Detroit Jazz Festival brings crowds back to Detroit, organizer says

Debra Nance of Detroit bobbed her head to the sounds of "Russ Miller: Beatitudes" at the Detroit Jazz Festival on Monday.

"I’m enjoying them," Nance said. "It’s a different type of music for me, but I try to be flexible and open to all kinds of music." The suite represents each of the Beatitudes in the Gospel of Matthew.

Nance has attended jazz festivals in the past, and said she this year's event, which ran Friday through Monday, seemed well attended.

“The sound system is great,” she said. “I’m loving the variety of music and the diversity of people that’s all here.”

Festival organizers would agree with her. One year after returning as in-person event, this year's Detroit Jazz Festival was expected to exceed pre-pandemic attendance numbers with more than 300,000 visitors, they said.

Like any live performance, the artistry, the sounds, are unique. It is the world's largest free jazz festival, featuring world-renowned talent, organizers said.

“The performances you hear in jazz live, they only happen once that way,” said Chris Collins, president of the Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation. “It’s a living breathing, real-time art. So when one is in-person, you feel closer to the performance and in the moments within the performance.”

Collins spoke about this year’s festival on Monday as the Louis Hayes Quintet performed on the Carhartt Amphitheater Stage at Hart Plaza. The seating was packed with a diverse crowd of festival goers.

“The city is the backdrop of this thing,” Collins said. “And the river behind us. There's an environment here, and whether it's a jazz club or Detroit Jazz Festival, the environment plays a role in your overall feeling in connectivity to the performance."

The Detroit Jazz Festival was streamed online in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19, and returned to in-person in 2022. The festival had streaming infrastructure prior to the pandemic via its Detroit Jazzfest LIVE! App.

This year, more than a million viewers from 62 countries have turned in to watch the festival online, Collins said.

It was a welcomed return for Marco and Patricia Nieto of Mexico, who have been regulars of the jazz festival for the past 12 to 15 years, they said.

“We like the quality of the performers,” said Patricia Nieto, 67, on Monday.

They watched Dafnis Prieto, a Cuban drummer and composer, as he performed with the Collegiate Jazz Festival Orchestra on the JPMorgan Chase Main Stage.

“It’s a good thing that young people (are) playing this kind of music, especially in these days,” said Marco Nieto, 69.

The couple, who used to live in Metro Detroit, also attended the festival on Saturday and visited friends.

Brian and Jordan Morton of Rochester Hills were newcomers to the festival. The couple brought their two children, Joy, 6, and Messiah, 3. Brian Morton, 29, said he was pleased to see the variety of food trucks and the different performance stages.

Jordan Morton, 27, said when they heard of the free event, they thought it would be a nice way to spend time as a family.

"I love jazz music," she said. "It's so soothing. Even though it's hot, it was just good to see the community come together and have something to do in the world of hectic stuff ... It shows how beautiful Detroit is."

cwilliams@detroitnews.com