Motown in Revue

Marion Hayden

DJ Nick Speed

Motown in Revue, a lecture/musical presentation focusing on the Motown sound, will be presented from noon to 2 p.m. Feb. 20 in Hilberry Rooms B and C of the Student Center at Wayne State. The free event, sponsored by the Department of Africana Studies, features nationally renowned bassist Marion Hayden and Detroit-based DJ Nick Speed, who has created tracks for rappers 2pac, Snoop Dogg, 50 cent, Danny Brown and Lloyd Banks, among others.

This retrospective on Motown music will illuminate aspects of the Motown sound as well as its unique production techniques. A presentation of popular and profound records by Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, the Four Tops, Diana Ross and the Supremes, the Temptations, the Jackson Five and many others will be played and discussed. Audience participation will be encouraged in the question-and-answer period of the program.

Speed, a 1998 graduate of the Communication and Media Arts High School in Detroit, recently was signed to 50 Cent's G-Unit Records as an in-house producer. After spending years selling beats to underground artists, he garnered national attention with the creation of Libido Sounds, a joint venture with Elzhi from Slum Village. They released Witness My Growth: The Mixtape, a double-disc compilation showcasing Elzhi's unreleased material and Speed's unique brand of beatmaking. Speed is best-known for the track, What If by 50 Cent, from the platinum soundtrack to the film Get Rich or Die Tryin'.

Born in Detroit, Hayden is one of the nation's finest players of the acoustic bass. An early lover of jazz, Hayden was mentored by master trumpeter Marcus Belgrave and began performing at the age of 15. She has performed with such luminaries as Nancy Wilson, Roy Brooks, Hank Jones, Benny Golson, Frank Foster, Jon Hendricks, James Carter and Sean Jones. She is a co-founder of the touring jazz ensemble Straight Ahead.

Hayden is on the faculty of the Department of Jazz and Contemplative Studies at the University of Michigan School of Music and has been a clinician and adjudicator at universities across the country. Her projects include the touring company of Too Hot To Handel; the release of her critically acclaimed recording VISIONS featuring Kirk Lightsey, Steve Turre and Ralph Peterson; RUTH - a sacred work; and SANJO! a tribute to the African masters of song.

For more information call (313) 577-2321.

Wayne State University is a premier institution of higher education offering more than 350 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to more than 31,000 students.