There have been plenty of virtual concerts across the U.S. and around the world since the coronavirus pandemic set in earlier this year.
But there hasn’t been anything quite like the show the Detroit Jazz Festival is about to pull off.
Starting tonight, the jazz fest will present four days of performances — all live — to air on digital and broadcast platforms. On Saturday, Sunday and Monday, that means 12 hours daily of continuous music, staged from a carefully controlled environment in the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center.
No living-room sets streamed from a cell phone. No prerecorded performances. No slapped-together mishmash of artists. Instead, festival officials vow they’re serving up a slick, high-end, live production that will be grabbing the attention of jazz lovers well beyond Detroit.
The Detroit Jazz Festival will be streamed in its entirety on the fest’s Facebook, Instagram and YouTube channels, along with the Detroit Jazz Fest LIVE! digital app. It will also be broadcast by WDET-FM (101.9), WEMU-FM (89.1) and WRCJ-FM (90.9), and at fox2detroit.com.
The opening-night performance by saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, one of the few out-of-towners heading into Detroit for the occasion, will air at 9:30 p.m. Friday on Detroit Public Television.
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It’s a gargantuan effort. After months of intricate planning, the setup began Sunday at the RenCen, where three stages have been built, including one with the Detroit River as backdrop. Each is equipped with a full battery of lighting and sound, with three cameras per stage and a mobile crane cam. Two miles of fiber-optic cable have been laid through the facility.
“This will be an immersive event,” said jazz fest director Chris Collins, who described this year’s Detroit-heavy lineup as a “back to our roots” experience.
“The stages are absolutely mind-blowing. It looks like three huge television sets,” Collins said. “It’s very different, very exciting.”
Strict safety guidelines have been instituted for performers and crew. No one is allowed inside the bubble without a temperature check and online COVID-19 training program. Artists who are participating in multiple sets during the weekend will stay in hotel rooms on-site.
No stage will host back-to-back performances, allowing each one to be disinfected between sets.
Like other big music events amid the pandemic, most festivals across the country called it quits for 2020. The Detroit fest — marking its 41st year — is the only major jazz festival that’s still a go in any substantial form.
The Detroit Jazz Festival was uniquely positioned for the pivot. As a free event not reliant on ticket sales, the fest is funded by sponsors and benefactors such as billionaire Gretchen Valade, whose endowment has kept the organization financially flush.
Despite the lack of audience at the RenCen, the event is long-awaited relief for participating musicians, many of whom haven’t performed publicly for six months.
Detroit clarinetist-pianist Dave Bennett, scheduled to play Sunday with his quartet, calls it a beautiful moment.
“People are so starved to have some kind of interaction and lifting of the spirits with music,” he said. “Us too. Three months of playing to four walls will make you pull your hair out.”
Bennett has managed fairly steady work since June, including some out-of-state appearances, albeit in scaled down, socially distanced settings.
The jazz fest’s undertaking has sown a sense of goodwill and gratefulness, he said.
“We can go, we can play, have some fun, earn a paycheck and everybody’s happy,” he said. “It’s a huge step in the right direction.”
Musicians aren’t the only ones happy for the opportunity. For the technicians, stagehands and other production staff, the jazz fest is a chance to immerse in real work after a lengthy layoff.
In crew meetings this week, an upbeat collective energy has prevailed, said Sam Fotias of Paxahau, the Detroit events company contracted to produce the fest. All involved recognize the significance of what they’re pulling off in a relatively barren live-music landscape, he said.
“We are essentially producing a mini-festival from inside a hotel,” said Fotias.
In a normal year, the Detroit jazz fest falls at the end of a long summer for crew members who have been out on the road working tours and festivals. The mood can get cranky, Fotias said.
Not in 2020.
“This has been incredibly pleasant. Everyone is enthusiastic,” he said. “It’s not only the opportunity to have some work, but there’s a sense of pride. There’s always a sense of pride in doing a jazz fest, but now with the potential of reaching a massive, global audience, they want people to see what a group of professional contractors can do here in the city of Detroit. Everybody is stoked.”
Collins and his team have worked with other jazz festivals and agencies domestically and internationally to promote the Detroit webcast in their markets. He said he has heard from fans who plan to set up backyard screens and audio gear to take in the event.
Collins knew by late March that an in-person version of the Labor Day weekend tradition was hanging in the balance. He put together a task force, set up lines of communication with government officials and health experts, and kept tabs as the pandemic unfolded.
By June, with public gatherings still off-limits for the foreseeable future, it was clear the event needed to move in a different direction. Collins had three key criteria for an alternative fest: It must be safe, remain free, and take place live.
“We wanted to raise the bar on what a streamed, broadcast music event looks like,” he said. “We didn’t want people Zooming from their homes. We wanted it to be live in Detroit.”
Collins, a music professor at Wayne State University, expects to glean lessons this weekend that will enhance future editions of the jazz fest. As he has told students grappling with canceled recitals and concerts: “This is a chance to turn your creative energy to the challenge of the moment.”
For the Detroit Jazz Festival, that could mean a deeper engagement in the digital realm, along with improved health and safety guidelines.
More than anything, Collins hopes the weekend can galvanize spirits.
“We wanted to keep that moment of hope and joy in place. We all believe that the arts in this town, and jazz in particular, is part of life in the good times and bad. We needed to do what we could.”
Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.
Friday (6:15 p.m.-11:45 p.m.)
JUSTICE: Sister Strings: Roots, Voice & Drums, Detroit Jazz Fest All-Stars Generations Band, Michael Jellick Sextet, Robert Hurst presents the Black Current Jam Band
Lulu Fall and the Kris Johnson Group
Pharoah Sanders: Icon
Legacy Artists: Ursula Walker and Buddy Budson
Saturday (11:20 a.m.-midnight)
Tartarsauce Traditional Jazz Band
Alex Harding: Afro Horn
Ron Di Salvo Trio
Dr. Prof. Leonard King Orchestra
Gayelynn McKinney & McKinney Zone
Sabbatical Bob
Aguanko
Rodney Whitaker Septet w/ Vocalist Rockelle Fortin featuring the Music of Count Basie and Billie Holiday
Steve Turre Quintet
Something to Live For – Music of Billy Strayhorn
Sunday (11:20 a.m.-midnight)
Collegiate Combo Competition Winner
Sven Anderson – Doc’s Holiday
The Rayse Biggs Collective
The Dave Bennett Quartet
Beartrap
Sean Dobbins Trio
Sister Strings: Roots, Voice & Drums
Robert Hurst presents The Black Current Jam Band
Walter White Big Band
Michael Jellick Sextet
Monday (11:20 a.m.-11 p.m.)
Marion Hayden: Detroit Legacy
David McMurray
Joan Belgrave presents: The Marcus Belgrave Legacy Ensemble
Joey Alexander Trio
The Curtis Taylor Quartet
Call Al
Henry Conerway III
Rene Marie & Experiment in Truth
Robert Glasper