Cliff Bell's

DeSean Jones
2023-10-10 19:30 - 2023-10-11 09:30, 2023-10-09 19:30 - 2023-10-10 09:30, 2023-10-08 19:30 - 2023-10-09 09:30, 2023-10-07 19:30 - 2023-10-08 09:30, 2023-10-06 19:30 - 2023-10-07 09:30, 2023-10-05 19:30 - 2023-10-06 09:30, 2023-10-04 19:30 - 2023-10-05 09:30, 2023-10-03 19:30 - 2023-10-04 09:30 (America/Detroit) and 12 more dates
De’Sean Jones is a Detroit based saxophonist, billboard charting recording artist and grammy nominated arranger. Over the past 20 years De’Sean has toured the world recording or performing with music Icons like Stevie Wonder, Faith Evans, along with a host of Detroit Legends; Marcus Belgrave, The Clark Sisters, Kierra Sheard and techno pioneer Mad Mike Banks of Underground Resistance.
As a bandleader & producer Jones has curated an eclectic approach that is widely viewed as progressive and undeniably rooted in the rich history of black culture. De’Sean actively pushes the boundaries of social consciousness through music in ways that are authentic, emotionally dynamic and intellectually stimulating.

All musical projects from De’Sean Jones can be accessed through his record label KNMDK Records.

Hanging Hearts
2023-10-06 19:30 - 21:30
Showtimes are at 7:30p & 9:30p for this performance. Doors open at 5pm for dinner. Seating begins at 6pm for “Dinner & a Show”. The second show starts seating at 9pm.
“…Hanging Hearts walk the line between manic extroversion and cool soulfulness on Into a Myth.” -Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader Read Article
HANGING HEARTS is a Chicago-based trio led by saxophonist Chris Weller described by European audiences as “hammering the walls between genres.” The band features Cole DeGenova on keyboards and Quin Kirchner on drums. The band’s latest album Into a Myth (Shifting Paradigm Records) was produced by drummer Dave King and features eight cut-to-the-chase originals referencing various themes from creation myths to cosmic rights of passage.

Kasan Belgrave Quintet
2023-10-05 19:30 - 21:30
Showtimes are at 7:30p & 9:30p for this performance.
Doors open at 5pm for dinner/Seating begins at 6:15p for the first show & 9:00p for the second show
Multi-woodwind-instrumentalist and Detroit native Kasan Belgrave holds a unique stance in the city as one of the young torchbearers of the Detroit jazz collective. His father, the late maestro trumpeter Marcus Belgrave, laid a foundation for him as he continues to carry on the legacy of Detroit jazz royalty. Following close to his father’s strides, Kasan takes pride in contributing to Detroit’s rich pedigree of musical mentorship, as he strives to continue passing down the knowledge and exposure of jazz music to generations after him.
The 23-yr-old is a recent graduate of University of Michigan, and also currently holds a graduate assistantship under bassist Prof. Rodney Whitaker at Michigan State University. Belgrave has shared the stage with many greats such as Nicholas Payton, Barry Harris, Benny Green, Rodney Whitaker, Theo Crocker, Robert Hurst, Karriem Riggins, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and the Jazz @ Lincoln Center Orchestra w/ Wynton Marsalis.
Kasan has performed around the globe. He attended a jazz summer clinic that his father ran at the University of California-Berkeley in 2011, where he met flautist Elena Pinderhughes, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, and Walter Smith III. He traveled to Barbados in 2013, along with saxophonist Marcus Elliott and pianist Ian Finkelstein, where they performed a masterclass and concert sponsored by the U.S. Embassy. He’s performed frequently at the Detroit Jazz Festival, as a sideman for Wendell Harrison, Rob Pipho, Rick Margitza, Nicholas Payton, and Detroit bassist Ali Bey.
In 2017, he performed a duet with the Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin in her last ever live Detroit performance at the Music Hall.
Kasan will be releasing his debut album this summer, but is prominently present showing his support for his musical peers throughout the major venues of the Detroit music scene.

