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The Maestro killing it at age 89 in his hometown of Detroit. #DetroitJazzFestival

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Happening Now Ron Carter Foresight Quartet with Jimmy Greene, Renee Rosnes, Peyton Crossley (opening bow) #JazzFromDetroit

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Happening Now Cindy Blackman Santana (backstage view) #JazzFromDetroit

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Happening Now Roberta Gambarini and the Detroit Jazz Festival Orchestra #DetroitJazzFestival

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Detroit Jazz Festival Day 4 Happening Now: Michigan State University Bebop Spartans directed by Rodney Whitaker with guest soloist (and MSU faculty member) Michael Dease.

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An extraordinary document gifted recently to me by a friend: The great poet Michael Harper's rare, cassette only release from 1984, never reissued, featuring Harper reading his work in 1971 at @uofillinois.bsky.social, accompanied by the pioneering cellist Abdul Wadud, then known as Ron DeVaughn.

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Happening Now @Vijay Iyer Trio plus special guest Adam O'Farrill, with Matt Brewer and Jeremy Dutton. #DetroitJazzFestival

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Happening Now Dee Dee Bridgewater and Bill Charlap #DetroitJazzFestival

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Happening Now Joe Lovano and Dave Douglas Sound Prints with Lawrence Fields, Yasushi Nakamura, Rudy Royston. #DetroitJazzFestival

Happening Now Gabrielle Cavassa with Gabe Schneider, Lex Warshawsky, Eric Harland. #DetroitJazzFestival

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Happening Now Kurt Elling singing the music of Weather Report with the Yellowjackets. #DetroitJazzFestival

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Happening Now Artemis -- Renee Rosnes, Ingrid Jensen, Nicole Glover, Noriko Ueda, Allison Miller #DetroitJazzFestival

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Mark Stryker @markstryker.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Happening Now! Detroit Jazz Festival. Ravi Coltrane Quartet with David Virelles, Dezron Douglas, Johnathon Blake. Set opens with first two movements from "A Love Supreme."

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Happening now: Detroit Jazz Festival opening night. Artist-in-residence Joe Lovano with his Paramount Quartet, featuring Julian Lage, Santi Debriano, Will Calhoun.

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Mark Stryker @markstryker.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Happy birthday to Branford Marsalis, who turns 66 today. That means that I am now age ... oh, fuck. I first interviewed him in spring 1992 when I was working for The South Bend Tribune and he was six weeks away from starting The Tonight Show. This excerpt captures something fundamental.

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Mark Stryker @markstryker.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Rara Avis: I have seen many amazing club listings pages but this is the most jaw-dropping. May 6, 1965, Village Voice. Coda: With the passing of Sonny Rollins, I think Ron Carter is the last cat mentioned by name here still on the scene--still playing at an insanely high level. May he go forever.

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Mark Stryker @markstryker.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Jimmy's Blues "The poets, by which I mean all artists, are finally the only people who know the truth about us. Soldiers don't. Statesmen don't. Priests don't. Union leaders don't. Only the poets."--James Baldwin, born 8/2/24 and gone far too young at 63 in 1987. Some first editions from my shelf.

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Mark Stryker @markstryker.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Happy 72nd birthday to drummer Peter Erskine, who isn't from Detroit but, as these photos prove, got an early taste of the city's jazz tradition c. 1961-62 by spending time in the orbit of two of the all-time great Detroiters at Kenton summer camps. Louis Hayes (left) and Donald Byrd (right).

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Mark Stryker @markstryker.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Good God Jazz Showcase, Chicago. 1973.

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Mark Stryker @markstryker.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Nightcap (Op. 74). Recorded c. 1972-73

Mark Stryker @markstryker.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Interesting item in my weekly email from the great Bolerium Books in San Francisco. Jarvis Tyner was McCoy Tyner's brother and the vice presidential candidate of the American communist party in 1976. 4-page flier in newspaper form. $20. Details here if interested. www.bolerium.com/details.php?...

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Mark Stryker @markstryker.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Reminds me of this 1971 flier for Chick's first gig in Detroit as a leader. Not "Stanley" Clarke on bass but "Stan."

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Mark Stryker @markstryker.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

Great photo by Gus Powell accompanying today's @nytimes.com profile of Jay McInerney at age 71. Of course, it echoes the iconic Vintage Contemporaries edition cover of his breakout first novel in 1984.

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Mark Stryker @markstryker.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Happy Birthday to one of my great heroes, Gene Ammons, born this day 101 years ago, 4/14/25 and gone far too young at age 49 in 1974. The sweetest spot on record is 1960-62. Roughly 20 LPs in that widow, including my faves: Jug, Nice 'n Cool, Boss Tenor, Soulful Moods (all in 4th row from bottom).

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Mark Stryker @markstryker.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Show someone who absolutely rocks a hat (that isn't Indiana Jones)

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Mark Stryker @markstryker.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Show someone who absolutely rocks a hat (that isn't Indiana Jones)

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Mark Stryker @markstryker.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Show someone who absolutely rocks a hat (that isn't Indiana Jones)

Mark Stryker @markstryker.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Happy Birthday, Maestro Flanagan. (Not pictured: rare four-tune bootleg tape from the Blue Bird Inn on Detroit's west side, April 1950, with Tommy on piano, Frank Foster on tenor sax, either Alvin Jackson or Beans Richardson on bass, and Art Mardigan on drums.) #JazzFromDetroit

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Mark Stryker @markstryker.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Happy to say that I wrote the liner notes for these recordings , taped at the historic Baker's Keyboard Lounge in Detroit in August 1960. Release date: April 17. Details here: www.universalmusic.ca/press-releas...

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Mark Stryker @markstryker.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Here she is: Jill Watson. Sharp-eyed readers will notice that the guy here is not me but, rather, her Olympic partner, Peter Oppegard. Jill and I were 10 when we skated together. Sharp-eyed readers will also notice that she is not 10 in this picture.