It’s not hard to figure out Jake Bass’ inspiration for his One Night Only Music Revue on Thursday, Sept. 25 in Pontiac.

“I wanted to have this old school, Motown Revue style event,” explains the Ferndale-based musician, producer and recording engineer, who owns and operates F.B.T Studios and Basement Sounds 2.0 record company. The studio was started by his father Jeff Bass and uncle Marky Bass, who among other credits were the first producers to work with a fledgling Eminem during the late 90s.

For his Revue, Bass has assembled a lineup of artists “who are either signed to (Basement Sounds) or have worked in (F.B.T.) the last few years and give them an opportunity to showcase what they do and talk about what we already put out and new music they have coming out…basically give them this platform they might not otherwise be able to get on their own.”

The Revue roster includes singers Mama Yaya and Apropos, rappers Drew Verde and Ryn Scott, rock act Better Unsaid and singer-songwriter Dan Tillery. The show will also feature a variety of guest performers, including singer Israa — who finished no. 2 on the Fox network singing competition show “Alter Ego” (Mama Yaya also made the Top 10) — and Raquel Soledad, as well as Swifty McVay from the rap group D12, which Bass also works with.

Bass’ father and his brother Mark Bass, meanwhile, will join an all-star house band that includes a number of

An all-star house band will back the performers throughout the night, with DJ Bam spinning between sets.

The concept of the Motown (Revue) is what really turned us on about getting all the artist and the diversification and put it out there,” Jeff Bass says. “So there’s a little bit of everything for people.”

Jeff Bass will be filming and recording the show as well, with plans to make a documentary about the event. “This is going to be an event that hopefully inspires and motivates people…to really have an experience,” he says. “I want people to leave feeling like they can conquer the world, and be excited about the future of music here.”

The One Night Only Music Revue takes place at 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 25, at the Crofoot Ballroom, 1 S. Saginaw St., Pontiac. 248-858-9333 or thecrofoot.com.

You’ll find few singers as grateful and happy to still be performing with their band than Tim Booth.

He co-founded the British group James back in 1982 and, save for a six-year break during the 00s, has fronted it through 18 studio albums— 11 of which hit the Top 10 in the U.K. — and hits such as “Sit Down,” “Born of Frustration,” the title track to 1993’s “Laid” and others. And if you need proof of its continuing potency, it’s latest album, “Yummy,” knocked Beyonce out of the No. 1 spot on the U.K. charts during the spring of 2024.

The current incarnation of James is nine members strong, with Booth and bassist Jim Glennie the only remaining founding members. And Booth notes with pride that drummer Debrah Knock-Hewson is doing the current tour at nearly five months’ pregnant. Those dates find the band playing the “Laid” album, albeit in non-sequential order, along with an ever-changing array of material from throughout the group’s history — which Booth, 65, says is a long way from being over…

• Booth says via Zoom from a tour stop in Ottawa that the idea of doing “Laid” in its entirety was a former manager’s idea, and that he was “a bit averse to it at first,” mostly because “I like the unpredictability of a set list where you don’t know what’s coming.” But he’s allayed that concern by taking the songs out of chronological order and performing them amidst the other selections. “So there’s still a level of unpredictability to the whole evening that I kind of love. That is James; something that differentiates us from most bands is we change the set list nightly, we change the set list during the set. I look at bands that do the same set every night and I’m like, ‘What are they thinking? How boring!'”

• Booth adds that breaking the “Laid” songs better up serves the aesthetic of the shows as well. “It’s a great record to perform, but to perform the whole thing in one row, to a standing audience…I think it’s a big ask ’cause there’s a lot of very mellow jams on there, and it becomes a little bit too much. And emotionally for me it gets a bit dark…and it’s hard to come out of it. It’s better for everybody, I think, if we move those (‘Laid’) songs around and maybe next to…some little uplifting, joyful things, and then go back to the moody.”

• “Laid,” according to booth, was heavily influenced by James touring with Neil Young during 1992. “He invited us to play with him in America, but we had to play acoustic and had to figure out how to do that. We had some new songs we were working on and tried them out on the tour; by the time (‘Laid’ producer) Brian Eno came to see us, we were still playing acoustically — we enjoyed it so much we didn’t stop for about a year — and he was like, ‘That’s great. Let’s just continue like that,’ and that’s how we approached the album.