Noah Jackson & Full Circle: Residency & Session
2023-10-04 19:30 - 21:30, 2023-09-27 19:30 - 21:30
Showtimes are at 7:30pm & 9:30pm for this performance.
Doors open at 5pm for dinner. Seating begins at 6pm for “Dinner & a Show”. The second show starts seating at 9pm.
Musicians pay no cover when they bring their instrument.
A Detroit original, Noah Jackson is a bassist, cellist, and composer specializing in black american music and classical music. Aimed with a curiosity to where sound could touch audiences from within, he has both written and performed music for large international audiences since 2010. A graduate of Michigan State University (B.M.), and Manhattan School of Music (M.M.), Noah has performed with world renowned artists such as NEA Jazz Master Abdullah Ibrahim, Branford Marsails, Jason Marsalis, The Marsalis Family, Hugh Masekela, Nnenna Freelon, Kenny Garrett, Wizard Harper, George Burton, Jazzmeia Horn, and Christian Sands. Additionally, he’s performed in many prominent venues and jazz festivals including Radio City Music Hall, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, Jazz @ Lincoln Center, Blue Note Jazz Club (New York City and Milan), Royal Albert Hall, Victoria Hall (Geneva), Jazz in Marciac (Marciac, France), The Library of Congress, The Kennedy Center, SFJAZZ, The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, London Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, and North Sea Jazz Festival. Noah Jackson also performed as part of the ceremony for the NEA Jazz Masters Award in 2019. He also recorded bass and cello on The Balance with Abdullah Ibrahim which reached #3 on the Billboard Jazz Charts (June 2019).
As a band leader, Noah had put on performances of original creative work with his band Full Circle. In 2011, he made his self-produced debut album, Contemplations- A Suite to critical acclaim and led Full Circle in the Detroit Jazz Festival in 2012. Since then, Noah has collaborated with a wide variety of artists across the jazz spectrum. In 2017, he has worked in collaboration with the American Ballet Theater with his string quartet Asè at Grace Farms in New Canaan, CT. Noah, along with vocalist and co-producer Candice Hoyes, were named recipients of grants for a double jazz and string quartet project: Ellington to the World: Generational Power in Black Culture and Spaces from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and the New York Council of the Arts. The work premiered at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in September 2019 and was performed to a sold out audience in The CUBE @ DSO in February 2020. As of March 2021, Noah has joined Cliff Bell’s in Detroit as Curator and Artist-in-Residence where he will perform with his group Full Circle and host sessions as well as bring in world-class talent to perform on it’s stage.
Noah is endorsed by Aguilar Amps, David Gage REAList LifeLine pickups, and NOAH Guitars of Italy. Noah currently resides in Detroit, Michigan.
Find out more about Noah here!

Minor Element
2023-10-01 17:30 - 19:30
Showtimes are at 5:30p & 7:30p for this performance.Doors open at 4pm for dinner. Seating begins at 5pm for “Dinner & a Show”. The second show starts seating at 7pm.
Minor Element is an all-instrumental jazz fusion band out of West Michigan. The band was founded by Keyboardist Brandon Fitzpatrick in 2012 which originally started as a Jazz trio. Over time, the band started to add different members to the group, continually chasing a bigger sound. Being driven by other musicians is always a key to growth. Having major influences from artist like Snarky Puppy, Cory Henry, Robert Glasper, Shaun Martin, and Robert “Sput” Searight forced growth out of the band. As they grew in their musicality, so did their band, their musical taste, and distinct sound. Their sound is inspired by Jazz, Rock, Gospel, Classical, Fusion, and anything they can draw inspiration from. Not only can you find a groove, but you can also hear the complexity in the original compositions. Now Minor Element consists of 9 members. They have a very diverse group of musicians that come from all sorts of musical backgrounds and experiences which is part of what makes their sound so unique. From performing along side The Battle Creek Symphony Orchestra to playing in small pubs, Minor Element is sure to stun the room.
Current members ~

Brandon Fitzpatrick – Piano & Synth
Aris Chalin – Rhodes & Synth
Danley Pyles – Organ
Mitchell Botting – Guitar
Dennis Johnson – Bass
Tommy Pancy – Saxophone
Ben Green – Trumpet
Adam Danis – Percussion
Anthony Tyler – Drums

