In conjunction with Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898 – 1971, Mr. B’s 27th Annual Piano Celebration will explore the works of composers such as Jelly Roll Morton, Meade “Lux” Lewis, Jimmy Yancey, Blind John Davis, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Errol Garner, Earl “Fatha” Hines, and many others. Featured guest pianists will include Lluis Coloma, Brendon Davis, and Elder Robert Moore.

This is an excellent opportunity to experience the original sounds and rhythms of the artists that came to define American music across the twentieth century. 

The Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings and conductor Timothy Weiss celebrate the solar eclipse weekend with a performance exploring light, dark, and creativity.

This program features Canti Dell’Eclisse by Bernard Rands, Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy, and Franz Joseph Hayden’s String Quartet in B-flat, op. 76, no. 4. 
 

Norwegian pianist Tord Gustavsen explores new sounds by applying elements of American jazz to the classical, church, and folk music of his youth. The result is an immediately identifiable Norwegian kind of jazz, a descendant of the original with new sources of inspiration that has established Gustavsen as one of Scandinavia’s leading artists.

The trio will preview selections from their soon-to-be-released tenth album which features Gustavsen (piano and electronics), Steinar Raknes (double bass and electronics), and Jarle Vespestad (drums).

“...the cleanest, most genuine manouche jazz being performed in Michigan,” a style originally developed by Romani guitarist Django Reinhardt (Local Spins). Led by guitarist Andrew Brown, the project has gathered a community of musicians who channel the tenacious agility that this music demands.

Djangophonique features Tyler Rindo (clarinet), Jorian Olk-Szost (double bass), Nicholas Martin (rhythm guitar) Katie Smith (vocals) whose soulful approach channels the mystery and appeal of an era.
 

Hailed as “an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde” by the New York Times, Sarah Cahill has commissioned and recorded over seventy compositions for solo piano, including works by Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Pauline Oliveros, Julia Wolfe, Roscoe Mitchell, and Ingram Marshall.

Cahill’s latest project is The Future is Female, a compilation of pieces by women composers from the Baroque to the present. 

Join us as we celebrate Women’s History Month with a talk and mixer featuring Nancy Tellem.

Tellem is the Executive Chairperson of media company Eko (formerly Interlude), co-founder of BasBlue, former President of Xbox Studios, and former President of CBS Entertainment Network and CBS Studios.
 

Join us for a public lecture with award-winning photojournalist Alan Chin as he shares his story, “Home and Away: A Photographer’s Journey Through Conflict and Culture.”

Chin will discuss his experiences as a photojournalist working in China, the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, Central Asia, and Ukraine, as well as the US. Copies of his book Infinity Goes Up on Trial will be available for purchase and signing.

This lecture is sponsored by the DIA's Friends of Prints, Drawings and Photographs.

Celebrate international women's month at the Detroit Institute of Arts with nathan trice / RITUALS: dance, theater & music company's Recognizing Women Project. Come experience a live transformational performance that illustrates the power, presence, and wisdom of women. Performers include Ta'Rajee Omar, Martha Bryan, Paige Bearse, Kiarra Ambrose, Halimah Consuelo, Brooklyn Purry, Lacee Chatman, Roxanne Young, Jasmine Gobourn, and Sofia Gonzalez.

Program:

• Elemental (pt. 1)
• "3"
• Acceptance
• Alchemist In the Garden
• Elemental (pt. 2)
• Their Speech Is Silver, Their Silence Is Gold

The performances will feature the music of Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Peter Gabriel, Keith Jarrett, and Arvo Part.

The Recognizing Women Project was created in 2002 as research and performance initiative to develop dance, theater, and music performances about women across cultures, generations, and geographies. Learn more about the artistic director / choreographer Nathan Trice at nathantricerituals.com

(USA/1925—directed by Oscar Micheaux)

The actor Paul Robeson (1898-1976) first rose to fame as an ensemble member of the Provincetown Players in New York City, starting in 1916. Robeson’s motion picture debut came in Oscar Micheaux’s silent feature Body and Soul as Reverend Isaiah Jenkins, an escaped prisoner masquerading as a clergyman in a rural Georgia church to exploit the most vulnerable members.

The Motion Picture Production Code censored the film, citing its “sacrilege” based on Jenkins' mental abuse of a single mother played by Mercedes Gilbert. Micheaux was able to appease the ruling by re-editing the film with fantasy scenes suggesting any resemblance between the situations in Body and Soul and real life was imaginary. (82 min.)

Presented with a live musical score composed and performed by Rodney Whitaker. 

This program is part of a companion series of film and music events presented in celebration of Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898–1971, on view at the Detroit Institute of Arts Feb. 4–June 23, 2024. Regeneration is organized by the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.   

(USA/1937—directed by Sam Newfield) 

In this long-unavailable film, singer Herb Jeffries makes his cinematic debut as a strapping young cowpoke who comes to the rescue of a traveling medicine show battling outlaws for buried treasure.

Filmed at a Black-owned ranch in California’s Apple Valley, the film also includes Spencer Williams (director of The Blood of Jesus) and doo-wop quartet the Four Tones.

Newly restored, Harlem on the Prairie is packed with priceless music, thrills, romance, and the comedy of renowned actors Mantan Moreland and Flournoy E. Miller. (57 min.) 

This program is part of a companion series of film and music events presented in celebration of Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898–1971, on view at the Detroit Institute of Arts Feb. 4–June 23, 2024. Regeneration is organized by the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.