Detroit Life

The Jazz Loft is a club located above The Golden Fleece Restaurant in Detroit’s Greektown area. Normally, the joint is called Exodos, but on Monday nights it’s The Jazz Loft. I believe the original host, saxman Gerard Evans, may have dubbed it The Jazz Loft. I’m not sure. But the name stuck. Anyone who comes to the club based on the Monday night hit refers to it as The Jazz Loft.

I dub it, further, as the “overground underground“. It’s located on the 2nd floor, which is kind of a pain-in-the-back when you have to lug heavy equipment up and down the stairs every week. But, somehow, it’s an act that I carry out on a weekly basis, sorta like going to church or something.

Once up the stairs, you make a left turn into this hip, cozy, lofty club and enter Detroit’s best kept secret on a Monday night. (A right turn will take you into the otherworldly adventures of a psychic palm reader. Somehow, this seems appropriate.) You’re immediately greeted at the door by the happiest woman in the world, Denise Dotson, a.k.a. Diva D. She’s a vocalist, but she’s also the person who collects the benign donation at the door that supports the band and gets you inside.

The club has 2 rooms, one featuring the bar, the other featuring the stage, with seats, tables and couches. The club is painted in a kind of dark red, burgundyish color that requires a swatch from the paint store to know the name of it. Very comfortable atmosphere, to say the least.

When the weather is warm, the band sets up outside on the patio, which has been under as much as construction as some of the area freeways in the past couple of years in order to accomodate various other dance parties held at the club on other nights of the week. The patio is hip! It’s all woody, with white sheets hanging about, adding to the Greek ambience theme in some way. Also, due to construction, there are more covered areas than there used to be, but there is still plenty of open sky for summer partying. When we’re playing, tables and chairs are brought out and set on the first level of the multi-leveled deck. There is an outdoor bar, a now-covered area for DJs for when they’re doing that party, and various spaces on various levels for patrons to hang out and chill.

The Monday night show is hosted by my brother, Milton Hale, who plays drums. On bass is Ibrahim Jones, and I play keys. However, the gig is a hot jazz jam session, and musicians and vocalists are encouraged to come up and join the band. Milt is a good host, and keeps the party moving. He engages the players and the audience, and sets the tone of the night. Ibrahim (pronounced EE-bra-heem), or simply Ib (EEB) as we call him, is a very talented, agressive bassist with a contagiously hip personality. As a band, we attempt to swing the lights out, and dig into grooves. Anyone who plays with us knows that’s our M.O.

Fortunately for us, we live in a city where kickass players come out of the woodwork to contribute to those hot ass grooves. The list of musicians and vocalists who have come through The Jazz Loft is a sort of microcosmic Who’s Who of some of the best players from Detroit, some who primarily serve the metro area while others are international players. And many do both due to the fact that they still live here in the city, and play gigs any- and everywhere on the planet. We’ve had pianists like the extraordinary Johnnie O’Neil, Carlos McKinney, Kelvin Sholar, Alina Morr, Kenny Cox, Charles Green, Mike Jellick, Chris Codish, Steve Ritchko, Jim David, “Rockin’ Ricky” Jones, Robert Jones, Mark McGruder, “Canadian Phil” Whitfield, Shawn McDonald, Scott Gwinnell, Keith Ferguson, Greg Dokes, Brandon Williams, Duncan McMillan, Leonard Moon, Harvey Reid, Randall Poindexter, Mark LoDuca and John Dixon, amongst others.

