Blue Note
Records has announced the release of Detroit Jazz City, a
compilation album that simultaneously spotlights the past and present of one of
America’s great jazz cities while also serving as a benefit album for the
organization Focus: HOPE. All proceeds from the album will be donated to Focus:
HOPE to aid in their on-going pursuit of intelligent and practical solutions to
the problems of hunger, economic disparity, inadequate education, and racial
divisiveness in Southeastern Michigan.
Detroit Jazz
City was produced by one of Detroit’s native sons, Blue Note Records president
Don Was. Was assembled the album by selecting catalog tracks by Detroit jazz
legends from the Blue Note vaults, and alternating them with new recordings
that he produced featuring many of the city’s current jazz elite including
vocalist Sheila Jordan (who recorded her debut album Portrait of Sheila for
Blue Note in 1962), bassist Marion Hayden, saxophonist James Carter, guitarist
Spencer Barefield, and the recently departed trumpeter Marcus Belgrave whose
beautiful track “Lottie The Body’s Mood” is available today on streaming
services ahead of the album’s release. The new recordings were made in the lead
up to the 2012 Concert of Colors where the artists were featured as part of the
festival’s long-standing Don Was Detroit All-Star Revue.
The catalog
tracks on Detroit Jazz City represent not only well-known Detroit jazz artists
like Joe Henderson, Donald Byrd and Elvin Jones who left Detroit to become
pacesetters on the New York City jazz scene, but also less famous musicians
like the pianist Kenny Cox, who after spending several years in NYC in the
mid-1960s returned home to Detroit where he remained a fixture of the local
scene as a performer, professor, WDET radio personality and founder of Strata
Records.
“All of us
at Blue Note Records are excited by this opportunity to shine a light on the
rich musical legacy of Detroit and on Focus: HOPE who have done so much to help
the city's less fortunate residents,” says Was. “The generosity of everyone
involved—from the musicians to the Universal and Capitol Music Groups—makes a
very powerful statement about the potential of great music to impact lives on a
grass roots level.”
The track
listing for Detroit Jazz City is as follows:
Marion
Hayden – The Uncrowned King
Kenny Cox –
You
James Carter
– Many Blessings
Joe
Henderson – Mode for Joe
Marcus
Belgrave – Lottie The Body’s Mood
Elvin Jones
– Reza
Spencer
Barefield – Ghost Dancers
Donald Byrd
– French Spice
Sheila
Jordan – Sheila’s Blues
ABOUT FOCUS:
HOPE
Focus: HOPE
is a nationally recognized civil and human rights organization founded in 1968
after the Detroit riots. Throughout the years, Focus: HOPE has developed
numerous programs in its efforts to overcome racism, poverty and injustice,
including food, career training, and community development programs. Through
Focus: HOPE, thousands of individuals – especially women and minorities — have
achieved financial independence. For more information, visit www.focushope.edu.
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