• The six members of James at the time famously posed in women’s dresses for the “Laid” album cover, but Booth doesn’t believe any of the musicians have them anymore. “I think they were our girlfriends’ dressed that we borrowed, so we don’t have those. It’s probably one of the best covers we ever had. I’ve got a nice dress for (the current tour), and Andy’s (Diagram, trumpet) got a nice dress we tend to wear for these gigs. It seems appropriate.”

• James’ next projects include a compilation album with two new songs and a documentary about the band that’s being directed by U.K. filmmaker Chris Atkins. Booth says the band is also working towards a follow-up to “Yummy.” “We’re in the best time of James, the most enjoyable time we’ve ever been in. I’ve been with (Glennie) 44 years — that’s more than most marriages — and it’s an amazing, enduring relationship. WE get to live our passion. We are so full of gratitude that we get to do what we love. So often old school friends will turn up and…they’re retired and they’re so happy they’re retired. We don’t want to retire. We really love what we do, and It really makes a difference I’ve been lucky enough to do what I love for 44 years.”

James performs Thursday, Sept. 18 at the Majestic Theatre, 4140 Woodward Ave. Doors at 7 p.m. (313)833-9700 or majesticdetroit.com. The concert will also be livestreamed via nugs.net; a subscription is required. 

It’s been a pretty good first half of the 2020s for Bonnie Raitt.

She received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002, followed by an Icon designation from the Billboard Women In Music Awards. Her latest album, “Just Like That …,” came out the same year, spent 12 weeks at No. 1 on the Americana Radio Album chart and won three Grammy Awards in 2023, including the prestigious Song of the Year for the album’s title track.

And, as they say, but wait, there’s more: Raitt’s Grammy Award-winning 1989 album, “Nick of Time,” produced by Oak Park native Don Was, was added to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry, while Raitt — who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000 — received a Kennedy Center Honor last year.

“None of that was expected,” says the California-born Raitt, 75, whose father, John Raitt, was a Broadway actor and her mother, Marge Goddard, a pianist. Raitt studied at Harvard University’s Radcliffe College and became part of the Boston folks club scene before being signed to a recording contract in 1970. Since then, she’s released 18 albums and has a total of 15 Grammy Awards.

“I mean, listen, none of us expected when we were 20 that we’d be rocking this hard when we were in our 70s. And then I look at Mick (Jagger) and Keith (Richards) and Paul McCartney … and Tony Bennett and B.B. (King) before them. There’s no sign of slowing down, artistically and energetically. We all got the message that if we were lucky enough to be taking better care of ourselves … we could keep doing this.”

Raitt — whose history of political and social activism includes co-founding Musicians United for Safe Energy in 1979 — has been on the road steadily since “Just Like That …” came out. That means she’s making repeat appearances in some markets — she was at the Meadow Brook Amphitheatre in July 2022 — but she’s careful to make sure she’s offering something different in each case.

“I take a look at what we played last time in the area; I’m really cognizant of both not wearing the same shirt, but also not playing the same encore or blues tune,” Raitt says. “I like to mix it up, and I’ve got such a deep catalog, and these guys (in the band) can play anything.

“I don’t want to leave songs out that people come to hear, and I also like to keep it interesting for them and for us. So it’s fun to have five or six different songs to swirl around from night to night and … keep everybody happy.”

Bonnie Raitt and Jimmie Vaughan & the Tilt-a-Whirl Band perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 13 at the Fox Theatre, 2211 Woodward Ave., Detroit. 313-471-7000 or 313Presents.com.

By Charlie Hunt and Gary Graff

With splendid weather and some operational changes, the 46th Annual Detroit Jazz Festival had both downtown and midtown bopping and grooving throughout Labor Day Weekend, with more than four dozen acts playing at stages in Hart Plaza and Cadillac Square and in the Gretchen C. Valade Jazz Center on the Wayne State University campus.

It was also livestreamed globally via the festival web site and social media.

