In the professional sports world, teams representing Detroit and Chicago have engaged in fierce rivalries that have often produced hard-fought games — and sometimes even hard feelings among the players and fans that have lasted decades.
But the music world is a different universe altogether.
And one recent Facebook post intended to pay respect to a legendary musician, Detroit-born Gerard Gibbs, gently but profoundly, demonstrated that in the world of jazz — one of America’s oldest original art forms — Detroit and Chicago artists can teach and inspire each other from near and far.
This form of fellowship and reverence can be felt through a photo shared by Gibbs, which he had held on to for about 16 years, showing the Detroiter with one of his musical heroes, the late great Jack DeJohnette, a native of Chicago and a trailblazing jazz master as a drummer, pianist and composer.
Detroit musician Gerard Gibbs, right, posted this photo on Facebook to honor and convey how much it meant for him to receive an embrace and handshake from the late jazz legend Jack DeJohnette, a native of Chicago who was loved by fans in Detroit and across the world.
“Before that photo was taken (in New York), I had the honor to shake the hand of a man who helped to shape the musician I became,” the 57-year-old Gibbs, a fixture in Detroit’s jazz scene and beyond as an organist, keyboardist and pianist said about DeJohnette, a jazz giant revered by music fans in Detroit and across the world, who died Oct. 26, leaving behind a vast body of work spanning more than 60 years.
“That type of mentorship, where you can learn from someone for years through their music, extends all the way back to the evolution of jazz.
“You have to have deep respect for the artists that put in the work and continue to go into that ‘shed’ and study across long careers, and you want to be that sponge and soak up all you can from those artists that come from everywhere. Jack DeJohnette is someone I’m still listening to and learning from today. He’s part of a tradition of musicians that felt the bandstand was as precious as the pulpit in a church. And they believed it was insulting to not take what you’re doing seriously.”
Gibbs’ “church” analogy had extra meaning because, as he spoke on the evening of Oct. 28, he was preparing for a flight the next day that would take him to Columbia, Missouri, where he would be playing as part of the James Carter Organ Trio (featuring three sons of Detroit, led by James Carter, saxophone; Gibbs, Hammond organ, and Alexander White, drums) during a “We Always Swing” concert series event at Second Baptist Church.
For Gibbs, the concert date is the continuation of a musical journey that the former city of Detroit architectural engineer embarked on as a fully committed professional musician, composer and producer 23 years ago.
Gibbs says he does not have to look far for inspiration when performing with celebrated jazz stars from his own city, like Carter and White. But, he also explained that wherever his travels take him, he represents his many musical mentors and teachers as well. Some, like DeJohnette, he mostly learned from by repeated play of their recordings.
But in other instances, music greats from across the country have taken a special interest in a Detroit musician eager to learn, which was the case when a 5-year-old Gibbs, accompanied by his father, was introduced to the legendary organist and Camden, New Jersey, native Richard “Groove” Holmes at Baker’s Keyboard Lounge.
It would get even better for a young Gibbs during the summer of 1981 — the same summer he was in a wheelchair recovering from corrective leg surgery — because that was when Holmes paid him a surprise home visit, which began a true friendship and formal mentoring relationship that lasted until Holmes’ death on June 29, 1991.
About five years after a life-changing mentorship with Richard “Groove” Holmes ended, Detroiter Gerard Gibbs (wearing glasses) met another famous out-of-town organist, Jimmy Smith, at a 1996 concert at Detroit’s Blue Bird Inn. And during the duration of their relationship, Smith was more than happy to provides hands-on instruction to his eager pupil Gibbs.
“I wouldn’t be where I am today, musically, if not for the help that I have received from great people. And what makes it all work is recognizing that someone knows more than you and that they are willing to share because they care that much about you,” said the proud son of Drs. Erma and Gerald Gibbs, both concert pianists who provided Gibbs with an early introduction to music within the family’s Detroit homes in the Eight Mile-Greenfield area and later the Sherwood Forest neighborhood, where his dad played jazz often, while his mom’s listening tastes leaned more toward rhythm and blues.
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“As a student, you have to be humble enough to accept the information and apply it,” Gibbs said. “But, even as you grow and develop as a musician, you can’t ever come into this thinking you have arrived because there is always someone better than you. However, if you can continue to humbly engage in a mutual exchange of information and ideas, it can be a very enlightening and enriching experience.”