We’ve had so many outstanding musicians over the years that it’s almost shocking. The long list includes: the great trumpet master Marcus Belgrave, trumpeter Dwight Adams, legendary saxman Larry Smith, saxman Alan Barnes, guitar master Perry Hughes, drummer Karriem Riggins, guitar great Johnny Bassett, sax phenom James Carter, trumpeter Walt Szymanski, trombonist Vincent Chandler, saxman Dean Moore, drummer Dave Brandon, saxman Scott Reiter, drummer Skeeto Valdez, saxman Keith Kaminsky, bassist Greg Cook, trumpeter John Douglas, drummer Terry Thunder, guitarists Paul Carey, Eric Watson and Evan Perri, drummer Greg “Vibrations” Williams, trumpeter Rayce Biggs, bassist Damon Warmack, drummer Nate Wynn, trumpeter/drummer Frank McCullers, his brother saxman Dezi McCullers, Jr., drummer Ron Pangborn, guitarist Jerome Clark, drummer Djallo Djakate Keita, bassist Josef Deas, drummer Gabe Gonzales, guitarist Mike Figaros, bassist Andrew Klein, saxman DeSean Jones, drummer Alex Brooks, saxman Gerard Evans, guitarist Andy Perry, bassist/keyboardist Glen Oliver,drummer Rick Beamon, saxman Richard White, trumpeter James O’Donnell, drummer GayeLynn McKinney, saxman Rafael Statin, bassist Pathe Jassi, guitarist Brett Lucas, drummer R.J. Spangler, drummer Dave Marcaccio, saxman Cassius Richmond, drummer Ken Scott, trumpeter Willie Matthews, percussionist Jamalot, guitarist Jeff Grand, drummer Butter Hawkins, guitarist Calvin Brooks, bassist Chris Rumel, violinist Leslie De Shazor, drummer Jerome Spearman, bassist Jim Simonson, guitarist Randall Wilson, saxman Dave Appelman, bassist Emily Rogers, saxman Glen Myrick, bassist/vocalist Fonte Everette, guitarist Ras Kente, drummers Big Walt and Carrie (aka Twin Towers), trumpeter Carey Heller, drummer Alex White, saxman Pat Seymour, bassist Shannon Wade, guitarist Ralph “RT” Tope, bassist Noah Jackson, saxman Mike Fleming, guitarist Loba, guitarist Mike Gabriel, saxman Bosco, guitarist Erich Goebel, trumpeter Anthony Womack, bassist Sean Harris, drummer Terrence Neal,&nbs p;bassist Jeff Reynolds, drummer Julian Van Slyke, saxman “Showtime” Johnnie Evans, guitarist Mike Smith, drummer Keith Glass, sax & fluteman Darrius Summers, guitarist Keith Owens, saxman/guitarist Spence Beamon, and many, many more.

Vocally, we’ve had Joan Crawford, Shahida Nurullah, Audrey Northington, Sky Covington, Terry T., Chelly K, Sheila Hale, Jerourde Williams, Buddy Smith, Carolyn Crawford, Trish Shandor, Sheila Slaughter, Leslie Nelson, DeNise Jonson, vocalist/pianist Ola Hemphill, Denise “Diva D” Dotson, Helen Gilbert, Brenda Bradley, Jackie Green, Johnny O, Kym Wright, Jessalyn Brooks, Bill Beaver, Shiron O’Neal, Therese Rose, Misty Love, Diane Leslie, Lola Morales, Detroit’s own Nina Simone, and Renee Rice, to name the names that came to my head while writing this.

The world of The Jazz Loft (TJL, hereafter) is, well, otherworldly. It is a late gig with a late night feel. After you leave Diva D at the door, Bill the Bartender is the next place you tend to end up. Bill is a world unto himself. He’s almost like a band member, but he’s definitely a bartender. One of the best. He’s one of the most non-abrasive people I’ve ever met. This translates to no problems at the bar. It’s all good. All that, plus the fact that they have Beck’s Dark, puts TJL in a category of its own.

The personalities of the patrons make this place what it is: A hangout for neo-hippies. The fact that we play jazz, and have built up the crowd that we have at TJL says something positive about this town. The culture of musicians and those who like dance music merges and becomes a unique gumbo of personalities. Perhaps the character of the room itself contributes to that mix, but there is plenty of it there. Despite all the hardships and corporate looniness that is so prevalent here in our town, many of us have understood the times, made adjustments, and still have managed to maintain a creative enough lifestyle to continue to have our gigs and parties. That speaks monuments of the evolving, gritty nature of the denizens of of today’s Detroit. And with all the food banks that are popping up all over town, eventually this place will be the midwest San Francisco from all the hippies living here and growing veggies in what used to be vacant lots now turned into local food gardens. The farmlands return to Detroit!