Michael Malis Trio
2023-09-29 19:30 - 21:30, 2023-09-28 19:30 - 21:30
Showtimes are at 7:30p & 9:30p for this performance. Doors open at 5pm for dinner. Seating begins at 6pm for “Dinner & a Show”. The second show starts seating at 9pm.
Michael Malis is a composer, pianist, and music educator based in Detroit MI. A multi-faceted musical artist, he performs as a jazz musician, composes for the concert stage, and contributes to multidisciplinary collaborations.
2020 saw a proliferation of Malis’ work as a solo artist. In July of 2020, Malis released Dualisms, a multimedia project containing recordings, videos, and an accompanying 16 page zine of writings, artwork, and ephemera. Consisting of brand new original compositions, Dualisms features performances by Malis in duet with saxophonist Kaleigh Wilder, percussionist Thom Monks, and vocalist Denzel Donald, and features artwork by Zara Teicher. Each of the works presented in Dualisms were premiered at New Music Detroit’s 12th annual Strange Beautiful Music Festival in September 2019. All About Jazz praised Dualisms as “an extraordinary multimedia project which illustrates some of the remarkable ways artists in the age of COVID-19 found new approaches to displaying their craft and connecting with their audience.”
His March 2020 release, Three Pieces for Piano, was praised by the Southeast Michigan Jazz Association as “thrilling music, with shifting harmonic and rhythmic qualities that require prodigious precise technique and the kind of generic versatility that few pianists achieve.”
As a composer, Malis has been commissioned by Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings, Chamber Music Society of Detroit, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Detroit Composers’ Project, Virago, Hole in the Floor, and others. His piece Five Stations, premiered in May 2019, featured Malis and saxophonist Marcus Elliot alongside a string quartet of musicians from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. His string quartet, Emerge, was premiered at the Detroit Institute of Arts in 2018. His piece for piano and cello, Coda, was premiered by Detroit Symphony Orchestra principle cellist Wei Yu in 2018.
In April 2019, Malis and Elliot, who join forces under the duo known as “Balance,” undertook a collaborative performance piece with former Detroit poet laureate Bill Harris. The piece, which featured drummer Gerald Cleaver, set Harris’ collection of short stories I Got to Keep Moving. According to AllAboutJazz.com, “what was most striking about the synergy between Harris and the band was the sheer beauty of the music: the stark contrast between the grim realities of Harris’s story and the band’s melodic core, located in Elliot’s exultant phrases and Malis’s evocative runs, was stirring. And much of the music’s strength was found in the spirit of resilience and defiance that permeates Harris’s text.” The duo’s 2017 eponymous album was praised by the Detroit Metro Times as “contemporary jazz of the highest order, a benchmark for where the genre can go.”
In July of 2015, Malis’ self-released debut album as a leader, Lifted from the No of All Nothing, was called by The Detroit Free Press “an uncommonly mature and distinctive debut.” It was described by Hot House Jazz Guide (NYC) as “cover[ing] a broad range of free expression. [Malis] bridges the gap between original composed, complex material and the spontaneity of improvisation.” In September 2016, his trio made their debut at the Detroit International Jazz Festival.
As a pianist, he has shared the stage with a diverse array of musicians, including notables such as Marcus Belgrave, Gerald Cleaver, Jaribu Shahid, John Lindberg, William Hooker, A. Spencer Barefield, Tyshawn Sorey, Ken Filiano, J.D. Allen, Andrew Bishop, Dennis Coffey, and Marion Hayden. He has performed at the Yokohama Jazz Promenade (Yokohama, Japan), the Kennedy Center, Birdland (NYC), and The Stone (NYC).

Ari and Cecil Alexander (Quartet)
2023-09-23 19:30
Showtimes are at 7:30p & 9:30p for this performance. Doors open at 5pm for dinner. Seating begins at 6pm for “Dinner & a Show”. The second show starts seating at 9pm.

…Ideas and chops and sensitivity. Everything we want to hear and everything we want to play. I was an instant fan!
-Kurt Rosenwinkel

…He has a command of jazz language and speaks it in a natural, unforced way- like he’s saying things as he hears them in the moment, rather than reciting what he think’s he’s supposed to say..
-Bobby Broom

Cecil Alexander is a guitarist, composer, and arranger from Muskegon, MI. He graduated from Berklee College of Music in 2016 with a B.M. in Jazz Composition. He is a recent graduate (2019) of the Jazz Performance M.M. program at William Paterson University. In 2016, he co-founded the folk-rock group Visen, which released its first EP, Shoulder Deep, in 2017. Cecil was the 1st place winner of the 2017 Wilson Center Jazz Guitar Competition and the 2018 Lee Ritenour Six String Theory Competition. In 2019, Cecil was one of 3 finalists in the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz International Guitar Competition. Cecil has recorded/performed with Bill Charlap, Antonio Hart, Lee Pearson, Luis Perdomo, Nathan East, and Steve LaSpina. Some of his greatest influences include Charlie Parker, Thurston Moore, Grant Green, John Coltrane, Omar Rodriguez Lopez, and Frank Zappa. As of Fall 2021, Cecil started a teaching position at Berklee College of Music as Assistant Professor of Guitar. Cecil recently was recently signed to Heartcore Records, a Berlin-based label founded by legendary guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel. Cecil’s debut album with Heartcore , Introducing Cecil Alexander, was released September 23rd, 2022. Most recently, Cecil has begun playing in the touring band of Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah (formerly Christian Scott). Cecil is currently planning the release of a duo album with his wife, vocalist Ari Alexander, as well as a new solo project that explores his interests in Math Rock and Progressive music.

