Keeping the Detroit Jazz Festival Free for Everyone

By Frank Alkyer I Sep. 23, 2025

Maria Schneider leads her orchestra through a thrilling set at this year’s Detroit Jazz Festival.
(Photo: Mark Sheldon)

Sometimes words have more than one meaning, as in the lore about free-jazz. It usually surrounds the early work of Ornette Coleman, the father of free-jazz, who somehow gave some unknowing fans in Cincinnati the idea they would be attending a jazz concert at no cost back in the early ’60s.

Spin ahead 60-plus years and scores of stylistic changes since, and head to Detroit over a Labor Day weekend. There, at the Detroit Jazz Festival, the jazz is absolutely, unabashedly free — as in doesn’t cost a dime — giving listeners of all ages, colors and creeds the opportunity to enjoy live music by just showing up.

The 46th edition of the fest, held in downtown Detroit on the banks of the Detroit River, continued the tradition with a call to duty for anyone attending: “Keep it free!”

That’s no easy task, as made clear by Chris Collins, president and artistic director of the Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation. He points out that it costs about $5 million annually to put on the festival as well as the foundation’s other performance and educational outreach programs. Even with a substantial $15 million endowment provided by the late Gretchen Valade, the festival still needs to aggressively raise funds to fulfill the mission of remaining free. At this year’s event, it was never more apparent. Announcements from the stage heralded the theme, as did QR codes on signs and actual cash collection receptacles.

And the more than 300,000 in attendance applauded the message whenever it came up.

That’s because Detroit does jazz fests right. The setting is beautiful, highlighting Detroit at its best. The event is big, with four stages presenting nearly 50 acts over four days. And the music? Well, if you’re looking for free-jazz in the avant garde sense, it’s there, but isn’t the festival’s main vision. That said, those four stages offer a broad array of music and true ambition that keeps fans coming back for more.

The ambition comes in the form of the festival’s annual spotlight on an artist-in-residence. This year, pianist/composer Jason Moran was highlighted in three interesting settings. First, in concert with Jeff Mills, a Detroit legend of techno music, and guest Detroit Poet Laureat Jessica Care Moore doing a totally improvised project called Reanimation.

Second, Moran played piano and led the Detroit Jazz Festival Collegiate Jazz Orchestra through an inspired set of Duke Ellington’s repertoire. After playing Ellington’s “Braggin’ In Brass,” Moran noted how difficult the piece is to play. “These young musicians are tearing it apart,” he said. “So, I want you to listen to it again with a deeper ear.” With that, they played it a second time, both renditions outstanding.

Third, Moran led a stellar set with his band, the Bandwagon, including guests Meshell Ndegeocello and vocalist Akili Bradley.

Further nurturing the festival’s ambition was bringing out the Maria Schneider Orchestra. It’s a large ensemble of 18 members, many of them first-call session players in New York who are popular leaders in their own right. They come together as few big bands today do, seeming almost like a family as well as a musical organization — smiling at solos by Scott Robinson on baritone sax, chuckling at trumpeter Greg Gisbert’s ridiculous facility on his instrument and melting under trumpeter Mike Rodriguez’s solo when he played on a new Schneider piece titled “American Crow.” It was a beautiful selection of music from across the band’s, and Schneider’s, 30-plus-year career.

Beyond being free and bringing in one of the most diverse audiences anywhere, the festival also takes energy from being one of the most diversely programmed festivals anywhere in the world.

Cuban flavor came in strong from outstanding sets by the Chucho Valdés & Paquito D’Rivera Reunion Sextet as well as Omar Sosa’s Quarteto Americanos. Women came to the forefront from all directions with killer sets by the Kris Davis Trio featuring Robert Hurst and Johnathan Blake; the Connie Han Trio; Hiromi’s Sonicwonder; Detroit’s own GSL featuring Gayelyn McKinny, Sequoia “Redwood” Snyder and Laura-Simone; and Endea Owens (another Detroiter) & The Cookout.

All of this is just scratching the surface of a festival that had fans hustling from stage to stage to catch the next great act, then cabbing over to Wayne State University to check out late-night sessions at the Gretchen C. Valade Jazz Center that featured packed houses for the James Carter Organ Trio (Carter is a Detroit native), the Emmet Cohen Trio and the Rodney Whitaker Sextet performing the music of Joe Henderson. Bassist Whitaker is, of course, a local legend, and the late Henderson attended Wayne State.

In all, the festival did an amazing job of shining a spotlight on Detroit while inviting in the whole world — all of it free, and hopefully it stays that way.

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