Festival organizers surprised fans with new security protocols and checkpoints for entering and leaving Hart Plaza, as well as a repositioned Absopure Waterfront Stage, which now faced east rather than towards the Detroit River. The JPMorgan Chase Main Stage at Cadillac Square, meanwhile, was repositioned in the same direction, which allowed the Campus Martius Park fountains to provide a playful backdrop to the performances (although the setting sun was brutal for about a half-hour or so each evening).

This year’s festival also included an aggressive Keep It Free fundraising campaign to help the event maintain its status as the world’s largest free-admission jazz festival. On Sunday, festival chief Chris Collins announced that $78,500 of the $100,000 goal had been reached so far; further updates are expected in the near future.

The music, meanwhile, remained spectacular throughout the four days — which started Friday, Aug. 29 with Artist-In-Residence Jason Moran’s exciting collaboration with electronic pioneer Jeff Mills and Detroit poet laureate Jessica Care Moore. It was hard to catch everything, but these were 10 of the best things we caught during the weekend (all reviews by Charlie Hunt unless otherwise noted)…

* Chris Potter Trio, Carhartt Amphitheater Stage, Saturday, Aug. 30

Dressed in black jeans and solid color shirts, tenor saxophonist Chris Potter’s trio looked understated and plainspoken — but its set was anything but. The trio played without pretension and burst right into a turbulent, heady and purposeful jazz opening with “7-11,” named after its complex rhythmic cycle. On the next composition, “Kudu,” Potter, who breathes fire through his reed, improvised a succinct and delirious sequence of buzzing notes that built to mountainous heights but still left space for bassist Matt Brewer to pound out a robust solo. Potter said he couldn’t imagine coming to Detroit without playing a Stevie Wonder tune, and he picked “Send One Your Love.” Potter switched to a low-register bass clarinet for the new composition “Voices Remembered,” then jumped to “Good Hope,” a song he recorded with bassist Dave Holland and the late tabla-master Zakir Hussain as the Crosscurrents Trio. Potter and drummer Kendrick Scott energized each other’s solos into another sonic realm. The trio closed with the Jerome Kern standard “Pick Yourself Up,” imbued with unparalleled improvisation sequences across many octaves and registers.

* Maria Schneider Orchestra, JPMorgan Chase Stage, Saturday

In a rare opportunity to hear a much-heralded maestro, multiple Grammy Award winner Maria Schneider led her 18-piece big band comprised of veterans and newcomers with joy, style, grace and panache. Opening with “Bluebird,” from her 2023 album “Data Lords,” the extraordinary and enterprising composer/arranger featured Brazilian Vitor Goncalves on accordion, a rarely used instrument in big band jazz but a signature component of her exquisite and visionary artistry. Charismatic, gracious and charming, Schneider plucked compositions from throughout her 30-year career, including “Wyrgly” and the title track from her 1994 debut album “Evanescence,” and “Walking by Flashlight” from her 2012 classical album “Winter Mornings Walk.”

Stylistically, Schneider’s music emanates from the influential jazz bandleader Gil Evans; each of her compositions followed a path, with featured soloists supported by exquisite and carefully layered overtures by the large ensemble, enabling her to conjure any sound scheme she designs. “The thing about jazz that is so amazing is it’s all about listening,” she said as the introduced “American Crow,” a new composition that she described as music for our tense and tension-filled times; it featured trumpeter Mike Rodriguez and electric guitarist Jeff Miles, among other soloists. Always stylish, the strawberry blonde bandleader wore a black dress and enthusiastically led the band with fluid hand motions and moved ballet-like across the stage. She smiled throughout the evening sit as she obviously enjoyed the experience.

