Welcoming back the Dave Bennett Winter Jazz Brunch Series
Warm up this winter at The War Memorial with the return of the Dave Bennett Winter Jazz Brunch Series.
The series includes three concerts – one by Bennett and his four-member jazz band on Feb. 5, jazz drummer Sean Dobbins on Jan. 22, and jazz pianist Cliff Monear on March 19. Brunch begins at 11 a.m. with the concert commencing at 12:15 p.m. and lasts until about 1:45 p.m.
“Cliff and Sean are some of the best musicians in the Michigan area and the country,” Bennett said. “They’ve done the series before and it’s always been a great time and turnout. It’s a nice mixture.”
Bennett is a jazz clarinet player and a Mack Avenue Records artist. He fuses serious jazz improvisation with a host of modern pop influences.
“The new album is a little bit of a departure from what we’ve done before,” Bennett said when asked what folks can expect from his February performance. “I don’t do strictly jazz. I play piano, guitar and sing. It’s a mixture of jazz-swing and a little bit of 1950s rockabilly. They will hear a lot of songs they like to hear, but also a lot of new stuff we’ve added to the show. There’s a lot of joy in the show.”
His most recent album, “Nowhere Fast,” was released in June. Bennett said stylistically he writes jazz, “surf rock, Chris Isaak-Roy Orbison style.” Bennett’s other albums include “Don’t Be That Way” and “Blood Moon.”
The first brunch series at The War Memorial with Bennett came in January 2019.
“It was a wonderful thing and very honored that they asked me to help curate it,” he said. “I’ve played Grosse Pointe for a number of years now when we’re not on the road and there’s a lot of love in the community and have treated us with much kindness. I’m glad to do it again.”
Bennett has been a featured soloist at Carnegie Hall with The New York Pops in 2013, and has been featured with 35 other U.S. and Canadian orchestras including Nashville, Detroit, Omaha, Toronto, Calgary and Jacksonville. Some of his annual appearances include The Elkhart Jazz Festival, The Suncoast Classic Jazz Festival, and The Arizona Classic Jazz Festival.
Now 38, Bennett has been a professional musician since he was a teenager. In March 2022, he and his band performed to a sold-out audience at New York City’s Birdland Theater.
“I’m the happiest when I am on stage,” he said. “It’s the greatest feeling in the world and when I see that we’re making other people really happy, it keeps building. Every time we perform, we go away feeling very fulfilled.”
For ticket information, click here.
About The War Memorial
For more than 70 years, The War Memorial has been an arts, culture, patriotic, and community leader organization for Southeast Michigan. The War Memorial annually hosts more than 3,000 performances, classes, and family or community events drawing 250,000 visitors to its campus on the shores of Lake Saint Clair in Grosse Pointe Farms, MI. The War Memorial offers premier hospitality services for community and private gatherings as well as a diverse lineup of innovative programming for all ages. The War Memorial celebrates the ideals of American democracy while serving as place to honor and remember those who have defended those ideals. The War Memorial is a place for all people with no membership or residency requirements. www.warmemorial.org
Media contact
Alex Szwarc
Manager of communications
aszwarc@warmemorial.org
313.881.7514