named after you. By that measure Detroit's Blue Bird Inn has made
it…
Black Bottom and Beyond: The View from the '80s
by Herb Boyd:
Detroit's jazz scene is complex, ever-changing and full of sweet
surprise. In its seventy-some years of existence, jazz in Detroit
has pushed beyond the restrictive confines of Black Bottom to
virtually engulf the city…
What the Cultural Warriors Won: A '90s
View by W. Kim Heron:
In one of the triumphant performances of the Montreux-Detroit Jazz
Festival, homeboy saxophonist James Carter took the stage on Sept.
4, 1994, while the audience buzzed with electricity…
Boyd's essays and Bjorn's solo effort first appeared "Detroit Jazz Who's Who" published by the Jazz Research Institute in 1984 and now out of print; the title to Boyd's Black Bottom piece has been changed slightly here. The Bjorn-Gallert essay on the Blue Bird Inn first appeared in 1994 in the official program guide to the 15th annual Montreux-Detroit Jazz Festival. The essays are reprinted with permission of the authors. Heron's piece is new to this exhibit.