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Chris Rizik started planning for the Independent Soul Music Awards about six months ago, but he’s been dreaming about the possibilities for years.
“The first year we asked people to place their votes online, and we sent the awards out to the winners,” said Rizik, CEO and publisher of SoulTracks, a soul music Web site and the event organizer. “The next year it was broadcast on an Internet station. Last year we held it at Cobo Hall with artists coming from all around the country to receive their awards.”
Tonight’s third-annual awards show at the Max M. Fisher Music Center, will kick off a weekend-long event, similar to Detroit’s Electronic Music Festival, Rizik said.
It will be hosted by popular Detroit radio personality John Mason and Jodine Dorce, of Jodine’s Corner, an Atlanta-based Web site designed as a discussion forum on music, healthy living and politics. It will feature big name artists like Phil Perry, Grammy-winner Gordon Chambers, Algebra, Sy Smith and Conya Doss. Along with awards for Best Album and Best Song, the Dramatics, a Detroit-based group, will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
The nomination process for all winners started with Rizik asking artists, promoters, record companies and fans to submit nominations. Then a committee of 2,000 people in the music industry came together to choose the top five in each category. Then the decision fell on visitors to Rizik’s site, who voted for the winners.
Once the show wraps, guests can head to the Music Hall’s Jazz Café for an afterglow.
On Saturday the Motown Historical Museum will offer tours for a special group rate of $8. Later, SoulTracks will host its All-Star Jam at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.
“It is going to be a tribute to Detroit,” Rizik said. About a dozen artists will perform Motown hits at the event, including, Dain Harris, Maya Azucena, PJ Morton, and Spyder Turner.
Rizik said he had organizational help for the event from Jodine’s Corner; and mosaicthump.com, another Detroit-based soul music Web site. Ardesta L.L.C., Rizik’s Ann Arbor-based venture capital firm, is a sponsor.
Support also came from the Detroit Economic Growth Corp.
“George Jackson, CEO of DEGC, was there last year,” Rizik said. “It had gone so well that we were being approached to take the show to New York, Atlanta and elsewhere. George asked us to leave it in Detroit and offered to help us.”
Jackson did so as part of DEGC’s plan to support initiatives that grow metro Detroit’s creative economy.
“We thought the show was a way to capture emerging artists and get them excited about Detroit,” Jackson said. “We have a pretty good base here to develop our entertainment industry, considering all the great talent that’s from here. We want to build our music industry in a similar way that Nashville and Atlanta did, which will bring jobs to our city.”
With Jackson’s help, Rizik secured tonight’s venue and was introduced to other sponsors and partners, including Plante & Moran plc, Franco Public Relations Group, Foley & Lardner L.L.P., Detroit Make it Here, V Works Productions L.L.C. and Fusicology L.L.C.
Profits from the weekend will be donated to the Cornerstone Schools music program. Tickets for tomorrow’s All-Star Jam are $10. For more information, go to soultracks.com.
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