Don’t dare duck out: Jam-packed Summer Solstice Jazz Festival pulls out the stops

A hit of Trinidad and Tobago, a cruise across Cuba, a dip to Detroit and just about every good thing MSU’s jazz program has to offer will fill East Lansing’s 2019 Summer Solstice Jazz Festival to overflowing this year.

The festival is so packed no music lover will dare duck out, even to grab a bite or take care of other critical business. Take a backpack full of bagels, a secure carafe of coffee and a reliable adult garment.

The festival is always a chance for MSU’s stellar jazz faculty to burn brightly in the open air, and this year several of MSU’s biggest stars are bringing unique groups and projects of their own. Trumpeter Etienne Charles, riding a year of national critical acclaim for his ebullient “Carnival” project, brings his own globe-trotting group to his adopted home town for the first time 8 p.m. Friday. (See related story here.)

A guest artist new to the area will follow Charles with a Caribbean carnival all her own. Toronto saxophonist Jane Bunnett is bringing her young Cuban ensemble, Maqueque, to play a summery, sweet spicy blend of Afro-Cuban and American jazz styles that is also garnering national attention. (See related story here.)

Besides Charles, several other members of the MSU Professors of Jazz are teaming up and breaking out in manifold forms and settings.

Drummer Randy Gelispie, a living link to the 1950s and 1960s who has played with such greats as Wes Montgomery and Thelonious Monk, is getting an entourage worthy of his heavyweight status. Gelispie has a long history with the classic organ-guitar-drums trio, including a 1960s stint with Gene Ludwig and Pat Martino. That tradition comes to simmering life Friday at 6 p.m., with two top musicians Lansing has sucked into its orbit in recent years: Detroit’s Hammond B-3 burner Bill Heid and Indiana’s poly-stylistic guitarist Fareed Haque. They’ll be joined by two of the most fearsome and fiery MSU professors, trombonist Michael Dease and saxophonist Diego Rivera.

Saturday night at 6:15, MSU’s stalwart professor of jazz piano, Xavier Davis, will team up with a Detroit legend, violinist Regina Carter, who brought her Ella Fitzgerald tribute to the Wharton Center in February.

Where does that leave Rodney Whitaker, MSU’s jazz studies chief and the festival’s artistic director? With Whitaker’s roundtable of MSU faculty stars otherwise engaged, the bassist has resorted to pulling a heist.

He has kidnapped, for one night, a distinguished and badass delegation from another top jazz studies program, Temple University’s Boyer College of Music in Philadelphia.

Local jazz fans recall blazing local appearances by trumpeter Terell Stafford (director of jazz studies at Boyer College) and tenor saxophonist Tim Warfield. They’ll both join Whitaker Saturday at 8 p.m., along with pianist and composer Bruce Barth, another Boyer College stalwart. Vocalist Rockelle Fortin will stir the sauce.

Philly is fine, but the festival’s Detroit connection is always its strongest. This year is no exception, with an appearance at 9:45 Saturday from the incomparable Motor City ensemble Straight Ahead: violinist Regina Carter, bassist Marian Hayden, drummer Gayelenn McKinney, pianist Alina Morr, each a musical icon and leader in her own right.

And for those who say there’s too much sax and violins in today’s world, too bad — Ann Arbor violinist Maureen Choi will hit the stage at 4:30 Saturday to play her own brand of lyrical, Spanish-tinged jazz.

All of this is great news for jazz lovers, but you’d better pace yourself sipping on that Thermos of coffee, because this year, there will be no letup.