| Mack Avenue Records | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Founded | 1999 |
| Founder | Gretchen Valade |
| Genre | Jazz |
| Country of origin | U.S. |
| Location | Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan |
| Official website | www |
Mack Avenue Records is an independent record label in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan.
| Mack Avenue Records | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Founded | 1999 |
| Founder | Gretchen Valade |
| Genre | Jazz |
| Country of origin | U.S. |
| Location | Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan |
| Official website | www |
Mack Avenue Records is an independent record label in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan.
Mack Avenue was founded in 1999 by Gretchen Carhartt Valade, a jazz fan and chair of the American apparel company Carhartt. The company is a sponsor of the Detroit Jazz Festival, to which Gretchen Valade donated $15 million in 2006. [1]
Early Mack recording artists included Terry Gibbs, Oscar Castro-Neves, and George Shearing. Over time Mack Avenue signed veteran jazz musicians such as Gary Burton, Kevin Eubanks, Stanley Jordan, Christian McBride, Gerald Wilson, and the Yellowjackets. Acquisitions made in 2008 expanded the label's catalogue into additional genres, such as the blues, gospel, and rhythm and blues (R&B), with Jonathan Butler, Brian Bromberg, Rick Braun, Richard Elliot, and Kenny Rankin. Mack Avenue's recording artists have earned multiple Grammy awards and nominations. [2] [3]
In 2016, Mack Avenue expanded its catalog when it acquired MAXJAZZ. [4]
Motown is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on January 12, 1959, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of motor and town, has become a nickname for Detroit, where the label was originally headquartered.
Chess Records was an American record company established in 1950 in Chicago, specializing in blues and rhythm and blues. It was the successor to Aristocrat Records, founded in 1947. It expanded into soul music, gospel music, early rock and roll, and jazz and comedy recordings, released on the Chess and its subsidiary labels Checker and Argo/Cadet. The Chess catalogue is owned by Universal Music Group and managed by Geffen Records and Universal Music Enterprises.
The Detroit Jazz Festival is a free jazz festival held every year during Labor Day Weekend at Hart Plaza and Campus Martius Park in Detroit, Michigan.
Terell Stafford is a professional jazz trumpet player and current Director of Jazz Studies at the Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University.
Jessica Jennifer Williams was an American jazz pianist and composer.
Gerald Stanley Wilson was an American jazz trumpeter, big band bandleader, composer, arranger, and educator. Born in Mississippi, he was based in Los Angeles from the early 1940s. He arranged music for Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles, Julie London, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Carter, Lionel Hampton, Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, and Nancy Wilson.
Russell Lamar Malone was an American jazz guitarist. He began working with Jimmy Smith in 1988 and went on to work with Harry Connick Jr. and Diana Krall throughout the 1990s.
Sean Jones is an American trumpeter and composer featured on the 2007 Grammy Award-winning album Turned to Blue by Nancy Wilson. As a bandleader, Jones has released eight albums under the Mack Avenue Records label. He performs with his own groups both nationally and internationally. Jones often plays at music venues and jazz festivals such as the Monterey Jazz Festival, Detroit International Jazz Festival, the Vail Jazz Festival and Montreal International Jazz Festival.
Steve Wilson is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, who is best known in the musical community as a flutist and an alto and soprano saxophonist. He also plays the clarinet and the piccolo. Wilson performs on many different instruments and has performed and recorded on over twenty-five albums. His interests include folk, jazz, classical, world music, and experimental music. Wilson is currently on the faculty of New England Conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts. He was elected as an American Champion by the National Flute Association. Wilson has maintained a busy career working as a session musician, and has contributed to many musicians of note both in the recording studios, but as a sideman on tours. Over the years he has participated in engagements with several musical ensembles, as well as his own solo efforts.
Johnnie Alexander Bassett was a Detroit-based American electric blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Working for decades primarily as a session musician, by the 1990s Bassett had his own backing band. He released seven albums in his lifetime. He cited Billy Butler, Tiny Grimes, Albert King, B.B. King and especially T-Bone Walker as major influences.
Maxjazz was an American jazz record label founded in 1998 by investment banker Richard McDonnell. Maxjazz recordings are generally regarded as a "straight-ahead" acoustic style of jazz. It was based in St. Louis, Missouri. In 2016, Maxjazz was bought by Mack Avenue Records.
The Hilberry Theatre was a 534-seat auditorium located at 4743 Cass Avenue in Midtown Detroit, Michigan. Created in 1963, the Hilberry served as the theatre space for approximately 40-50 graduate students pursuing degrees in theatre fields at the Wayne State University main campus.
Ron Blake is an American saxophonist, band leader, composer, and music educator. Born in the Virgin Islands, he attended Northwestern University, and now lives in New York City. Blake began studying guitar at age 8 and turned to the saxophone at age 10. He taught at the University of South Florida before moving to New York, where he spent five years in trumpeter Roy Hargrove's quintet, and seven years in flugelhornist Art Farmer's group. He attended the Interlochen Arts Academy. He completed a master's degree at NYU in 2010. Blake co-founded the 21st Century Band and the Tahmun record label with Dion Parson in 1998. He is a member of NBC's Saturday Night Live Band, and the Grammy award-winning Christian McBride Big Band. He is a professor of Jazz Studies at The Juilliard School. He has more than sixty credits on his discography as a sideman and continues to work as a performer.
LaVerne Butler is an American jazz singer.
Detroit is an album by the Gerald Wilson Orchestra recorded in 2009 and released on the Mack Avenue label.
Live at the Village Vanguard is a live album by American jazz bassist Christian McBride. It was recorded over three consecutive nights in December 2014 at the famous jazz club Village Vanguard in New York City and released on September 18, 2015 via Mack Avenue label. The cover of "Cherokee" featured in the album won the Grammy Award for Best Improvised Jazz Solo at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards in 2016. This is the thirteenth full-length album recorded under his leadership.
Jeremy Pelt is an American jazz trumpeter.
Guided Tour is a studio album by American jazz vibraphonist Gary Burton. The album was recorded in New York City together with guitarist Julian Lage, bassist Scott Colley and drummer Antonio Sanchez, and released on August 6, 2013 via Mack Avenue Records. The record consists of 10 tracks, paying tribute to the legacies of Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, Jim Hall, and Astor Piazzolla. Eight of the compositions were by band-members. This was Burton’s final studio album before his 2017 retirement.
Sketches of MD: Live at The Iridium is one of the few live albums by Kenny Garrett, his first for Mack Avenue Records, released in 2008. The Mack Avenue label was based out of Garrett’s hometown of Detroit. Garrett is featured in a quintet with tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, keyboardist Benito Gonzalez, bassist Nat Reeves and drummer Jamire Williams. The "MD" of the title track refers to Garrett’s old bandleader Miles Davis.
Emmet Harley Cohen is an American pianist, composer, bandleader, and educator.
