Documentary Celebrates Generations of Detroit Jazzers

By DownBeat I Dec. 12, 2024

Detroit-bred Elvin Jones remains best known for his revolutionary drumming style.
(Photo: Courtesy Detroit Free Press)

The Best of the Best: Jazz from Detroit is a landmark — the first documentary to explore the dynamic story of the city’s innovative and influential jazz musicians. Inspired by Detroit-based music critic and arts reporter Mark Stryker’s award-winning 2019 book Jazz from Detroit (University of Michigan Press), the film makes the case that you can’t tell the history of jazz without telling the history of jazz from Detroit. Set within Detroit’s dramatic rise and fall as an industrial power and the struggles and triumphs of its African American community, the documentary weaves a compelling historical and cultural tapestry through the 20th and 21st centuries.

From legends like Elvin Jones, Yusef Lateef and Ron Carter to today’s stars like Karriem Riggins, Kenny Garrett and Regina Carter, scores of world-class jazz musicians have rolled off Detroit’s assembly line — nurtured by a profound legacy of mentors such as Barry Harris, Marcus Belgrave and Rodney Whitaker and the resiliency of an often-misunderstood American city that never quits. The film reminds audiences that Detroit remains critical to the American story and a mecca of Black musical excellence, and that jazz is central to the soundtrack of the city’s renaissance.

Among the musicians, producers, historians and writers featured in the film are Harris, Lateef, Riggins, Whitaker, Geri Allen, Terence Blanchard, George Bohanon, Kenny Burrell, Ron Carter, Regina Carter, James Carter, Marion Hayden, Louis Hayes, Robert Hurst, Hank Jones, Elvin Jones, Thad Jones, Sheila Jordan, Christian McBride, Charles McPherson, Pat Metheny, Johnny O’Neal, Endea Owens, Don Was, David Maraniss, Herb Boyd, Jamon Jordan, Marsha Music and many others.

Almost four years in the making, the documentary premiered in April in Detroit at the Freep Film Festival, an all-documentary film festival sponsored by the Detroit Free Press. Stryker and partners Daniel Loewenthal (director and producer) and Roberta Friedman (producer) spent the summer polishing, raising additional money and completing the Byzantine process of licensing the film’s archival footage and recorded music — replacing some archival materials that proved unattainable — preparing to launch the film. The documentary was shown at several music and film festivals this fall, including the Richmond International Film Festival in Virginia, where it has been shortlisted for a jury prize; DokStation 2024, an all-music documentary festival in Bucharest, Romania; the Buffalo International Film Festival; the Newport Beach Film Festival in California; the Windsor International Film Festival in Canada and the Braunschweig International Film Festival in Germany. The producers expect additional festival invitations for late this year and into 2025.

For more information on The Best of the Best: Jazz from Detroit, CLICK HERE. DB