Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Paradise Jazz Series Continues March 20

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s (DSO) Paradise Jazz Series continues with a one-night-only concert of duo performances.

Saxophonist Charles Lloyd makes his Paradise Jazz Series debut in a rare duo performance with pianist Gerald Clayton. On the same bill, pianist Alfredo Rodríguez and percussionist Pedrito Martinez team up for a set of Cuban classics and original compositions.

The concert takes place Friday, March 20 at 8 p.m. at Orchestra Hall, within Midtown Detroit’s Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center (3711 Woodward Ave., Detroit). The Civic Jazz Orchestra, comprising jazz students from the DSO’s Civic Youth Ensembles, will perform prior to the concert beginning at 6:30 p.m.

After the concert, opera star Denyce Graves and Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair Terence Blanchard will participate in a discussion moderated by Mark Stryker about Blanchard’s “opera in jazz” Champion. Michigan Opera Theatre presents Champion March 28 – April 5. Graves performs the role of Emelda Griffith in the opera; Stryker, the former Detroit Free Press journalist, is the author of Jazz From Detroit and Destiny: 100 Years of Music, Magic, and Community at Orchestra Hall in Detroit.