![]() The festival was sponsored first by the university with help later from the Canterbury House, an Episcopal group which owned a folk club in Ann Arbor. The Ann Arbor Blues Festival was created and organized by a group of University of Michigan students led by Cary Gordon, a native of suburban Detroit, and John Fishel, who grew up in Cleveland and had transferred to Michigan from Tulane University. It debuted at number 10 in the Billboard Blues Albums Chart in the week of August 17, 2019. An album containing various musicians performances at that Festival was released in 2019. King, Freddie King, Magic Sam, Sam Lay, Jimmy "Fast Fingers" Dawkins, Otis Rush, Charlie Musselwhite, Roosevelt Sykes, Muddy Waters, T-Bone Walker, Big Mama Thornton, Junior Wells, and Howlin' Wolf. Musicians at the festival included Clifton Chenier, Son House, J. The first North American blues festival, where blues was the main attraction, particularly modern electric blues, was the Ann Arbor Blues Festival in 1969. Honoring its origin as an outdoor festival, the Ann Arbor Blues Festival 2017 was on a grassy field at Washtenaw Farm Council Fairgrounds, a few miles to the southwest of the 1969 festival. The Bird of Paradise Jazz Club, run by jazz musicians in Ann Arbor, attracted jazz aficionados to two Friday night and two Saturday night concerts. Headline jazz and blues artists appeared. ![]() The largest evening concert took place in the restored Michigan Theater. The site can accommodate over 10,000 attendees and includes a main stage, a tent to shelter attendees, sponsor booths, a kid's tent, food and vendor booths, arts booths, the Meet the Artist tent, and a backstage hospitality area reserved for artists, sponsors, and their guests. Saturday and Sunday outdoor concerts took place in Gallup Park, a 70-acre (280,000 m 2) park straddling the Huron River in northeast Ann Arbor. In 2017, the festival returned to its roots as an outdoor event. Outdoor evening shows were moved inside to venues such as the Michigan Theater and the club Bird of Paradise. (It had been a medical waste dump site before the school was built) In 1972 the area became the Otis Spann Memorial Field when Muddy Waters presented a plaque to Spann's widow that read "The people of Ann Arbor Michigan in recognition of the talent, the genius of the late Otis Spann, sweet giant of the Blues, formally dedicate the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival, 1972 in the grounds upon which it stands to the memory of this great artist."Īlthough the outdoor festival was central, the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival became a daytime event. John, Al Green, Yusef Lateef, Taj Mahal, Maceo Parker, Sun Ra, Bonnie Raitt, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, and Cecil Taylor.Įarly festivals (before 1974) were held on the "Fuller Flats" an open area on the north side of Fuller Road and just west of Huron High School. & the MG's, James Brown, Ray Charles, Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis, Dr. The festival has included musicians such as Art Ensemble of Chicago, Count Basie, Booker T. Before it ceased operations in 2006, the festival organization expanded to include activities for children, educational outreach programs, and a Meet the Artist program which gave the audience a chance to meet performers. In addition to the daytime festival, evenings offered a choice of indoor (seated) concerts and live jazz in a club setting. What began as an outdoor concert became a full weekend of blues and jazz events. Although the festival has had a tumultuous history and suspended operations in 2006, it was restarted in 2017.Īlthough started with the support of the University of Michigan, the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival became a volunteer non-profit 501(c) event. ![]() ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)ġ969–70, 1972–74, 1992–2006, 2017–19, 2021–Īnn Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival is a music festival in Ann Arbor, Michigan, that started in 1972 from the Ann Arbor Blues Festival, which itself began in 1969. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. The reason given is: What happened in 2018 to date (if anything)?.
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