In the professional sports world, teams representing Detroit and Chicago have engaged in fierce rivalries that have often produced hard-fought games \u2014 and sometimes even hard feelings among the players and fans that have lasted decades.<\/p>\n
But the music world is a different universe altogether.<\/p>\n
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 \u2014 one of America\u2019s oldest original art forms \u2014 Detroit and Chicago artists can teach and inspire each other from near and far.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0jazz master as a drummer, pianist and composer.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n \u201cBefore 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,\u201d the 57-year-old Gibbs, a fixture in Detroit\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThat type of mentorship, where you can learn from someone for years through their music, extends all the way back to the evolution of jazz.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to have deep respect for the artists that put in the work and continue to go into that \u2018shed\u2019 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\u2019m still listening to and learning from today. He\u2019s 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\u2019re doing seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n Gibbs’ \u201cchurch\u201d 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 \u201cWe Always Swing\u201d concert series event at Second Baptist Church.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cGroove\u201d Holmes at Baker\u2019s Keyboard Lounge.<\/p>\n It would get even better for a young Gibbs during the summer of 1981 \u2014 the same summer he was in a wheelchair recovering from corrective leg surgery \u2014 because that was when Holmes paid him a surprise home visit, which began a true friendship and formal mentoring relationship that lasted until Holmes\u2019 death on June 29, 1991.<\/p>\n