Halsey hasn’t played a venue as small as the Fillmore Detroit since her first show in these parts — nine and a half years ago at Saint Andrew’s Hall.

But rest assured there was nothing small about the New Jersey-born modern pop singer’s show on Saturday, Jan. 17 — the first of two sold-out Back to Badlands dates at the Fillmore, continuing to celebrate the 10th anniversary of her double-platinum 2015 debut album “Badlands.”

Besides offering a generous selection of material (32 songs) from across her catalog, the two-and-a-half-hour spectacle delivered an arena-sized visual punch. Halsey and her three instrumentalists played on a two-tiered stage in front of a floor-to-ceiling high-def video wall that displayed a series of images and animations — and even 3-D imagery (glasses provided as fans entered) during a late-set “Lonely is the Muse,” as fans followed a reclining Halsey floating in front of them.

Halsey herself was the strongest effect, however, prowling and dancing around the stage in a low-plunge black halter-top and low-slug pants and exercising her pipes with extended notes on songs such as “Nightmare” “Without Me.” Fifteen songs from “Badlands” — its original and deluxe editions — were scattered throughout the night, non-sequentially, and the crowd was vociferously happy to hear the likes of “Coming Down,” “Strange Love” and “Garden” for the first time live in many years.

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It was a special night, by any measure, for those used to seeing Halsey in bigger spaces such as Little Caesars Arena and Pine Knob — including a season-opener at the latter last year. And that made some of her attitude for much of Saturday night a bit odd and, truthfully, disingenuous.

Early on, after performing “The Lighthouse,” Halsey dubbed the Fillmore “a weird (expletive) building,” different from other places the tour had played. “There are two shows happening,” she explained, maintaining that it required her to make grand movements and gestures for those in the balcony (“I have to make some (stuff) up on the fly,” she said) that might be off-putting to those packed in front of her on the main floor.

Eh? The former were certainly considerably a far sight closer than those in the back and top of LCA, or on the lawn at Pine Knob. And it’s highly doubtful that anybody down front really minded any of Halsey’s energetic movements. And yet it became a theme for the good stretch of Saturday’s show. At one point Halsey complained about the muted reaction from some “dudes” after she sang into their faces during “Hold Me Close;” “You guys are hard to impress, man,” she groused afterwards. “What do you want me to do?” (She did make a guess, if course. IYKYK.)

And later on, before her Chainsmokers collaboration “Closer” shook the Fillmore, Halsey said that, “I’ve accepted that you guys are tired tonight. You don’t have it; I get that” — even though the evidence right in front of her was quite contrary.

Fortunately she got over it before the end of the main set — or, in her view, the audience raised its game. Halsey did declare her strong affinity to Detroit and Michigan, celebrated in several of her songs (“It’s not like it’s an easy rhyme, y’know,” she quipped). And she rewarded the crowd with “a very special, once-in-a-lifetime Detroit encore” that veered from the tour’s usual program for a half-hour of deeper favorites such as a rocking “3am” (one of two songs on which Halsey played guitar), “Killing Boys,” “Clementine,” “929” and “Bad at Love” before the usual closer “Is There Somewhere.”

“I’ve had a great time with you tonight. Nobody loves you more than I do,” she shouted as the latter finished. The feeling was certainly mutual from the Fillmore crowd, and, despite any reservations she might have expressed earlier, “Badlands” proved to be a nice place for everyone to visit once again.

Halsey performs again on Sunday, Jan. 18, at the Fillmore Detroit, 2115 Woodward Ave. Doors at 7 p.m. Tickets are sold out. 313-961-5451 or thefillmoredetroit.com.

Albums don’t sell like they used to, but rest assured, they’re still being released.

And they still matter.

The long-player is, in fact, still the most potent and important musical expression, a chance to go on an aural journey that keeps you engaged from start to finish. That flies in the face of conventional wisdom about limited attention spans in the streaming world, but the significant number of albums that continue to come out shows that’s how artists prefer to pursue their craft.

That was certainly the case during the past 12 months, and 2025 welcomed so many good and, yes, great, albums that the annual ritual of picking the best is never easy. But after careful consideration and some (pleasurable) relistening, these were unquestionably our dozen favorites for the year, all works that are rewarding every time you listen to them.

