58 | AUGUST 29 • 2024
M
imi Fox has spent many
years devoting her jazz
guitar talents to compos-
ing, live performing, recording and
teaching. She has connected with
platforms in Michigan, where a
Kalamazoo-made guitar has been
designed in her honor.
In all her musical time around the
world, Fox hasn’t been scheduled to
appear with the Detroit Jazz Festival
— until this year, when the Mimi
Fox Organ Trio can be heard from
8:05-9:10 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 31, on
the Absopure Waterfront Stage in
Hart Plaza.
The annual free Detroit jazz
celebration runs Aug. 30-Sept. 2
in the Downtown Detroit area and
features a wide lineup of stellar
musicians.
“I’m very excited to be coming
to Detroit with Brian Ho on organ
and Lorca Hart, the son of Billy
Hart, on drums,” Fox said. “We’ll
be doing a mixture of my original
compositions and some Wes
Montgomery arrangements that I’ve
made.
“I’ve been touring pretty much
nonstop in support of the album
‘One for Wes,’ which seems like
it’s going to be a perfect fit for the
festival in Detroit. It’s been a pretty
popular fit, and last year we had
six shows for this jazz at Lincoln
Center, which was really fun. We’ve
been touring for about a year and a
half in support of our program, and
it shows no sign of letting up. It’s
really cool.”
Fox has explained her Wes
Montgomery fandom and new
approach to his music.
“Last year was the 100th
anniversary of the birth of Wes
Montgomery, one of the great
guitar innovators of the 20th
century,” she said. “I’m a big fan
of Wes, and everything just sort of
came together. As a composer, I
wrote a lot of material that is Wes-
influenced yet it’s all mine. That was
a little different take on it.”
Fox, whose love for music
derives from family members who
surrounded themselves with music,
got a guitar when she was 10 and
living in New York. With a bit of
mentoring, she is mostly self-taught.
“When I was 7 or 8, I would take
my mom’s soup pots and bang along
to my dad’s old Dixieland records,”
she said. “I think my mom got sick
of me destroying her soup pots so
she got me a guitar. I completely
fell in love with the instrument,
and, as soon as I got home and did
my homework, I would play until
dinner.
“After dinner, I would go into my
room and play until I fell asleep. I
told my mom early on that this is all
I want to do is play this instrument.
An older cousin taught me a few
chords, but I taught myself from
listening to records.”
With offers to do studio work,
Fox moved to California in 1979.
Although she felt confined by the
studio environment, she found
other creative opportunities and
began traveling the world to
perform.
COURTESY OF MIMI FOX
Jazz guitarist Mimi
Fox brings her own
compositions and
Wes Montgomery
arrangements.
SUZANNE CHESSLER
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
ARTS&LIFE
MUSIC
Sharing
The
Vibe
Details
Mimi Fox will appear 8:05-
9:10 p.m. Saturday, Aug.31,
on the Absopure Waterfront
Stage in Hart Plaza as part
of the free Detroit Jazz
Festival, which runs Aug.
30-Sept. 2 on several stages
in the city’s Downtown area.
For details, go to
detroitjazzfest.org.
Jazz guitarist
Mimi Fox is on
the road again
to perform at
the Detroit
Jazz Festival.