What do you get when you mix neo-hippies with a bunch of swingin’ jazz musicians? A party that you couldn’t predict. And that party happens every week, on a Monday night of all nights! But it’s like the Hotel California when you finally make the journey up the stairs: You can check out any time you want, but you can never leave. TJL is a location, an idea and a state of mind pressure-cooked and shaken (not stirred) in this overground underground hangout.

On a weekly basis, you never know which musicians (outside of the house band) are going to appear. As a player, I just do my own thing. I listen to music on the drive-in, making sure I get a good listening session in before heading up the stairs. I turn up the sounds and let the music flow, soaking in the sounds of my favorite players, bathing my ears in some hardcore swingin’ grooves, intending an alignment within me. Once I’m up, there’s no telling who I’ll end up playing with. So I like to be mentally ready, and get the non-related life noise out of my head beforehand. It’s sort of a meditation, you could say.

I know that, when it’s playing time, Milt will mix it up. Maybe a warm-up swinger, a bossa perhaps…then it’s off to the races! “7 Steps To Heaven” or “Caravan” won’t be far behind. I like to be ready to hit whatever, whenever. I just try to stay focused and loose, ready for whatever comes up.

I think that our audience responds to the intimate setting, and experiencing the musicians up close and personal. Everyone is completely intertwined. There’s no separation of players and audience–everyone is right there together. There is the inside and the deck, but everyone is all over everywhere. Everyone can talk to everyone free of barriers. Totally hip.

The players get the opportunity to interact with other players. Well, it IS a jam session. The mix of players can be quite interesting. On a given night, you can have elite players from the area mixing it up with elite players from out of town. Or you might have just all local players mixing it up. Maybe Larry Smith or Dwight Adams will show up and bring their unique experiences and styles to the gig. Or you might have Sky Covington or Terry T vocalizing in their own unique way. And then you’ll get all sorts of bands with different people coming up and replacing somebody, or adding sounds to what’s already happening.

Some nights just have their own personality which is totally different from any other night. I remember one night Carlos McKinney, a keyboard phenom whose talent points toward Herbie Hancock-like abilities, was sitting at the bar. He was early, which means we hadn’t started when he presumed we would, and he was just sitting patiently, hanging out. Knowing he was there made me get more into my sound because I knew when he came up he would get into his! So, once we were playing, I just got in and started having fun. After a couple of opening songs, I called Carlos up, not just for relief but because I’m a big fan. And, sure enough, he came up and laid it out! It sounded like Hands Across America–his hands were coming from everywhere! Same with Johnny O’Neal, another great keyboardist. One night, even after the gig was over, he was still in the groove and just sat up and played solo piano for quite awhile. He had a crew gathered around the piano like it was 1940 and everything was part of a black & white movie. You just can’t beat the influence of great players on a song, a set, or a gig. It’s special.

From the beginning of the night til the end, there are plenty of surprises. And it all comes crashing to an end when Diva D’s smiling face comes up and sings “Love Dance”, followed by Milt’s countdown of a superspeed end-of-the-night swing tune (the name of which I may have never known), and followed still by a version of “In A Silent Way” which is the party closer.

TJL is definitely special. The fact that you can order from The Golden Fleece’s menu of Greek cuisine only adds to an already phat list of positives. This session turns 6 years old in January. So we’re deep in a 5 year celebration that continues to feel like a celebration every week. TJL is a gem in downtown Detroit, a place for hip late-night roamers who are looking for that place where hippies, urbanites and creative people go when the walls close in on them on a Monday night. Let the dark night caress your skin…

Phil Hale – PhilHarmonic / 10.1.2009