By early summer, it was clear to Ismael Ahmed he’d need to pivot.
As founder and executive director of Concert of Colors, the region’s premier world music and diversity festival, Ahmed knew he couldn’t stage the event’s 28th edition in its traditional format. The ongoing pandemic and restrictions on gathering made sure of that.
So Concert of Colors came up with an ambitious contingency plan. Rather than the array of in-person performances that have drawn thousands to Midtown Detroit in July, the fest would tape a lineup of artists for a broadcast event in the fall.
And so here we are: Detroit Public Television (DPTV) will air Concert of Colors nightly Tuesday through Saturday, culminating with a tribute to blues great John Lee Hooker in the latest incarnation of the Don Was Detroit All-Star Revue. The festival will also be streamed on the CoC Facebook page.
Festival performances will also run on WDET-FM (101.9), on a slightly different schedule and with a bonus Oct. 11 set from techno DJs John Collins and Mark Flash.
The full lineup, dates and times are at concertofcolors.com.
Nearly everything was taped over four days in September at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), in a carefully controlled, socially distanced setup inside the Detroit Film Theatre. Artists will include genre-hopping Michigan group Last Gasp Collective and China-born, Detroit-based musician Xiao Dong Wei, along with the eclectic, heralded Canadian duo Digging Roots, whose set is beamed in from elsewhere.
More:Survey: 55% of insiders believe ‘full capacity’ concerts will return in 2021
More:Music venues can reopen at limited capacity, but owners say it’s still a tough go
For his latest edition of the All-Star Revue, Detroit-born Was enlisted a slate of hometown talent for the Hooker celebration, including Billy Davis, Harmonica Shah, Muruga Booker, Thornetta Davis and Laith Al-Saadi.
For Was — the bassist, Grammy winner, Blue Note Records president and in-demand producer for a host of top acts — the chance to dive into Hooker’s catalog was enticing.
“If you ask me, he’s the embodiment of Detroit music,” Was said of the late bluesman, who cut his teeth on the Hastings Street circuit. “His music sounds like the city. It’s rough. No one’s trying to put any veneer on it. It’s more soulful than anything. There’s a raw honesty that really represents Detroit.”
After isolating at home in Los Angeles for the first three months of the pandemic, Was said he has been busy as ever, driving to San Francisco on weekends to jam with the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir and finish work on a concert album.
Leery of flying to Detroit for the Concert of Colors taping, Was bought a motor home in June. He promptly fell in love with the vehicle, and it has become his main transportation around L.A., he said with a laugh.
Just ahead of the Detroit trip, Was got a call from John Mayer, who wanted to head into the studio. (Was co-produced the pop-rocker’s “Born and Raised” and “Paradise Valley” albums.) The resulting time crunch left Was with no choice but to fly, which he did with a face shield and mask.
The Hooker sessions at the DIA, taped Sept. 21, presented a new sort of musical approach for Was and his longtime house band, which includes keyboardist Luis Resto and guitarist Brian White.
“It’s something different. You have to play quietly,” he said. “We’re playing real light — trying to be like the records were, which were very intimate, making room for the vocals.”
Like other musicians participating in the CoC virtual edition, Was was happy just to get a chance to perform on a stage after so many months away, even if the scene was a bit surreal.
“When we do the revue, it’s all about the exchange of energy with the audience. The same people come back every year — it’s become almost like an extended family reunion,” he said. “By the same token, it’s nice not to have the whole hall filled with a big PA system, so it’s intimate up there. But I miss the people.”
Ahmed concedes he was initially skeptical about shifting to some kind of streamed presentation. He’d seen the various online concerts and virtual festivals that had sprung up in the early days of the pandemic and knew they’d been erratic.
“Everybody’s been streaming. It’s usually not very well done or well-attended, and it’s a big investment,” Ahmed said.
But he was convinced to move ahead after commitments from DPTV and the DIA, where officials told him they’d do “whatever it takes financially” to make the festival happen. In 2019, the museum came aboard as Concert of Colors’ primary partner and home base.
The festival also got what Ahmed calls generous help from the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Michigan Science Center, Knight Foundation, Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan and others.
“This pivot is really a collaboration,” he said.
Still, things were touch-and-go as taping approached — including a brief coronavirus scare at the DIA in September that almost forced the whole thing to be scrapped. Though new plans were ultimately scrambled together, the delay cost planned appearances by jazz-funk pioneer Roy Ayers and Detroit band La Inspiracion.
With DPTV’s Michigan reach — and its wide pickup across Canada — the fest will be available to plenty of eyes and ears. The online stream will also be webcast by many of Concert of Colors’ sister festivals around the world, Ahmed said.
“We’re going to have a way bigger audience than we normally do,” he said.
Ahmed and the CoC team watched intently at the Detroit Jazz Festival’s broadcast edition last month, impressed by what they saw. Some of the same technicians have been involved with the CoC production, part of “a similar working group and ethic” that unites the two fests as essential to Detroit’s identity, Ahmed said.
By next year — depending on the route of the pandemic — Ahmed hopes to return to a live presentation of Concert of Colors, whether in-person or virtual.
For now, he’s confident his festival has an important role to play in a historic, tumultuous 2020.
“Obviously we’re very much focused on peace, love and justice, and especially this year,” he said. “So a lot of the bands are going to be clearly about something.”
Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.
Detroit Public Television schedule
6 p.m. Tue: Forum on Community, Culture & Race
7 p.m. Wed.: Alina Morr & Fuego, Leafar Village, Ed Love tribute,
9 p.m. Thu.: Digging Roots, Sean Blackman’s In Transit
9 p.m. Fri.: Xiao Dong Wei, Last Gasp Collective
9 p.m. Sat.: Don Was Detroit All-Star Revue
WDET-FM (101.9) will air the above performances, along with techno sets by John Collins and Mark Flash at 8 p.m. Oct. 11.