Regular Midwest Guest readers know that Detroit's annual Concert of Colors is always one of our favorite events of each year.
The festival always fields a great bill of music from Detroit and beyond, but more importantly, the venerable diversity and world music festival, now in its 22nd year, seeks to reignite Detroit's unique spirit of unity and perseverance in the face of adversity.
No doubt about it.
Detroit is facing some serious challenges, especially in recent years.
But we leave the festival as it concludes each year with a renewed spirit of hope and faith in metro Detroit and its people.
One of the festival events that most epitomizes the celebration of all that is the best in Detroit's spirit is the Don Was All-Star Revue, a presentation of some of the city's best classic and emerging musical talent presented by uber producer Don Was.
Was works with an amazing array of people and projects throughout the year, but the Concert of Colors is obviously quite close to his heart. He always looks forward to coming home to promote Detroit's diverse and deep pool of talent while basking in the festival's chill vibe of unity and hope.
The All-Star Revue started seven years ago when Concert of Colors festival organizer and a friend to Was, Ishmael Ahmed, asked Was to help pull the festival out of a jam when one of its headline acts had to cancel at the last minute.
Was suggested that he could pull together a program of Detroit talent, structuring the show as an old-style revue where each act performed one song. That way, each act only had to learn and rehearse one song, and the audience got to see a diverse show of vintage and brand-new talent performing in a variety of genres.
The show was a hit with audiences, and Was found he enjoyed doing it so much that he agreed to stage an encore show the next year, and the next year...with the All-Star Revue becoming an annual tradition at the festival.
Was isn't someone who is content forever repeating himself, though.
He strives to keep the format fresh, and this year's twist for the Revue was revisiting an iconic Detroit album with a diverse group of artists representing different musical genres, generations and ethnicities.
Was chose Bob Seger's "Live Bullet" album, a true Detroit classic for many folks who can identify with Seger's take on the working class' struggle to achieve something better for their families, or to become, in Seger's words, "part of the U.M.C. (Upper Middle Class)".
The 1976 album is a Detroit document of an era many of us remember living through, but in the hands of Was and his team of talent, the music expressed a far more universal spirit than casual Seger fans or critics give the music credit for doing. It clearly spoke across an audience far more diverse in age, experience and sentiment than many people envision Seger's audience of working-class stiffs encompassing.
I am a fan of fairly heavy guitar rock, soul and blues music, so some of my favorite performances of the evening included Spyder Turner's straight-forward and muscular soul take on "I've Been Working" (give the man his beer already!), a blistering funk-filled and soul-drenched performance from Nadir and Steffanie Christi'an of the incendiary "Lookin' Back" and a rollicking "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" from the Infatuations.
But I couldn't overlook the power of some of the quieter takes on Seger's songs like Lamont Zodiac's reflective performance of "Jody Girl" that included an extended spoken-word interlude about memories of long-ago love and Mayssa Karaa's haunting version of "Turn the Page" that had her alternating singing the verses in English and Arabic.
One friend told me that maybe Seger critics just had too difficult of a time banishing visions of Tom Cruise sliding across the floor in his underpants and playing air guitar during a scene in the movie "Risky Business" to the strains of Seger's "Old-Time Rock and Roll" to take Seger's music seriously, but I think they're really missing the message behind a lot of Seger's music.
The audience hearing the All-Star Revue's take on Seger's tunes seemed to get the message.
Detroit is a fighter, Detroit is a lover, Detroit is a dreamer, Detroit is a doer. Detroit may have its back against the wall at times, but Detroit will always prevail because you can't quash Detroit's spirit.
Here is the set list and artists for this year's revue:
Nutbush City Limits-Scott Morgan & The Sights (Rock/Soul)
Travelin' Man-Corktown Popes (Celtic Rock)
Beautiful Loser-Jess Domain (Pop/Soul)
Jody Girl-Lamont Zodiac (Soul)
I've Been Working-Sypder Turner (Soul)
Turn the Page-Mayssa Karaa (Arabic Classical/Jazz)
U.M.C. (Upper Middle Class)-Doop and the Inside Outlaws (Roots Rock)
Bo Diddley-Detroit Cobras (Garage Rock)
Ramblin' Gamblin' Man-The Infatuations (R&B/Rock)
Heavy Music-Luder (Progressive Rock)
Katmandu-Liz Larin (Rock/Electronic)
Lookin' Back-Nadir and Stepffanie Christi'an (Funk/Rock)
Get out of Denver-Blair Alise and the Bombshells (Power Pop)
Let it Rock-the All-Star Revue
Thanks to Tim Marks for allowing me to use several of his photos from this show with this post. Check out more of his photography at his SmugMug page.
©text Dominique King 2014 All rights reserved
©photos Dominique King and Tim Marks 2014 All rights reserved
Comments