313 Day: Celebrating Detroit’s Musical Heritage

by | Mar 3, 2026 | All, Music History, Special Topics | 0 comments

What up doe?

I don’t live in the D, but I consider myself a Detroiter. (And I do know there are levels to being a Detroiter). My parents moved from an upstairs apartment in Detroit to a more traditional apartment when my mom was pregnant with me. I was raised to be a Detroiter. I went to school right near the border of the city. I’ve worked in Detroit at an hourly job and paid city taxes.

While I don’t get to claim I’m a real Detroiter by some standards, I get mad when I hear Detroit slander, and the same old stereotypes. I think Imported from Detroit is a commendation, and no matter what other cities try to claim it, it IS Detroit vs. Everybody. (Look up why the saying was created).

And I get irritated when people talk about musical cities, see lists, and realize people seem to forget that Detroit has a massive musical heritage. And I do mean MASSIVE. Historically, culturally, and CURRENTLY. March 13th is Detroit Day because of the city’s area code (313). Here’s touching on just a few quick hits of the massive musical repertoire that has history in Detroit that you can highlight to celebrate 313 Day because you could spend a lifetime on Detroit musical heritage.

NOTE: As with any links I provide, please watch first to make sure they are appropriate for your students and their age.

Black Bottom and Paradise Valley

Black Bottom was an east-side neighborhood that was home to many Black families in the early 1900s. Named by French settlers for the dark, fertile topsoil it had. It was also home to many Eastern European Jewish immigrants during World War 1. Paradise Valley was next to Black Bottom operating more as a business and entertainment district.

The areas were razed to make room for freeways and housing developments. Residents were often given only 30 day notice and no help to relocate and many moved to Housing Projects.

Black Bottom was an epicenter of blues, jazz, and R&B. It is easier to tell you to look up who was here and FROM here rather than list them but I’ll give a few quick hits: Mamie Smith, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Aretha, Ella, Duke, Cab Calloway, Sammy Davis, Jr., John Lee Hooker, Dr. Della Reese. Many brought the Delta Blues with them.

The biggest thing to point out is that Detroit was a music destination. A place to go to be. While researching, I saw comparisons to Bourbon Street. And this continued on through the generations.

Detroit is currently the largest Black-majority City located in the United States.

Listening

Sources:

Motown

Hitsville USA

I honestly don’t even know where to start. Berry Gordy was a jazz fan and a frequent of The Flame Show Bar which was on the outside edge of Paradise Valley. He even tried to open a record store. He was working as a song writer when he met Smokey Robinson and helped him record “Got a Job”. He worked creatively in several ways, recording, writing, etc. with the help of revenue from those endeavors and help from his family. Motown was founded on January 12, 1959. On August 20, 1959, he purchased 2648 West Grand Boulevard, the now iconic recording studio with Smokey Robinson becoming the Vice President of the Company. He operated multiple sub-labels including Tamla, and Gordy to encourage radio play.

Part of signing with Motown included “artist development” for younger musicians. It included dressing, grooming, etc., working to counteract less than flattering stereotypes about Black musicians that existed at the time. Berry insisted that everything from the artists, to the music was impeccable. From 1961-1971, Motown had 110 top 10 hits. Motown eventually became part of other record groups and moved around but still exists as part of UMG’s Republic Corps. (See a super detailed timeline here).

Some of the artists from Motown are The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, The Jackson 5, Gladys Knight & the Pips, The Isley Brothers, Martha & The Vandellas, The Temptations. The Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, The Miracles, Queen Latifah, Lionel Richie, Boyz II Men, and hundreds of others.

I sincerely urge you to visit the Motown Museum if you ever get a chance. Take the tour (I cannot wait for the expansion!) Get to make music in Studio A. Find out about the candy machine. They also run creative programs and awards for young creators.

  • Check out their website here.
  • Check out their bookshop with a some children’s lit books here.
Me in Studio A

Listening

I’m sticking with “classic” Motown for this because of that original sound and because I can’t have 100s of links of songs I wish I could share.

