![]() Photo by Ed Wolfrum, United Sound’s Chief Engineer from 1969 to 1973.ĭetroit, MI (January 28, 2014)-United Sound Systems, the legendary recording studio off I-94 in Detroit that recorded many of Motown’s greatest artists, including Aretha Franklin, George Clinton and Miles Davis, will open its doors to the public with weekly tours starting February 8. This is #PureMichigan at its best.United Sound System’s Studio A is large enough to record a whole orchestra on site. We are so honored to be renting space here at this righteous sonic palace. Purchase a tshirt or make a donation through our website in our bio. If you still want to support our efforts we still need approximately $1000 more to make sure we can purchase and install the marker in the future. We made over $3000 (!) at our fundraiser for that marker. You can also call (313) 312-0631 and leave a #voicemail on our #UnitedSound #memoryline as we help prepare an application for a #Michigan #HistoricMarker to be put out front. You can call the office right now at (313) 833-1833 and book studio time. It was made an #historicdistrict by #Detroit this year. It was founded by a European #immigrant and #musician. It is a #Black owned business and has been since the #DonDavis era in the 1970s. #USSRS is potentially the oldest still operating independent #recordingstudio in the #UnitedStates and had been operating in this location since at least #WWII. DSC will celebrate its fifth birthday on April 24th. Later this year, the organization will celebrate the unveiling of a Michigan Historic Marker for United Sound, the 100th birthday of John Lee Hooker, and its fourth annual Sound Conference. The organization’s programming has included fighting to protect the historic United Sound Systems Recording Studios from an unnecessary highway expansion and the salvaging of the Graystone International Jazz Museum & Hall of Fame from oblivion in an abandoned downtown office tower. The Stage was rescued and rebuilt by Detroit Sound Conservancy, a nonprofit founded in 2012 to preserve and celebrate Detroit’s varied musical legacies, from blues and jazz to techno and hip hop. ![]() Local musicians, such as future Motown Records bassist (or Funk Brother) James Jamerson, who attended nearby Northwestern High School, apprenticed at the Blue Bird, learning the “Detroit way” to communicate with audiences and fellow musicians. These musicians, including national leaders in modern music like Miles Davis and John Coltrane, explored bop, hard bop, and the emergence of free jazz on a platform that foregrounded Detroit’s commitment to serious listening over six decades. Hundreds of jazz musicians stood and performed on its planks, in front of its backdrop, and for a largely Black working-class audience from the late 1950s until the club’s closing earlier this century. Salvaged from the abandoned Blue Bird Inn on Detroit’s historic West Side, the Stage is hallowed cultural ground renovated to circulate within Detroit, throughout the United States, and around the world. The Blue Bird Stage is an exceptional example of African-American mid-century vernacular art and design as well as a launchpad for sonic and social rebellion during the Civil Rights movement in Detroit. In addition, DSC is pleased to announce that the Stage will be featured in an exhibition at Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) entitled Sonic Rebellion: Music as Resistance (SeptemJanuary 7, 2018).ĭSC are currently booking the Stage for programming opportunities for summer 2017 and winter 2018. The Stage will return to Detroit in June. DSC Executive Director Carleton Gholz will travel to Saint-Étienne next week to oversee installation of the Stage’s historic elements. The rebuilt stage was completed in December and is now in France. DSC is pleased to announce that it decided to rehabilitate and reactivate the iconic Blue Bird Inn Stage as a modular, mobile, programming and exhibit experience in order to tell the ongoing story of collaboration, creativity, and music in Detroit. Preservationists have rebuilt the Blue Bird Inn’s stage and now plan for its future.ĭetroit, MI: In celebration of Detroit’s UNESCO Designation as a City of Design, Detroit Sound Conservancy (DSC) was invited last October by Public Design Trust with funding from Detroit Creative Corridor Center (DC3) to contribute to an exhibition exploring the future of work in Saint-Étienne at France’s 10th Design Biennale (March 9 - April 9). Detroit Sound Conservancy Rebuilds Legendary Jazz Stage for French Exhibition
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