Detroit Jazz Festival announces 2025 artist in residence: Details
The Artistic Director for Jazz at The Kennedy Center, Moran has racked up 18 solo releases on Blue Note and Yes Records and was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2022.
'I'm honored,' Moran shared with the Free Press. 'I've been to the festival many times over the years, and I'm always well aware that the Detroit Jazz Festival is one of the best in the world. It opens up the center of the city, by the water, by the border. On all that concrete, they bring all this music and they bring all these people together every year.
'I think about all the great musicians that come from the city, and what they mean to the history of the music that I cherish so much. The people that emerge from the city are raised by an incredible community of musicians and citizens. So it's an honor to be in this position and present a few concerts during the festival weekend.'
Moran teased a few early projects he's tinkering with for the festival.
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'I've spent the last year honoring Duke Ellington's 125th birthday. I rarely work with big bands, but this past year, I've been going around with different bands, bringing Ellington's music and kind of reshaping it. Ellington's music always needs another read-through, just like you would a novel or a poem; Ellington needs another read, another understanding of 'What does his music mean today?' So I proposed to do something with musicians from Detroit and nearby, a big Ellington concert, which is always a lot of fun.
'I love the city of Detroit so much, and also love the different Black music legacies that come from the city – techno is a big one. One thing I've not done is techno, and I would like to try something brand new in Detroit that also works with the Detroit techno legends in a duo setting, such as piano and machine.'
Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation CEO and artistic director Chris Collins had high praise for Moran.
'I have carefully followed Jason's artistic career and his thoughtfulness about art, in his position at Kennedy Center and other ways – not just his raw artistry and the bands he's led and recorded with. He brings meaningful music and an extremely high degree of craftsmanship and creativity, and those are things we look for in our artists in residence, as well as someone that is a good communicator, who can be can serve as an ambassador for Detroit, for the festival, but also engage with other generations of musicians in our community in a way that lifts us all up.
'Jason fills all those bills. We've talked about things for a couple years, as I do with most artists in residence, and this just felt like the right year to bring Jason into our community in a more significant way.'
As the 2025 Artist in Residence, Moran will support Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation educational initiatives for students and community engagement activities across the region throughout the year. In addition, Moran will lead multiple diverse performances during the Festival, Labor Day weekend. He will also perform at the Gretchen C. Valade Jazz Center on the campus of Wayne State University, on Tuesday, April 15, during the Detroit Jazz Festival Preview Event. It will be live-streamed for free on detroitjazzfest.org.
Contact Free Press arts and culture reporter Duante Beddingfield at dbeddingfield@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Jazz Festival announces 2025 artist in residence: Details
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