When a teenage Jeanette Harris saw the way the crowd partied and danced at a Norman Brown concert, she knew she wanted to be a jazz musician.
Decades later, as the Los Angeles-based saxophonist prepares to return to Toledo for her second consecutive appearance at the third annual Glass City JazzFest, she hopes to bring the same energy to Toledo.
Harris will perform the event’s penultimate set at 7 p.m. Saturday right before headliner Bob James, on a bill that will also include performances by Andre Wright, 496 West, Ilya Serov, and Allen Dennard starting at 1 p.m. at Glass City Metropark, located at 983 Front St.
“The ultimate goal for me is putting a smile on people’s faces, so I am somewhat of a comedian,” Harris said. “I’ll say some silly things on stage. I want to get them out of whatever negative zone they maybe were in and put them in a really fun positive space. Musically, I come and bring a party. My show is high energy. I have a backbeat to my music.”
Though much of her music can be classified as smooth jazz or R&B, the uptempo bass lines and grooves keep the listener hooked. Her set features a combination of her originals and classics, including at least one piece by one her primary musical inspirations, Grover Washington, Jr., of “Mister Magic” fame.
Harris began playing the saxophone with a classical background. While that helped provide her a technical background, jazz appealed to her on a more personal level.
“I just appreciate people who are real to what they are doing, not too perfect, not too anything, just being themselves and authentic,” Harris said. “That’s definitely what I try to bring to my show when I’m performing.”
At this year’s performance, flutist Ragan Whiteside will join Harris as a special guest. The two women have crossed paths for years, but have not performed in nearly a decade. Although they have not collaborated much, Harris expressed her excitement to play with such an “amazing, beautiful, successful” artist.
Harris is the only repeat performer from last year’s lineup, and said that the decision to return was a no-brainer for her.
“From the sound to the hospitality, I was pleased with how things went once I got there,” she said. “I just think it’s a beautiful city. I like the clean air. I live in California, so it’s not as clean there. Just the vibe, everybody was really nice. I just kind of had a good vibe.”
For Allen Dennard, a trumpeter from Detroit, 2024 will mark his first performance at the Glass City JazzFest. Last year, however, he actually performed at Lucille’s Jazz Lounge at the last show in the weeklong buildup to the main event.
Growing up in one of the epicenters of jazz music, much of his inspiration came from local players. Although he, like many other aspiring trumpeters, listened to legends like Freddie Hubbard and Miles Davis, he highlighted Detroit natives, including Dwight Adams, Rayse Biggs, John Douglas, and his mentor Marcus Belgrave. Their influence, he added, went beyond their music.
“I just appreciate the community of Detroit, because if they see potential in a kid that really wants it, they’ll be serious with them and give them all the advice, suggestions, and even lessons that they think you need,” Dennard said. “I’m just inspired, really, by the community of jazz in Detroit.”
As his music career has blossomed, Dennard has remained loyal to the same community that raised him.
During the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, he brought his trumpet to help keep up morale among marchers. The more time he spent at the protests, the more organizers approached him about playing.
Even as that first wave of protests died down, he has remained involved in groups like Detroit Will Breathe, which advocates against police brutality.
“I believe in giving back to Detroit in an activist way, not just musically, but really trying to vocalize the disparities in Detroit on an economic level because there’s a lot of gentrification happening here,” he said. “The police are still killing Black people. So I’m still going to participate and vocalize that all of this is wrong wherever I can.”
When he moved down the road to Ann Arbor for college, he pushed himself to expand his musical horizons. Though he admitted that bebop proved challenging to learn, it also opened up new possibilities for his composition.
After years of playing with bigger names, including five appearances at the Detroit Jazz Festival, his own compositions have begun to rise to prominence. His 2022 album, Flashback , was nominated for a Detroit Music Award. Asked about his musical style, Dennard said that hip hop, rock, R&B, and of course jazz, all influence his pieces.
“I was just thinking of creating different modern instrumental music,” he said. “If you want to call it jazz, sure. If not, you know. … I don’t really try to categorize myself or box myself in one genre of music when I create. I just like making good music. And if it comes as jazz to people, that’s fine. If it comes out as this instrumental group playing hip-hop, that’s fine.”
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