Clipse, “Let God Sort Em Out” (self-released): The rap duo’s long road back — 16 years between albums — reaches a triumphant destination with this 13-track set. The chemistry between Pusha T and Malice is as tight as ever, and reuniting with Pharrell Williams to produce had us partying like it was the 2000s once again — with Kendrick Lamar, Nas, John Legend, Tyler, the Creator and others on the guest list.

Alice Cooper, “The Revenge of Alice Cooper” (earMUSIC): The event tends to be greater than the quality in these kinds of reunions — in this case, the original Cooper band’s first full album since 1973. But periodic recording since 2011 has honed the surviving quartet to this point. The songs and playing stand up to those classic 1970s records, and the magic of technology even allows the late Glen Buxton to be part of a couple of tracks.

De La Soul, “Cabin in the Sky” (AOI/Mass Appeal): Another welcome hip-hop return. Nine years and one death (Trugoy the Dove) later, this is still a special and forward-looking troupe that fills its ninth studio album with high conscience and advanced intent. Sporting sharp production, tough rhymes and a who’s-who list of collaborators, the 20-track set more than lives up to the designation of Mass Appeal’s Legend Has It … series.

Dropkick Murphys, “For the People” (Dummy Luck): After two previous albums of songs set to unused Woody Guthrie lyrics, Boston’s Celtic punk lords stay on target and deliver the right album for the times — ferocious anthems of resistance (and some personal reflections) that feature guest appearances by Billy Bragg, the Mary Wallopers and the scratch. Vocalist Al Barr is back for one track, too.

Florence + the Machine, “Everybody Scream” (Polydor): Florence Welch is no stranger to turning personal turmoil into anthems of resilience and joy, and we get more of the same on album number six. With songs inspired by an ectopic pregnancy and miscarriage, Welch and her crew — including collaborators Aaron Dessner of the National and Mark Bowen of Ides — stir a wealth of emotions and mystical perspectives into life-affirming catharsis that brings everybody out better on the other end.

Lord Huron, “The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1” (Mercury): The Michigan-formed, now Los Angeles-based indie rock group hits a new peak on this semi-conceptual 12-track work, with some of Ben Schneider’s most evocative songwriting (and vocals) and collaborations with actor (and fellow Michigander) Kristen Stewart and Blonde Redhead’s Kauz Makino.

Pulp, “More” (Rough Trade): It’s been 24 years since the British group’s last studio album (sensing a theme for the year here?), but it really sounds like no time has passed. While Oasis was ruling on the road, Jarvis Cocker and company brought another wing of Britpop back with these 11 songs (as well as the group’s on tour), all of which stand alongside the best of Pulp’s previous work.

Addison Rae, “Addison” (As Long As I’m Dancing/Columbia): The actress and TikToker has been dropping musical bon mots since 2021, but her first full album shows a fully developed talent that’s maybe a little bit smarter than her pop peers, but still just as much fun when it needs to be. “Fame Is a Gun,” as she sings, and Rae’s aim is absolutely true.

Ketch Secor, “Story the Crow Told Me” (Equal Housing/Firebird Music): The Old Crow Medicine Show leader goes out on his own for the first time and delivers a winning 12-song effort rooted in tradition, but made modern in its delivery. Secor plays more than a dozen instruments himself, as is his wont, and welcomes contributions from Marty Stuart, Jaren Johnston of the Cadillac Three, Old Crow mates Critter Fuqua and Willie Watson, and Molly Tuttle, returning the favor for her latest album.

Sparks, “Mad!” (Transgressive): The Mael brothers follow “Annette — An Opera by Sparks” with their 26th studio album and 12 songs that, per usual, deftly balance quirk with pathos and melodic sensibilities that are at once classic and idiosyncratic. Fifty-four years in Ron and Russell have their own lane, and they haven’t run out of road yet.

Turnstile, “Never Enough” (Roadrunner): The hardcore quintet from Baltimore takes the format in bold new directions on its fourth studio album, and first with guitarist Meg Mills. It’s daring stuff — flute solos, anybody? — that never ceases to work and yields fresh flavors on every listen.

