Allen Dennard
Album Release Party
Motor City Wine
Thursday, May 22
In the all the booger-shaking madness that was Movement (you can read about it here), it took me a while to sort through my notes and take time to acknowledge one of the best shows I’ve seen in a while that had nothing to directly do with Movement … but in a lot of ways is connected.
Let me explain.
Allen Dennard is, without a doubt, one of the most talented jazz musicians in Detroit. Still under 30 and has style -- that’s the hardest thing to learn. When people go to jazz shows who don’t know or love jazz, they’re trying to discern what matters and what stands out. Dennard already stands out -- I could recognize his playing without knowing that was him on stage.
For his record release party at Motor City Wine in the week leading up to Movement, he proved that point to a packed house at this intimate, wine-forward spot that’s one of the most popular in the city for good music. Period.
On this night, Dennard was showing off the deep rooted connection between Detroit’s legendary jazz scene and its legendary electronic music scene by blending the two with precision, class and his style.
The album release was for “Black Valley,” which he had recorded in the same spot months before. (Kinda funny to release your live record back at the spot where you first recorded it, recreating it in a lot of ways to introduce the patrons who couldn’t make it the first time.)
It’s a blend of house music and hard bop, led by Dennard and wonderfully backed by some of the best musicians in the city (mostly associated with the jazz scene): JR Got The Hits on drums, Ben Wood on bass and Jordan Anderson on keyboards and synths.
It’s only three tracks, a quick yet captivating listen stretched and performed with patience as they build and fall back and build once again in a variety of soulful grooves and master musicianship.
Titles like “Hastings Street,” “Gotham Hotel” and “The Vanity” harken back to venues and locations in Detroit’s long-gone historic neighborhood of Black Bottom and Paradise Valley (the album title a combo of the both), which was a predominately Black enclave of entrepreneurship, culture and families that was demolished in favor of highways in the 1950s.
This happened in a lot of Black cities throughout this country. In Detroit, it’s a daily conversation of what was, what could’ve been and what we can do to memorialize what is gone.
That’s what Dennard was doing with this music -- a history lesson, a mix of music from two different genres, a testament to his ability to use his music to contribute to a larger idea.
And it works! The grooves are deep. The album sounds and looks amazing (major love to the artwork by Blair French and mixing by Shiva Shahmir). It’s in heavy rotation for me.
If I’ve got one note for the album release and the album itself, I wish Dennard was a little less shy with his ability on it. He told me he wanted the bass, drums and keys to be put centerstage. But we lost a bit of Dennard’s charisma while he tried to play sonic point guard with the rest of the band.
Here’s the thing -- just a taste of Dennard is worth it. But you might end up like me wishing you had even more.
Still, “Black Valley” is without a doubt his most accomplished work in a young career that I can’t wait to keep listening to.