Sources

Jazz

The Jazz Age was huge in Detroit, and many people relocated here to take part. There is a litany of notable jazz musicians from Detroit. Just a few of my favs:

  • George Benson (Not that one, the saxophone one.) My mom is a huge George Benson fan (that one – who she finally did see with my aunt and I back a few years ago – Kenny G was the opener), and my parents always told a story about going to a club to see George Benson (that one) and getting there and finding out it was another George Benson (the saxophone one) who they DID thoroughly enjoy even though it wasn’t the George they expected. Incidentally, he also worked as a session musician for Motown and appeared on several sessions, particularly with Marvin Gaye.
  • Yusef Lateef – Multi instrumentalist who incorporated saxophone and flute as well as a variety of non western instruments and blended Eastern music and jazz. The album “Eastern Sounds” showcases a lot of variety.
  • Henry Jones Jr. – A powerhouse, National Endowment for the Arts winner with 60 albums to his name and likely appearing on over a thousand recordings as a sideman (including the famous Marilyn Monroe Happy Birthday rendition).
  • Faruq Z. Bey – Jazz saxophonist known for work with polyrhythms and odd meters.
  • Sugar Chile Robinson – Detroit born piano prodigy, retired from music after a career as a child musician so he could go to college.
  • Pepper Adams (Imagine my surprise to find a profile on this man in the Historical Society of Michigan’s “Chronicle” while walking out of my library with other books for this post.) Baritone sax player who wanted to develop a sound like Charlie Parker’s on the baritone.
  • Ron Carter – Certified by Guinness, the most recorded bassist in jazz history. He’s worked with EVERYONE.
  • Barry Harris – Played boogie woogie piano in high school with classmate Berry Gordy.
  • Alice Coltrane
  • Wally Truszkowski (Wally Trusk) – He’s not a “big” name but he’s a Detroiter, a jazz musician, organist, polka band musician, Army mischief maker who always had KP (or so it seemed from the stories he told us), and personally responsible for teaching thousands of Detroit and metro-Detroit kids their instruments, including me. He did have bands (dance bands and polka bands I believe) under his stage name “Wally Trusk” back in the day. And when I was in middle school and he looked at me one day and said “I want a big band. Do you want to play saxophone?” I wish I had a recording of him playing to share with you. When he was my teacher in the 90s, he had lost so much mobility to arthritis that he played the piano with his knuckles. But he always played with us.
    https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ndnp/mimtptc/batch_mimtptc_alma_ver01/data/sn96077289/00414187638/1945112701/1136.pdf
    Dom Polski: Dance Hall Days of Detroits Polonia

Jazz Venues

Detroit is still home to some legendary jazz venues

  • Aretha’s Jazz Cafe
  • Baker’s Keyboard Lounge – the oldest continuously operated jazz club in the world (source)
  • Cliff Bell’s
  • Dirty Dog Jazz Cafe (in Grosse Pointe Farms)
  • Blue LLama (in Ann Arbor)

Jazz Festival

In addition to the litany of musicians, Detroit is also home to the largest free jazz festival in the world every Labor Day weekend. The Detroit International Jazz Festival bringing in huge names in jazz across several stages, for a multi-day event in downtown Detroit spanning Hart Plaza, Campus Martius, and the Gretchen C. Valade Jazz Center at Wayne State University. It also includes auditioned school and collegiate groups. https://www.detroitjazzfest.org

Gospel Music

More Info

Sources

Techno

Detroit is the birthplace of Techno Music. What happened here influenced European Techno. Admittedly, I don’t know a lot about this genre, but aren’t we always learning?

More Info

More Culture

Sources

Everything Else

Punk, Rock (in all its’s various forms) Country, Rap, Hip Hop, R&B). I can’t list them all, and some of it isn’t necessarily appropriate for school listening but it’s important to know that some of these huge names got their start here in the Motor City.

