Detroit Symphony Orchestra Announces 20th Anniversary Paradise Jazz Series

By SBO+ Staff

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) has announced the 2019-2020 Paradise Jazz Series, which includes six concerts on the Orchestra Hall Stage. The DSO is one of few major American orchestras to present regular jazz programming on its main stage.

Across all of its 2019-2020 programming, the DSO celebrates the centennial of Orchestra Hall, built in 1919 as the first permanent home of the orchestra. From 1941-1951, Orchestra Hall became the Paradise Theatre, a celebrated venue for jazz and blues artists. The upcoming season also marks the 20th anniversary of the Paradise Jazz Series, which takes its name from Orchestra Hall’s ten-year history as the Paradise Theatre.

The 2019-2020 Paradise Jazz Series kicks off on Saturday, September 21, 2019, with a performance by the Branford Marsalis Quartet. Later in the season, two programs celebrate the legacy of the Paradise Theatre and the anniversary of the Paradise Jazz Series. The Duke Ellington Orchestra performs on Friday, December 6, 2019—a nod to the Paradise Theatre’s earliest concerts, which included a date featuring Duke Ellington just four weeks after the venue opened. In a special anniversary concert on Friday, May 2, 2020, Oscar-nominated composer and trumpeter (and Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Jazz Creative Chair) Terence Blanchard will lead an all-star band of artists who have performed on the Paradise Jazz Series since its inception in 1999.

Elsewhere in the season, the Camila Meza Quartet will perform with a DSO string quartet(Friday, January 24, 2020) and Orchestra Hall will host a night of two special duo sets: saxophonist Charles Loyd with pianist Gerald Clayton and pianist Alfredo Rodríguezwith percussion master Pedrito Martinez (Friday, March 20, 2020).

The season will conclude with Series favorite Dianne Reeves, who performed on the inaugural Paradise Jazz Series concert in 1999, and who returns to perform a Brazilian-inspired set (Sunday, June 7, 2020).