Molly Tuttle, “So Long Little Miss Sunshine” (Nonesuch): The California-born singer, guitarist, banjoist and songwriter is among those taking bluegrass and Americana in new directions, with abundant songwriting, instrumental and vocal assistance from Ketch Secor throughout her fifth studio album. And be assured, you never heard the Icona Pop/Charli XCX hit “I Love It” quite like this.

12 others that we liked a lot

Bad Bunny, “Debi Tirar Mas Fotos” (Rimas Entertainment); Jon Batiste, “Big Money” (Naht Jona/Verve); The Black Keys, “No Rain, No Flowers” (Easy Eye Sound); David Byrne, “Who Is the Sky?” (Matador); Ethan Daniel Davidson, “Cordelia” (Blue Arrow); Olivia Dean, “The Art of Loving” (Capitol); Don Was & the Pan-Detroit Ensemble, “Groove in the Face of Adversity” (Mack Avenue); Geese, “Getting Killed” (Partisan/Play It Again Sam); Kendall Jane Meade, “Space” (Mother West); Mavis Staples, “Sad and Beautiful World” (Anti-); Jeff Tweedy, “Twilight Override” (dBpm); Wolf Alice, “The Clearing” (RCA/Columbia)

Our 25 favorite concerts of 2025

Guster, Jan. 29, Majestic Theatre

Elvis Costello & Steve Nieve, March 8, Michigan Theatre

Chiodos, March 20, Royal Oak Music Theatre

Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, March 25, Masonic Temple Cathedral Theatre

Kraftwerk, March 28, Masonic Cathedral Theatre

The War and Treaty, March 29, Saint Andrew’s Hall

Jack White, April 12-13, Masonic Temple Theatre

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, April 19, Masonic Temple Theatre

Gang Of Four, May 7, The Magic Bag

Devo, June 28, Fillmore Detroit

Weird Al Yankovic, July 2, Pine Knob Music Theatre

Wu-Tang Clan, July 8, Little Caesars Arena

Vince Gill, July 24, Fox Theatre

Katy Perry, Aug. 3, Little Caesars Arena

Rufus Du Sol, Aug. 5, Pine Knob Music Theatre

Lord Huron, Aug. 9, Meadow Brook Music Festival

Nine Inch Nails, Aug. 22, Little Caesars Arena

Jason Moran, Jeff Mills and Jessica Care Moore, Aug. 29, Detroit Jazz Festival

Pulp, Sept. 17, Masonic Temple Theatre

Tedeschi Trucks Band and Gov’t Mule, Sept. 20, Pine Knob Music Theatre

Don Was & the Pan-Detroit Ensemble, Oct. 11, Majestic Theatre

Jon Batiste, Oct. 24, Fox Theatre

David Byrne, Oct. 25, Fox Theatre

Chris Isaak, Dec.16, Fox Theatre

A banner hanging above Jon Batiste’s stage Friday night, Oct. 24, at Detroit’s Fox Theatre declared that, “This is the circus of love. Under our tent there is revival and joy.”

The two-hour show was, in fact, all of the above.

Born into and raised in the New Orleans tradition, Batiste has proven over the course of his 20-year recording career to be master of musical alchemy and excellence. Friday’s concert was another case in point, as the multi-instrumentalist and singer led his facile and physical nine-member band through a set of songs that were dizzying in their range, an aural circus — as advertised — from Beethoven (“5th Symphony in Congo Square” from last year’s “Beethoven Blues” album) to be-bop, funk to blues to gospel, a few choice covers, singalong moments for the crowd of nearly 4,000 (including David Byrne, who’s performing at the Fox on Saturday,. Oct. 25) and plenty of the also-promised joy throughout.

It started that way, in fact, as Batiste — sporting a black, studded mariachi suit — strolled down the Fox’s center aisle, smiling as he banged on a tambourine on his way to the tent-styled stage before leading the group into an exultant version of “Let Got Lead.” “I love you even if I don’t know you,” the former “Late Show with Stephen Colbert” music director told the audience — one of his trademark hook-lines — before delivering a “public service announcement” that “it’s time to shake your tail feather.” Flashing the hand sing for love repeatedly, he later explained that, “This is not a concert; this is a spiritual practice,” promising, too, that “no matter how dark it gets, we can win…y`all.”

There is no darkness at a Batiste concert, however, and certainly not on Friday. He and the band shifted gears with Formula 1 precision but avoided any whiplash with a spirited demeanor — and a daring-do sense that they didn’t necessarily know what waited on the next turn but were perfectly capable of steering their way through it.

