The Detroit Jazz Festival brings the world to the Motor City

A photo essay from three distinct vantage points

CJAM 99.1 FM was proud to receive media accreditation from the Detroit Jazz Festival this year, and this post is part of our festival coverage. The following is an excerpt from a longer piece by CJAM Music Director Austin Di Pietro, originally published on his Substack, borderland, along with a gallery of his photos from the festival. Read the full article here. Listen to shft (music variety) on Wednesdays from 1-2pm and sister show, late shft (new jazz releases) on Thursday evenings from 10pm-midnight, only on CJAM 99.1 FM.

For many Detroit music lovers, Labour Day Weekend is a yearly tradition spent outdoors, no matter the weather, on the hot concrete of Hart Plaza. The Detroit Jazz Festival, which just concluded its 47th edition, has been bringing world class acts to the city for close to a half-century.

And it’s not just locals who make this festival a tradition – jazz lovers and industry professionals from all over the world travel here to experience it year after year. The festival has built a strong reputation among the world’s jazz musicians and aficionados alike on account of its tagline as the world’s largest free jazz festival, and for its superior programming.

Free music festivals are hard to come by. Large-scale concerts, tours, and festivals have become more expensive to produce and the average concert ticket price has surged dramatically in recent years, far outpacing the general rate of inflation. But not the Detroit Jazz Festival… No ticket required; just show up. And it’s always been that way.

It’s easy to take this festival for granted as a local. Many of us started attending at a young age, and don’t think twice about how rare it is because we don’t have another major jazz festival nearby to compare it to. But this is not the norm.

Many of the other big jazz festivals around the world rely heavily on ticket sales to stay afloat. As a result, they often have to stretch their programming in order to cast a wider net. While some of these acts have no doubt been influenced by jazz and may even be considered jazz-adjacent, this approach to programming often squeezes out many of the lesser-known, more cutting-edge artists.

This is where the Detroit Jazz Festival rises to the top.

I had the unique opportunity to experience the festival this year from three different perspectives: as a performer, as a media rep on behalf of CJAM FM, and as an audience member. Each perspective had its highlights, and brought a more fulsome understanding of this festival I had attended for so many years.

From the Lens: View from the Photographer’s Den

Through my work as Music Director at CJAM FM, I had the opportunity to exchange my trumpet for a camera and get up close to the action for days three and four. With a media pass around my neck and a Detroit Tigers ballcap on my head, I joined the other photographers in the space beneath the stage and in front of the VIP seating area, trying our best to stay low and out of the way – a stark contrast to performing on stage with my band the day before.

As a Radio Programmer and Music Director at CJAM, I had been researching the artists on the program for weeks, looking for any newly released albums that could be added to our on-air music library, and tracks to feature during my radio shows (shft and late shft) in order to promote the festival. It quickly became apparent that many of the artists on the bill were promoting new records, and each was taking a vastly different approach to the music. Some were more straight ahead while others were pushing the music to the limits of what we consider to be ‘jazz’ — a testament to the innovative programming of this great festival.

Pianist Sequoia Snyder’s set on the JP Morgan Chase Stage comes to mind as a real standout performance. Based in D.C., but schooled in Michigan with two degrees from Michigan State University’s jazz program, she called Detroit her “second home” during her Sunday performance with her group, INNER KNOWING. Her set effortlessly blended contemporary sounds of R&B, soul, and hip-hop with moments of straight-ahead swing and burning solos deeply steeped in the jazz language. Her compositions and set were exciting and transcendent. I had seen her perform on the DJF stage before with various other groups, so I had an inkling of what to expect, but had never seen her own group. Definitely one to look out for on the international jazz scene.

In a totally different musical vein, 2026 Legacy Artist Jaribu Shahid’s set on the Waterfront stage featured a program of mostly free jazz in salute to the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians): a famous music collective founded in Chicago in 1965 to support original jazz and experimental music. A local artist who rarely gets his due, Jaribu was an original member of the legendary Detroit avant-garde band Griot Galaxy, and has worked and recorded with such giants as Sun Ra, Geri Allen and Martha Reeves and the Vandellas. His band at the 2026 Detroit Jazz Festival featured a stacked cast of top Detroit musicians: Tony Holland and Steve Grady on saxophones; Allen Dennard on trumpet; Michael Malis on piano; and Jonathan Barahal Taylor on drums.

Another highlight was of course the great bassist Ron Carter. I was able to get up close during his Monday night performance on the Waterfront Stage. He came out sporting a pristine 3-piece navy blue suit matching the rest of his band, and a bright yellow ballcap. The audience was packed tightly together to catch a glimpse of the man nicknamed ‘Maestro’. A Guinness World Record holder for the most-recorded jazz bassist in history, he’s appeared on over 2,200 albums – many of which are seminal to the jazz canon. Originally from Ferndale, Michigan, the set was an emotional homecoming for the musical giant.

It was a special experience to be able to photograph the Maestro up close, but I quickly retreated to be among the crowd where the atmosphere was one of reverence and admiration for the man heard on so many of their favourite records.

Continue reading about Austin’s experience on stage and in the crowd at the Detroit Jazz Festival on Substack.