Bassist Christian McBride & the Detroit Jazz Festival Orchestra

Perform at 2010 UM Jazz Festival

February 2010

The 2010 University of Michigan Jazz Festival comes to Ann Arbor on Saturday, February 13,a day when high school students, college students, and lovers of jazz of all ages come to town. An entire day of jazz and nothing but jazz kicks off at the Earl V. Moore Building, home of the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, with back-to-back clinics, demonstrations, performances, lectures, and presentations, all united under one theme.

Special guests include jazz bassist Christian McBride, whose ensemble will perform at the grand finale Festival Feature Concert, with the recorded premiere of his new work, The Movement Revisited, which pays tribute to Rosa Parks, Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr., through spoken word and music. U.S. Representative John Conyers, Jr., whose efforts in arts advocacy resulted in Congress passing the Jazz Preservation Act in 1990, will be acknowledged with a special award.

Michigan State Governor Jennifer Granholm will declare February 13 Charles Mingus Day. To commemorate this jazz bassist’s seminal work, Charles Mingus: The Man and Music will be presented at 1:00 in Stamps Auditorium, moderated by Linda Yohn of WEMU radio, with the School’s own Robert Hurst, acoustic bassist, and Mr. McBride. A Big Ten Jam Session will invite traditional rivals—Spartans, Buckeyes, and Wolverines—to mix it up in a session with the UM Student Jazz Combo.

The Festival Feature Concert at 8:00 p.m. at the Power Center for the Performing Arts will include a performance by the UM Jazz Ensemble and the Detroit Jazz Festival Orchestra, under the baton of faculty member Dennis Wilson. Then the Christian McBride Band and the Second Ebenezer Majestic Voices Gospel Choir will take the stage with a powerhouse performance that will bring the festival to a close.

If you love jazz, come hang out for the day. For tickets, call the Michigan Union Ticket Office at 734-763-8587. For more information and a detailed schedule, visit music.umich.edu/jazz festival.