The result brought roof-raising renditions of the title track from Batiste’s latest album “Big Money,” an achingly soulful “Cry,” “I Need You” and a pairing of Beyonce’s “American Requiem,” which Batiste co-wrote, and his own “Freedom.” Vocalist Desiree Washington took the spotlight for a Motor City-appropriate take on Aretha Franklin’s “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Loved You)” and Andra Day joined Batiste and company for “Lean On My Love,” their duet from the “Big Money” album, and the Impressions’ “It’s All Right.”

The troupe also extended the polyrhythmic blues of “Petrichor” into a percussive jam that found Batiste working the drum kit after he’d already played piano, guitar, saxophone and melodica.

Batiste did just fine when he was on his own, too. Besides the Beethoven moment, he performed a solo piano jazz improvisation and then, later in the show, put together medley that knitted the Beatles’ “Golden Slumbers,” Tupac’s “Changes,” Bruce Hornsby’s “The Way It Is” and Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” into a moving and pointed tone poem that held the Fox crowd rapt until Batiste called it to join in for the closing chorus of the latter.

His “healing song” “Butterfly” was nothing short of beautiful and teed up a “Worship” that finished the night with Batiste, as is his tradition, leading the band back up through the theater’s center aisle — revived, joyful and definitely feeling the love for another masterful performance.

Lukas Nelson has been known, for all of his life, as Willie Nelson’s son and occasionally part of his family band. And for 16 years of his music-making life he was the leader of the band Promise of the Real, which backed Neil Young as well as releasing eight albums of his own.

Now this Nelson, 36, is out on his own.

During June, Nelson — who won Grammy and BAFTA awards for the songs he wrote for the hit 2018 remake of “A Star is Born” — released “American Romance,” the first album to bear his name alone. Produced by longtime friend Shooter Jennings, the 12-track set includes a collaboration with Sierra Ferrell (“Friend in the End”), as well as a new version of “You Were It,” the first song Nelson ever wrote — at 11 years old — that was first released on Willie Nelson’s 2004 album “It Will Always Be.”

The set ushers in what Lukas Nelson acknowledges is a new era in his career, one he feels will allow him to make a wide array of music, entirely on his own terms…

* Nelson says via Zoom from New York that he considers stepping away from Promise of the Real — whose other members are working in Young’s Chrome Hearts band — to be “almost cosmetic. What happened to me was the name Promise of the Real was so tied into Neil Young from the times we’d been playing with him that I felt like I wanted to make sure I could do something different, that felt different, that maybe fans of Neil Young or even fans of my dad wouldn’t necessarily be bummed about. I love Neil Young fans, and I love my dad’s fans, but I want to bring other fans along, too. And I felt like sometimes people were getting a little aggressive about me not playing as much guitar or rocking out at certain points. I wanted the freedom to NOT do that, and to do what I want to, when I want to. So I just felt I had to change the name, really.”

* He acknowledges that the tenor of “American Romance” is a bit quieter and more reflective than the harder-rocking Promise of the Real material. “I have so many songs. I was in a flow of writing, and you can’t really tell yourself to write a certain song — some people can, but for me, whatever comes out comes out. So I was writing a lot of songs that were more about lyrics and vocals than they were about rockin’ out. That’s just what was coming out, and I wanted to focus on those songs. Since then, I’ve written a lot of rockers.” (laughs)

* Nelson — who splits time between homes in Nashville and Maui — considers “American Romance” to be a kind of aural travelogue, inspired by his own journeys as a musician. “Moving, traveling — up until this point in my life and, actually, continually that has been my biography the defining aspect of my life. That’s what’s kept me from getting married and having kids. It’s what keeps me from so much. It’s a romance; there’s happiness and sadness, and heartbreak and elation. It kind of covers the gamut.”

* As “American Romance” is his first “solo” album, Nelson felt it would be appropriate to include “You Were It” as the closing track. “I was on the school bus one day when I was 11, and it started playing in my head and I realized it was a song that hadn’t been written yet. So I wrote it and played it for my dad, and he liked it so much he put it on his album. That gave me a lot of confidence; I knew it wasn’t just fluff ’cause dad put it on his album. I figured it was appropriate to finally put it out, and what better way to put it out than on a record with just my name on it. It’s very stripped down; that’s me at my core, so it was kind of a nice callback.”

