Veterans Offer Soulful, Stimulating Sets at Detroit Jazz Festival

By Ted Panken I Sep. 27, 2016

Roy Hargrove performs at the Detroit Jazz Festival on Sept. 3.
(Photo: Tony Graves)

Due to a packed schedule in which one band follows another in rapid succession, it is sometimes impossible to conduct a sound check at DJF, and the Potter ensemble’s first number, “Firefly,” was interrupted by intermittent feedback and issues with the monitors and the mix.

Things settled down when the group addressed the four-part “Imaginary Cities” suite, an ambitious work in which Potter frames his force-of-nature tenor and soprano saxophone voices with well-integrated string writing, providing much room for Rogers, Nelson and Taborn to say their respective pieces, which they accomplished with brio.

I raced back to Wayne State Pyramid Stage to hear the last 20 minutes of a set by legendary bassist and 2016 DJF Artistic Director Ron Carter, who performed with pianist Renee Rosnes, drummer Payton Crossley and percussionist Rolando Morales-Matos. (Carter played Sept. 2 with his nonet; on Sept. 4 with his trio—guitarist Russell Malone and pianist Donald Vega—and on Sept. 5 with his big band.)

As I arrived, Rosnes was developing a two-part invention on “My Funny Valentine,” before darkening the texture and morphing into a blues conversation with Carter. The DownBeat Hall of Fame inductee had the audience in the palm of his hand, assuring them he would conclude the set with “something dedicated to each one of you.”

There ensued “You And The Night And The Music,” which Rosnes and Carter opened with contrapuntal lines before kicking into swing. The highlight was Carter’s elegant, almost jaunty solo, on which he eschewed quotation and enthusiastically dug into the task of finding new ways to create variations on the notes and tones, rendering rhythmic abstractions as the tempo ratcheted up.

Your correspondent dashed back to Carhartt for the evening’s final performance—a Gil Goldstein-arranged Roy Hargrove and Strings project (Hargrove also played the evening of Sept. 4 with the RH Factor). That the set had a disjointed quality was partially due to limited rehearsal time and the mixing problems that ensue without a sound check—the strings were positioned so as to make them seem in a completely different space than Hargrove’s quintet.

Still, Hargrove’s sui generis, voice-like tone—complemented by alto saxophonist Justin Robinson’s tart Bird-meets-Ornette refractions and pianist Sullivan Fortner’s off-kilter declamations—served off-the-beaten track “covers” like Ornette Coleman’s “The Blessing” and Herbie Hancock’s “Actual Proof,” as well as ballads like “I’m Glad There Is You” and the set-closing “You Go To My Head,” on which Hargrove veritably sang through his horn.