Scott Gwinnell
Gwinnell lived in the Cass Corridor while pursuing a master’s degree in music at Detroit’s Wayne State University. “Being a child of a sheltered suburban community,” he says, “the Corridor was my growing up, my awakening into adulthood.”
Scott Gwinnell
“The tradition of Detroit’s jazz music,” Gwinnell notes, “has been rooted in ‘hard bop’, a style of jazz that frequently implemented these instruments (trumpet, alto sax and tenor sax, accompanied by piano, bass and drums). Even though I was tempted to extend my orchestrational pallet, I wanted to be true to Detroit’s ‘sound’. I’ve also tried to incorporate the musical elements of hard bop, such as: a focus on groove, mercurial tempos, and a touch of the blues. Barry Harris, Jones Brothers, Kenny Burrell, and Pepper Adams come to mind as influences for this music.”