As always in the Motor City, Labor Day weekend heralds the return of the revered Detroit Jazz Festival, which runs this weekend from Sept. 4-7.
This year’s installment comes with a deep roster of heavy-hitting artists – and also some major changes.
“This year, one of the biggest differences will be that we’ve consolidated the footprint for our three stages,” said Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation president and CEO Chris Collins. “All three of them will be located in Hart Plaza, which will be completely gated this year, but it remains entirely free all day long, all weekend long. We made the decision that it would be a lot easier for people to move around between the stages, experience more music and even check out sets going on at overlapping times
because they’re a lot closer. It also helps those with mobility challenges.
“Our production company, Paxahau, has done some amazing work on new technology for sound systems and stage engineering, and I think people are just going to be thrilled at the intimate experience they get even from these large stages and seating areas. It’s going to be quite a lot of fun.”
The festival will also stream live, all weekend, around the world for free. The 2025 festival reached more than 1.5 million viewers in nearly 40 countries.
“If you want to have a watch party at home,” said Collins, “or if you have family in L.A. and you want to say ‘Hey, check out what’s happening in Detroit,’ they can do it on the live streams and have a really, really high-quality audio and visual experience.”
No more coolers
Another change this year that may take some by surprise is the prohibition of coolers brought from home.
“When the festival first started,” Collins said, “it was really an open park, a new thing. It was much more casual, and over 47 years, we’ve garnered a huge audience – over 300,000 in person, and a third of the in-person crowd are typically from out of the country or at least out of the region. So, this idea of gating the entire footprint of Hart Plaza and ending coolers is a way of creating safety and security and monitoring capacities and everything.
“The police do have scanners; everyone must walk through. The easiest thing is to bring a small handbag, if you want, but anything that triggers the scanners, like a large cooler, are going to get you stopped at that security checkpoint and basically searched, and it’s going to delay your entrance. So, for the sake of safety, security and ease of getting in and out, we are making the decision that there will be no coolers allowed.”
Collins acknowledged that coolers have long been part of the Jazz Fest tradition for many.
“But, I can tell you this,” he said. “We have so many great food and beverage vendors throughout the footprint that you won’t need to bring a thing. You’ll have a lot of fun, and you won’t be lugging around a cooler or getting asked to return your cooler to your vehicle before entering, which would be a real drag. We really want people to know this so they have a great time from the moment they step onto the plaza, and they don’t have a thing to worry about. I know it’s a change for many, but it’s one of the results of the modern times we live in and wanting to keep things safe and healthy and happy for everyone.”
A legendary artist-in-residence
Master saxophonist Joe Lovano will serve as this year’s festival Artist-in-Residence, with multiple performances in differing formats studded throughout the weekend.
“My main band right now, the Paramount Quartet, is one of the ensembles that I’m going to be presenting in Detroit,” Lovano told the Free Press in February. “It features Julian Lage on guitar, Asante Santi Debriano on bass, and Will Calhoun on drums. We have a release on ECM that will be out in late May, and then we’re planning to record live in August at the Village Vanguard to follow up, and that’ll be just prior to coming to Detroit. But that’s one of the groups I’m going to have there. I’m real excited about that."
He’ll also bring another working band, Sound Prints, formed with trumpeter Dave Douglas and inspired by late saxophone giant Wayne Shorter.
“Wayne Shorter actually writes a couple compositions for us that he never played,” Lovano said. “Through the years, we’ve been playing a lot. We had (Shorter’s) embrace, and he was really digging that we weren’t really playing his music, but we were playing our own music with a title coming from his inspiration and a focus on a certain way of playing together, sharing the space, being a creative exchange of ideas.”
The third project Lovano will deliver in Detroit is a John Coltrane centennial celebration.
“It’s a really beautiful exchange of personalities,” he said. “It’s a quintet with Melissa Aldana on saxophone, Nduduzo Makhathini on piano, Linda May Han Oh on bass and Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts on drums. In this format, it’s going to be really powerful yet very intimate music.”
The Paramount Quartet released its self-titled album in May.
Lovano credits the musicians he’s played with throughout his lifetime as his inspiration for continuing so prolifically.
“Reflecting and then projecting into new spaces of creativity with different folks,” he said. “Jazz is such a multidimensional music, but there are also so many generations and cultures. Touring internationally the way we do, there’s all kinds of exchanges of ideas and instruments and things; I have a collection of instruments from all my travels through the years that fuel all my ideas.
“People I’ve had a chance to play with – reflecting on their embrace is a big springboard into future moments of music. The older you get and the more you experience, it stays with you and becomes fuel for your inner fire.”
Lovano expressed deep gratitude to Collins for steering the festival for many years and keeping the atmosphere alive.
“I just want to give credit to him for his vision and how gracious he is to everyone that comes to participate,” said Lovano. “It’s a real family affair, and it’s fantastic, man. I’m real excited to be asked to be artist-in-residence, and the ensembles that I’m going to present are going to bring new sounds.”
Remembering Matt Lee
This weekend’s festival will also include a remembrance of one of its most loyal soldiers, musician and publicist Matt Lee, who died in June at 68. Collins, who’d known Lee since playing sax in one of Lee’s bands right out of high school, called Lee “a special guy.”
“Matt was a very important part of the festival team,” said Collins, “as he was for many teams and many media outlets. He gave himself endlessly and was a dear friend. Even though he has a twin brother that’s very much like him, that cat’s one of a kind. It was impossible not to like this guy.
“In this case, the family has collected an amazing montage of images of Matt through different parts of his life, with all the different people he worked with, and captured his spirit. We have a beautiful video tribute to him that’ll play not only once, but several times throughout the festival, and will have a feature moment as well. We want to honor not only what he did for Jazz Fest, but what he did for so many creative musicians in Detroit.”
The Detroit Jazz Festival will take place Sept. 4-7 in downtown Detroit's Hart Plaza. For information, visit detroitjazzfest.org.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: No coolers, new stages for 2026 Detroit Jazz Festival