* James Carter Organ Trio, Gretchen C. Valade Jazz Center at Wayne State University, Saturday

Detroit’s own James Carter reigns supreme among jazz saxophonists. Few can match his otherworldly power, intensity, passion and showmanship. After-hours on n Saturday he hosted a Carter family all-star party that was enthralling and exhilarating receiving, multiple standing ovations from the standing-room-only crowd. Carter saluted his 99-year-old mother and spoke about his Detroit jazz upbringing before fearlessly leading his trio of Gerard Gibbs on Hammond B-3 organ and drummer Alex White through a wildly-varied set, starting with the jazz standard “Tenderly.” The repertoire included Billy Strayhorn’s “A Flower is a Lovesome Thing” and a pair of gypsy jazz numbers — “La Valse Des Niglos,” aka “The Hedge Hog Waltz,” and Django Reinhart’s “Impromptu,” the latter featuring a knock-out drum solo by White. Carter choreographed astonishing body movements synced to each breath note, blurt, blast, screech and phrase as he performed on a matched set of three gleaming red-and-gold saxophones — tenor alto and soprano. He brought out his brothers, and they tore up the joint. Vocalist Robert Carter crooned Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” and the Isley Brothers’ “For the Love of You,” while guitarist Kevin Carter played Carlos Santana-like stylings on Jimi Hendrix’s “Red House” and Chick Corea’s “Spain,” which featured lead vocals by cousin Stuart Scaggs.

* Lakesia Benjamin, Carhartt Amphitheater Stage, Sunday, Aug. 31

Also saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin, a rising star, unleashed her relentless firepower in what she said was her first-ever Detroit appearance. “We’re going to be celebrating jazz tonight! We’re going to be celebrating life tonight! We’re going to be celebrating music tonight!” she practically screamed from center stage, jolting a spellbound crowd to full attention before she played her first sassy and spunky notes. Dressed in a shiny gold jumpsuit, with gold-rimmed glasses and gold-polished fingernails, Benjamin hoisted a matching gold alto saxophone to her lips and converted her energized breath into staggering, high-energy streams of rapid-fire improvisation. “We’re going to be celebrating women in jazz next,” she announced, setting up her rendition of “My Favorite Things,” dedicated to the late Detroit harpist Alice Coltrane. Subsequently declaring “it’s about to get a little wilder up here,” Benjamin was her own best cheerleader all night, and as promised the former student of Detroit saxophonists Kenny Garrett and James Carter roused the amphitheater audience with her band’s scintillating performance.

* Detroit Jazz Queens, Absopure Waterfront Stage, Sunday

In memory of the recently passed, Detroit-born vocalist Sheila Jordan — whose photo sat on stage, Joan Belgrave rallied some of her Detroit-based singing friends to pay homage to all the great and glorious jazz songstresses of the past. Her team of Detroit Jazz Queens included: Diane Mathis, who belted out two classics popularized by Nancy Wilson (“(You Don’t Know) How Glad I Am” and “I Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You”); Tanya Hood, who took on a Sarah Vaughn favorite “September in the Rain” and Betty Carter’s “Tight;” and Joan Crawford who checked the Ella Fitzgerald box by singing Duke Ellington’s “Sophisticated Lady.” Exquisitely dressed in a flowing red dress, Belgrave sang “Come to Me” and “Caravan” with trumpet accompaniment from John Douglas. The resplendent women regrouped to sing a rousing and bluesy round-robin blues medley of “Rock Me Baby,” “Stormy Monday” and “Going to Chicago.”

* Jason Moran presents the music of Duke Ellington with the Detroit Jazz Festival Collegiate Jazz Orchestra, Sunday on the JPMorgan Chase Main Stage:

Two days after his galvanizing opening night collaboration, Artist-In-Residence Jason Moran was back on duty, guiding the Detroit Jazz Festival Collegiate Jazz Orchestra through a 75-minute program of Duke Ellington music. “This is y’all’s people!” the white-clad pianist told the crowd as he gestured to the horn-dominated 15-member ensemble, crediting the students’ parents for their support as well. Though Moran said he’d only met the musicians three days prior, they troupe was clearly well-prepared as it rolled through 10 songs from the Ellington songbook — including “Kinda Dukish,” “Such Sweet Surrender,” “Braggin’ in Brass” (so hot Moran had the group play it twice) and “Jeep’s Blues,” as well as a segue from Billy Strayhorn’s “Northern Lights” into “East St. Louis Toodle-Oo.” The students deftly executed their paces through a succession of solos, while vocalist Tiffany Gridiron — who performed Monday on the Absopure Waterfront Stage — joined for three songs. The set’s highlight came as “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If You Ain’t Got That Swing)” transitioned into “Mood Indigo,” fronted by a clarinet and muted trumpet and trombone players. — Gary Graff