Pedrito Martinez Group
2023-09-22 19:30 - 21:30
Join us for what is sure to be a legendary show! There will be two separate performances at 7:30pm & 9:30pm. TICKETS ON SALE NOW!
Pedrito Martinez…is a source of rhythmic delight and inspiration… an incomparable performer… a traditional Afro-Cuban music superstar – The New York Times
Pedro Pablo “Pedrito” Martínez was born in Havana, Cuba, Sept 12, 1973 in the Cayo Hueso neighborhood, where rumba is played all day long, and began his musical career at the age of 11, with a foundation in the rumba and Afro Cuban Yoruba traditions.
Since settling in New York City in the fall of 1998, Pedrito has recorded or performed with, Paul Simon, Wynton Marsalis, Paquito D’Rivera, Bruce Springsteen, Ruben Blades, Eddie Palmieri, Dave Matthews, and Sting, and has contributed to over 75 albums.
A consummate master of Afro-Cuban folkloric music and the batá drum he is also the world’s first-call rumbero—playing, singing, and dancing with dozens of Cuban rumba groups.

Pedrito was a founding member of the highly successful, Afro-Cuban/Afro-Beat band, Yerba Buena, with which he recorded two albums and toured the world in the mid-to late-90’s.
Mr. Martínez’s career as a leader began in 2005 with the formation in NYC of the The Pedrito Martínez Group. He has recorded four solo albums, the first one of which was nominated for a Grammy in 2013 and was chosen among NPR’s Favorite Albums for 2013 and The Boston Globe Critics Top Ten Albums of the same year.
In February of 2019, Pedrito and Cuban pianist, Alfredo Rodriguez, released a duo album called Duologue to critical acclaim. Quincy Jones was executive producer.
In July 2019 Pedrito and Eric Clapton recorded a newly arranged version of Clapton’s song, “My Father’s Eyes,” for a Pedrito Martínez album, called Acertijos (Riddles), which was released in early 2021. The two performed the song together on Clapton’s Crossroads Festival in Dallas Texas.
Pedrito was involved through 2020 in streamed projects including, Play On for CBS TV with Jon Batiste, and the NEA Awards at SF Jazz. And he was named, for the seventh time in none years, Jazz Percussionist of the Year, by the Jazz Journalists Association.
In 2021, Pedrito recorded two singles and has performed, with Cuban superstar, Camila Cabello. He was awarded Percussionist of The Year by JazzTimes Magazine Critics Poll. A 2021 album called Acertijos (Riddles), featuring primarily original compositions, and special guests, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Eric Clapton, and Issac Delgado, was nominated for a Latin Grammy, for Best Contemporary Tropical Album of 2021.
Highlights for 2022 have so far been the release of a new single called “El Jicamo Me Hablo,” being part of International Jazz Day 2022, again being named Jazz Percussionist of The Year, by Jazz Journalists Association, a sold-out performance at Carnegie Hall (Zankel), and getting back to touring with his quintet!
Pedrito Martínez uses LP Percussion, A. Zildjian Cymbals, DW Drums, Vic Firth Sticks, Remo drumheads, Earthworks mics and Zoom Recorders

Rockelle Whitaker
2023-09-21 19:30 - 21:30
Showtimes are at 7:30p & 9:30p for this performance. Doors open at 5pm for dinner. Seating begins at 6pm for “Dinner & a Show”. The second show starts seating at 9pm.
Visionary vocalist, Rockelle Whitaker, immersed since infancy in the music mecca known as Motown and the daughter of world renowned bassist, Rodney Whitaker, has Jazz deeply entrenched in her lineage, heart, and soul. At the age of 3, she embraced fell in love and became enchanted with the luminous idea that one day she would become a soul singing sister. Rockelle attended Michigan State University Jazz Studies program and performed with world renowned Jazz Orchestra I. To broaden her musical artistic expressions and develop vocal facility, Ms. Whitaker became a lead member of a church choir song and praise team. While rooted in gospel, blues and jazz, Ms. Whitaker expanded her talents and has recently instituted a song writing business for Jazz, R&B, and Alternative Music artists. Performing at several festivals nationally and internationally such as, Detroit Jazz Festival, Taichung Jazz Festival, Czech Jazz Festival, Cotton Club-Japan as well as national premier jazz clubs including Baker’s Keyboard Lounge, The Dirty Dog Jazz Café, and Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola she has collaborated with artists such as: Greg Hutchinson, Antonio Hart, Wycliffe Gordon, Terrell Stafford, Bruce Barth, Randy Gillespie, Wes “Warmdaddy” Anderson, Rick Roe, Marcus Printup, Carl Allen, Rodney Whitaker, Chris Crenshaw, Victor Goines, Diego Rivera, Cyrus Chestnut, Rodney Green, and a host of other musicians. Ms. Whitaker conducts Master classes, participates in Jazz at Lincoln Center Jazz for Young People School shows, vocal workshops, and large private vocal studio. Rockelle is most recently featured on several recording projects with Rodney Whitaker. While she can set the mood with a lush ballad or rock the house with a bebop or blues tune; her versatility, power and soulfulness showcases her passion for the craft, vocal range, the ability to transcend through any genre, and her signature sound.
