Detroit Jazz Festival Garners 1M Viewers

  I  

The Detroit Jazz Festival, which ran during the long Labor Day weekend, reports that about one million people viewed or listened to performances this year.

Sets were streamed from the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center with only select press representatives, production teams and musicians in attendance for more than 40 hours of music because of the pandemic.

“Looking back, we can now truly appreciate the cultural event we created for the worldwide jazz community and all of the effort to keep our mission of free jazz alive during a global pandemic that sidelined most of the other major music festivals around the world,” said Chris Collins, president and artistic director of the festival, in a press release.

The festival said it measured about 600,000 viewers and listeners on its own platforms, with television and radio pushing the numbers up further.

In 2019, the festival said, there were “1,000 new subscribers to the app/livestreams during the four-day event,” and that average in-person attendance was about 325,000. DB



  • Cassandra_Wilson_%40_2026_Mark_Sheldon-2_copy_2.jpg

    Wilson’s ability to connect to audiences helped her to win two Grammy awards and multiple other accolades. She was named an NEA Jazz Master in 2022.

  • GB_Headshot_copy.jpg

    Bertoncini was a specialist and advocate for the nylon-string acoustic guitar, turning down high-profile opportunities that were unsuited to the sound and techniques that he used with that instrument.

  • DB26_Joshua_Redman_Courtesy_Joshua_Redman.jpg

    A solo concert by saxophonist Joshua Redman will close the first night of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival on Sept. 26.

  • Coltrane_John_by_Joe_Alper_copy.jpeg

    “It was just that suddenly … I could hear it,” Ravi Coltrane said of an epiphany he experienced during his late teens regarding his father’s music. “And it was almost like a calling, like something saying, ‘Hey, man, come on. It’s time to get serious.’ And the first time you really tune in and dial in and focus like that, it can be very life-changing.”

  • Thurman_copy.jpeg

    Camille Thurman took to the stage alongside bassist Kenny Davis and drummer Tommy Campbell for a rendition of Johnny Mercer’s “I’m An Old Cowhand” that recalled Rollins’ epochal 1957 trio outing Way Out West.