* Branford Marsalis Quartet, Carhartt Amphitheater Stage, Sunday

Of the many saxophone headliners powering this year’s festival, Branford Marsalis stood out as the eminent elder. He called out eight tunes over his quartet’s 75-minute set, typically taking on the first melodic lead on tenor or soprano saxophone, then stepping behind his bandmates — pianist Joey Calderazzo, bassist Eric Revis and drummer Justin Faulkner — to jam magnificently with extended improvisational finesse, starting out with Calderazzo’s “The Mighty Sword.” The quartet next reinvented pianist Keith Jarrett’s 1974 composition “Long as You Know You’re Living Yours” from Jarrett’s famed European quartet album, “Belonging,” which Marsalis replicated in its entirety and released in March as his first recording on Blue Note Records. Faulkner rose to the forefront on that piece, emphasizing the melody with captivating, rock-imbued passages. The drummer stood out again on Revis’ sneaky ballad “Nilaste,” keeping pace with Marsalis’ fast-paced, serpentine passages with his full-throttled drum work. Nodding to the next generation of saxophonists, Marsalis surprised everyone by inviting two guest saxophonists to the stage — Lakecia Benjamin and Chris Lewis — who delivered their own charged-up solos on “Teo,” a Thelonious Monk tribute.

* Sonder, Absopure Waterfront Stage, Monday, Sept. 1

Out of seemingly nowhere, the astonishing young jazz quintet Sonder, from the Manhattan College of Music, made its first-ever Detroit Jazz Festival appearance and grabbed listeners’ ears with a set of inspired modern jazz — quite the formidable debut by the winner of the festival’s Collegiate Combo Competition. Led by guitarist Noah Myers, the captivating performers – pianist Eric Stern, double bassist August Bish, drummer Adam Wacks, and saxophonist Ian Weidmann — presented intricately interlaced jazz instrumentation. Myers composed all the tunes in the set except for a rousing cover version of Wayne Shorter’s “Joyrider.”

* James Francies Trio, JPMorgan Chase Main Stage, Monday

Keyboardist Francies, who gained notoriety with drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts and in guitarist Pat Metheny’s Side Eye trio, worked through a set of mesmerizing original compositions bolstered by his pulse keepers — bassist Luca Alemanno and drummer Jeremy Dutton. His sweeping approach melded complex, low-register chord phrasings with agile, bright melodic lines. The trio performed a title-less new tune, though Francies said he likes to call it “Garlic Parmesan” because, “I like chicken wings, and who doesn’t?” The trio played “Sway” from Francies’ 2018 album on Blue Note Records and finished the set with a vibrant take on “The Sound of Music” standard “My Favorite Things.” Throughout, Francies’ fingers zipped across the keyboards, sometimes with complex, single-note flurries, then countering with cascading chordal runs.

* Marion Hayden & Legacy with Kamau Kenyatta, Absopure Waterfront Stage, Monday

Bassist Hayden, one of the founders of the celebrated all-female jazz quintet Straight Ahead, furthered her role among Detroit’s lineage of jazz musicians by taking her intergenerational band, Legacy, through an afternoon set of hand-selected compositions. Deepening the Detroit roots of her music, she invited Grammy Award-winning pianist, producer and arranger Kamau Kenyatta, who she referred to as her brother, “my mentor, my peer,” recollecting that they started playing jazz together when they were nine. years old. “That must have been pretty funny,” she noted. Legacy drew from what Hayden called “a deep bench of wonderful musicians” in Detroit, introducing Steve Wood on tenor saxophone and flute, Tim Blackman on trumpet, her son Tariq Gardner on drums and high-schooler Kahlil Childs on alto saxophone. The inspired set included: “Isis,” composed by Detroit piano legend Ken Cox; two Herbie Hancock compositions — “Oliloqui Valley” and “Speak Like a Child,” that put Kenyatta in the spotlight, as did “Peter Bobia.” Hayden also played her own composition, “Gateway to Black Eden,” proudly and elegantly.

Inventive performances get Detroit Jazz Festival off to an exciting start

Jason Moran is ready for role as Detroit Jazz Festival’s artist-in-residence