Jazz -- a fringe benefit of urban living

Not everything about urban living is nice. But there are some amenities. This evening after dinner, while my wife went off to work, I took my daughter three or four blocks from our apartment down Woodward Avenue towards the river to the Campus Martius Plaza where we walked into a throng of people listening to Detroit's internationally renowned jazz violinist, Regina Carter, and Chicago's Grammy-award winning jazz pianist and composer, Herbie Hancock. They were kicking off the 2007 Detroit Jazz Festival, which lasts through Monday evening. Vetran jazz artists include Dave Brubeck and Bettye LaVette, and a host of other performers (the Stanley Jordan Trio, Scott Henderson Trio, Marcus Belgrave Experience, Poncho Sanchez, Kenny Garrett Quartet, Charles Tolliver Big Band, Dominik Farinacci Quartet, Julliard Jazz Ensemble, Gerald Wilson Orchestra, Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Maria Muldaur and James Dapogny's Chicatgo Jazz Band, and many, many more), a good number from Chicago, with whom Detroit is apparently doing some sort of visiting artist exchange this year.