Jazz and Broadway concerts fill this weekend's metro Detroit arts options
Jazz looms large this weekend in Detroit’s arts scene, with concerts at venues ranging from large to intimate. Here are five options to check out.
Award-winning orchestral jazz
Multi-Grammy winning composer and conductor Maria Schneider will bring her full jazz orchestra to Ann Arbor’s Hill Auditorium Saturday at 8 p.m., presented by the University of Michigan’s University Musical Society. Schneider will lead the orchestra through selections from her 2021 Pulitzer Prize finalist album “Data Lords,” a critique on big data companies for their impact on privacy and culture. NPR wrote, “It amounts to the most daring work of Schneider’s career, which sets the bar imposingly high. This is music of extravagant mastery, and it comes imbued with a spirit of risk.” Time Magazine added, “To call Schneider the most important woman in jazz is missing the point two ways. She is a major composer — period.”
Hill Auditorium, 825 N. University Ave., Ann Arbor. 734-764-2538. www.ums.org. Tickets starting at $55.
Postmodern Jukebox returns
Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox, the viral hitmaker famed for taking pop, rock and hip-hop songs and turning them into swingy, earworm jazz tunes, brings its “Life in the Past Lane” tour to The Fillmore Detroit on Sunday, March 12 at 7 p.m. Always a crowd pleaser, it’s also a family-friendly show.
The Fillmore Detroit, 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit. 313-961-5451. www.livenation.com. Tickets start at $25.
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When Josie comes home
Friday night, Cadieux Café will present “The Music of Steely Dan with the Kris Kurzawa Group.” Kurzawa, a Detroit guitarist, will lead his combo through the legendary jazz-rock group’s entire “Aja” album and play other songs from their discography as well. Is it niche? Yes, but the music will be excellent!
Cadieux Café, 4300 Cadieux Rd., Detroit. 313-882-8560. www.cadieuxcafe.com. Tickets are $10.
Album release party
Pianist, composer, arranger and bandleader Margherita Fava will celebrate the March 10 release of her debut album “TATATU” with two Friday evening performances at Ann Arbor’s Blue Llama Jazz Club, 6:30 and 9 p.m. Fava attended Michigan State University, studying with Xavier Davis and graduating with a degree in jazz studies before earning a master’s in music at the University of Tennessee, where she studied with Eric Reed and Greg Tardy. At the Llama, she’ll be joined by Brandon Rose on bass and Jonathan Barber on drums.
Blue Llama Jazz Club, 314 S. Main St., Ann Arbor. 734-372-3200. www.bluellamaclub.com. Tickets start at $35.
Broadway legends at the symphony
All weekend, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra will honor Broadway giants Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Leonard Bernstein and more with a program of classic stage hits performed by full orchestra and vocalists Andrea Ross and Jim Hogan. Andy Einhorn will conduct the performances, held Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m.
Orchestra Hall, 3711 Woodward Ave., Detroit. 313-576-5111. www.dso.org. Tickets start at $19.
Contact Free Press arts and culture reporter Duante Beddingfield at dbeddingfield@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Jazz, Broadway concerts fill this weekend's metro Detroit arts options