* Nelson says he has “so many things I’m excited about in the future, including both music and movies. “I’m working on a movie project right now that I can’t really talk about yet, but I’ve written 30 songs for that with Ernest, and that’s exciting. I’ve got some other stuff in New York that I might be doing soon. And I’m planning on recording another album coming up pretty soon; I’m writing for that now, ’cause I can’t stop the songs from coming. I just wrote a song with Ben West and Laci Kaye Booth that feels like a mix of Radiohead and country. So it’s hard to say; I can just tell you there’s a lot of music, and some fun stuff on the horizon.”

Lukas Nelson performs Wednesday, Oct. 22, at the Majestic Theatre at the Majestic Theatre, 4140 Woodward Ave. Doors at 7 p.m. 313-833-9700 or majesticdetroit.com.

It would make sense that a home town show would be special for a band known as the Pan Detroit Ensemble.

And indeed it was on Saturday, Oct. 11 at Detroit’s Majestic Theatre — especially as it was celebrating the release of its first album.

The nine-member troupe is the brainchild of Don Was, the award-winning elite producer and Blue Note Records label president from Oak Park. It’s been together less than two years and played its first “proper” concert on just over 16 months ago at Orchestra Hall. During the interim the Ensemble has toured internationally in addition to preparing the new “Groove in the Face of Adversity,” which came out the day before the concert.

And as Saturday’s hour-and-40-minute show demonstrated, the nonet has grown into an electrifying ensemble, one capable of — in the Detroit music tradition — exploring a repertoire that blends jazz virtuosity with funk energy and a fearless spirit. Was even acknowledged before a couple of the night’s 15 songs that “we sorta knows this, sorta don’t.”

“We’re on a…mission to promulgate the indigenous sounds of our home town,” Was told the Majestic crowd — which greeted the group with a standing ovation even as it walked on stage — before the Ensemble began the night with its rendition of Hank William’ “I Ain’t Got Nothin’ But Time,” adding that in playing Detroit “it’s so nice to be somewhere we don’t have to promulgate.”

What’s changed for the Ensemble since that Orchestra Hall show is the benefits of time. Back then it was a band of players so skilled that their sheer chops belied its short time together. On Saturday, however, it was evident how it has grown into a true, well, ensemble during the intervening months; the arrangements flowed with instinctive acumen, freely improvising upon the songs’ frameworks and often reaching a place of intuitive, organic ecstasy.

It was clear throughout that the Ensemble didn’t necessarily know what was coming from its individual members but still knew exactly what it was doing.

 

Was made early mention of his 45-year association, dating back to his band Was (Not Was), with keyboardist Luis Resto and saxophonist David McMurray, who were featured on “You Asked, I Came” from Was’ score for the 1994 film “Backbeat” and Yusef Lateef’s trippy “Nubian Lady.” All of the players — drummer Jeff Canaday, trombonist Vincent Chandler, trumpeter John Douglas, guitarist Wayne Gerard and percussionist Mahindi Masai — received spotlight moments throughout the night, while vocalist Steffanie Christi’an showed an even greater comfort in her role, commanding the stage with a ferocious, loose-limbed exuberance.

The substantial number of Deadheads at the Majestic did their part in twirling to Jerry Garcia’s “Loser” and a trio of tracks — “Help on the Way,” “Slipknot” and a euphoric “Franklin’s Tower” — from the Grateful Dead’s 1975 album “Blues For Allah.” The Ensemble dipped into the Was (Not Was) canon for the first-album favorite “Carry Me Back to Old Morocco” and, towards the end of the night, “Wheel Me Out,” which came out of a rendition of Cameo’s “Insane” and found Resto adding violin to the mix.

The Ensemble ended the show with the Impressions’ defiant “This is My Country,” which Was noted “is unfortunately becoming ore apropos every day.”

It’s still a young band, but it’s clear the Ensemble is a growing concern — it already has another tour set for January, including four shows Jan. 9-10 at the Blue Llama Jazz Club in Ann Arbor — that’s only growing in potency and is promulgating its Pan Detroit heritage in a manner that does the city proud.

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. 

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