A billowing tent of jazz and jazz-adjacent sounds is set to be pitched at JazzFest Michigan this week, beginning with a kickoff concert at Old Town’s UrbanBeat venue tonight, stretching through a weekend packed with three stages of music and climaxing in a gospel brunch Sunday with powerhouse vocalist Twyla Birdsong.
While East Lansing’s Summer Solstice Jazz Festival in June revolves, with a disciplined and centripetal spin, around the tight nucleus of Michigan State University’s jazz studies program, JazzFest whirls with centrifugal abandon around a loose cloud of funk, folk, pop, world music, gospel and other styles, echoing the eclectic roster of the festival’s epicenter, UrbanBeat. To scramble the eggs a bit more, each act has been asked to perform an original song or arrangement they’ve never played before. For a full schedule, visit michiganjazzfest.com.
LCB Big Band: Go big and go home
The majesty, momentum and subtlety (well, sometimes) of big-band jazz make it one of those towering national treasures, like Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon, that cry out to be experienced in person…