Because of stories that were told to Gibbs by his father, who grew up in the 1940s around Hastings Street — a historic commercial area known as Black Bottom that was central to Detroit’s Black culture and identity before it was mostly demolished due to the construction of Interstate 375 and Interstate 75 — Gibbs, today, can tell his own stories about big bands that came to Detroit, led by legendary figures like Duke Ellington and Count Basie, in a vivid manner, as if he witnessed these events himself.
Gibbs also explained that when he was introduced to his idol “Groove” Holmes, Holmes was being housed for two weeks at the Motorama Motel on Eight Mile Road at Woodward by former Baker’s Keyboard Lounge owner Clarence Baker. Because, at that time, during the early 1970s, it still was not uncommon for leading out-of-town musicians to have extended stays at Detroit jazz clubs, like Baker’s and the Blue Bird Inn, where Gibbs would later meet another famous organist who became his mentor — Jimmy Smith of Norristown, Pennsylvania.
From childhood through adulthood, by “soaking up” lessons from local jazz masters and legends from around the country, including the late, great Ramsey Lewis, a native of Chicago, Detroit’s Gerard Gibbs, right, gained a deep appreciation for his craft and the history of jazz.
While Gibbs is a part of a Detroit jazz scene that is a bit different from some of the rich history he shared, in his case, “different” doesn’t mean less vibrant.
As Gibbs quickly reeled off some of his future engagements, his words reflected a busy final two months of 2025, where Gibbs, along with the James Carter Trio and other talented artists and groups he performs with, will be appearing at an eclectic collection of area venues, including: the Blue LLama Jazz Club & Restaurant in Ann Arbor, Baker’s Keyboard Lounge, Dirty Dog Jazz Cafe in Grosse Pointe Farms and Cliff Bell’s in Detroit.
“We’re getting cozy and now all of the wonderful music has moved inside,” said Maxine Michaels, one of Gibbs’ Facebook friends and a longtime champion for all Detroit musicians, who can be heard Friday evenings on WRCJ-90.9 FM during her show, “Maxology with Maxine Michaels,” which features jazz and more.
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Michaels appreciated the humble and respectful tribute that Gibbs made on Facebook to DeJohnette, an artist who also had been on “Michaels’ heart” since the announcement of his death. And on the afternoon of Oct. 29, Michaels, a jazz historian who has brought music programs to a variety of grassroots settings across the city, also wanted to pay tribute to some of her Detroit mentors, including the late Rosetta Hines-Loving, known as “The First Lady of Jazz” at WJZZ, where Michaels received some of her earliest broadcast experience; and the late Martha Jean “The Queen” Steinberg, a legendary voice and leader at three metro Detroit radio stations — WCHB, WJLB and WQBH — where she inspired a young Michaels to be a “star.”
“We’re getting cozy,” WRCJ 90.9 FM program host Maxine Michaels says playfully about the upcoming weeks and months that will bring music lovers indoors to venues across the region for live music performances, which she refers to as the “language of love.” Michaels, who was mentored by legendary radio personalities in Detroit, has used her career to spread her love for music throughout the city including churches and other grassroots community spaces.
As she praised her mentors, Michaels admitted that finding her voice as a radio host and music ambassador was still anything but an easy task for someone who struggled with shyness as a young person. But, the 1977 Cass Tech graduate out of the Performing Arts curriculum, says she wouldn’t have it any other way because today she is a part of a Detroit jazz community that makes a positive impact on the city, including during the holiday season, often without a word having to be said.
“Without some of the commercialism that comes with the holidays, every time we come together for jazz or any music performance, it’s a celebration of arts, community and fellowship. And because of that, every day is a holiday for me,” Michaels stated. “And Detroit has a very special music vibe that is global and knows no boundaries. The vibe connects all people — Black, white, Hispanic, Latino, everyone — through the language of love, which is music.”
Scott Talley is a native Detroiter, a proud product of Detroit Public Schools and a lifelong lover of Detroit culture in its diverse forms. In his second tour with the Free Press, which he grew up reading as a child, he is excited and humbled to cover the city’s neighborhoods and the many interesting people who define its various communities. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @STalleyfreep. Read more of Scott’s stories at www.freep.com/mosaic/detroit-is/. Please help us grow great community-focused journalism by becoming a subscriber.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: This Detroiter never wants to stop playing or learning about jazz
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