  • Hank Ballard and the Midnighters
  • The Imperials
  • The Royal Jokers (originally The Serenaders)
  • The Reflections
  • Iggy Pop (Ypsilanti)
  • Big Sean
  • Eminem
  • Martin Solis Jr. and his conjunto, Los Primos – Yes, Tejano music!
  • The White Stripes (you know your students know 7 Nation Army)
  • Aaliyah
  • J Dilla
  • Funkadelic, and The Funk Brothers
  • The Pleasure Seekers
  • Suzi Quatro
  • Mitch Ryder and also Detroit (aka The Band Detroit)
  • Bob Seger
  • Blade Icewood
  • Slum Village
  • Kash Doll
  • Glenn Frey (from The Eagles)
  • Grand Funk Railroad (from Flint but found early success in Detroit)
  • Mark Farmer (frontman of GFR, from Flint)
  • Jack Scott – Born in Windsor across the river and moved to Hazel Park as a child
  • Alice Cooper (while the band formed in Phoenix, Alice was born in Detroit)
  • Mark Tremonti from Creed
  • MC5, and Motor City Bad Boys (not the basketball players) My mom saw them play when she was in middle school at St. Stanislaus Catholic School (yes really) in the gym because an older girl from the school got them to play there.
  • The Gories
  • BLKBOK (Charles Wilson III) – Classical composer, name to echo “Bach”
  • Madonna (ish. She’s from the northern suburbs).
  • Joni Mitchell – Not from Detroit, but married and living here when she wrote some some of her bigger hits before moving to NYC.
  • Cultural music!! Detroit and Metro Detroit are a hub of cultural music. There are some very large cultural groups that I’d be remiss in leaving off the list completely. Mariachi, Arabic music, Polish polka bands, Croatian music, and more. While this isn’t music FROM Detroit, it’s part of what makes Detroit unique, and there are definitely cross over musicians!

Songs About Detroit

There are a bunch, but here are a few kid-friendly songs you can play in class.

  • Detroit City Blues – Fats Domino https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDM7a8ccE5o
  • Hello, Detroit – Sammy Davis Junior
    • Grades 6-12 Lesson Plan from Teach Rock with Standards noted for Common Core, Social Studies, and National Standards for Music Education, National Core Arts Standards, and Career Technical Education Standards (California Model) – Arts, Media and Entertainment Pathway Standards
  • Eastern Market – Yusef Lateef – About Detroit’s iconic market https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vna3N337KKg
  • Christmas Eve on Woodward Avenue – Karen Newman If you’re in the mood for a Christmas song, Detroiters know this woman was the anthem singer for the Red Wings for years, even coming back to sing it when the team retired Sergei Federov’s jersey in January. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo-AtbXeuHw
    • Woodward Avenue (M-1) is a main road that cuts through Detroit and north from downtown through the suburbs to Pontiac. It separates the east from west, and had the first mile of paved highway in the US. Every year there is a massive automotive event called The Dream Cruise where people bring their classics, customs, and more to celebrate automotive history. It is the largest 1-day automotive event in the world although many people cruise all week long (and lots of nights in the summer as well). You can see pretty much every car imaginable but it’s need to see barely road-legal racers and souped up muscle machines going down the road next to a Model T.
  • I Care About Detroit – Smokey Robinson and the Miracles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n05wK0Ja4M0&t=1s
  • The Motown Song – Rod Stewart with The Temptations – complete with an animated music video, Stewart is the only one who is not but the https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EzV-S5nXlw

Books

With as many musicians as Detroit has sent into the world, there are bunches of artists represented in children’s literature (still not enough). I won’t include all of the books, but here’s a few to check out.

Further Reading

Some of the sources I linked in parts of this post, and below, have tons more to go through. Here are a few books for adults that may help you get more info on Detroit musicians and musical heritage. You’ll find more info on people who came to Detroit to make music as well. I didn’t include all of that list in this post simply for space, and to honor Detroiters.

Side note: As I was writing this, I realized, that this year I checked off seeing FIVE massive Detroit acts. If you follow me on socials, you know that I’m a massive Detroit Lions fan (before they were good) and have tickets with my mom, and this year because of that I was able to see Kevin Saunderson, Jack White, Eminem, Cece Winans, and the Temptations. The last four were all within a the course of a WEEK.

I hope this has given you some (or a LOT) of inspiration to celebrate my city, Detroit, on 313 Day and every day!

Melissa Stouffer-1

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