Business & brands / Music
Gretchen Valade
1925–2022 · businesswoman, jazz philanthropist, record label founder
Carhartt heiress known as Detroit's Angel of Jazz, who founded Mack Avenue Records and the Dirty Dog Jazz Cafe and kept the Detroit Jazz Festival free.
- Born
Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan- Died
Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan
aged 97- Birth name
- Gretchen Carhartt
- Also known as
- Gretchen Carhartt Valade · Angel of Jazz
- Detroit years
- 1925–2022
- Field
- Business & brands, Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Gretchen Carhartt was born in Grosse Pointe Farms, the granddaughter of Hamilton Carhartt, who founded the Detroit workwear company in 1889, and daughter of company president Wylie Carhartt. She joined Carhartt's board in 1958 and in 1998, after the death of her husband Robert C. Valade, the company's longtime president, became chairman of the board. She played piano and wrote songs all her life, and at 74, in 1999, founded Mack Avenue Records, which grew into a major independent jazz label with eleven Grammy wins. In 2008 she opened the Dirty Dog Jazz Cafe on Kercheval Avenue in Grosse Pointe Farms. When the Detroit International Jazz Festival lost its main sponsor, she created a foundation in 2006 with an endowment of about $10 million to keep the Labor Day festival free, and she chaired its board until her death. She also gave $9.5 million to Wayne State University for jazz studies; the Gretchen C. Valade Jazz Center opened there in 2024.
Highlights
- Granddaughter of Carhartt founder Hamilton Carhartt; board chair from 1998
- Founded Mack Avenue Records in 1999
- Opened the Dirty Dog Jazz Cafe in Grosse Pointe Farms in 2008
- Endowed the Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation to keep the festival free
- Gave $9.5 million for the Gretchen C. Valade Jazz Center at Wayne State
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 3
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Founded · 2008–2022
Dirty Dog Jazz Cafe
Intimate jazz supper club Valade opened on the Hill in Grosse Pointe Farms at the age of 82.
Memorial · 2024–
Gretchen C. Valade Jazz Center (Wayne State University)
Wayne State's jazz performance hall in the converted Hilberry Theatre, funded by her gifts and named after her; opened August 29, 2024.
Related place · 2006–2022
African World Festival
The riverfront plaza that hosts the main stages of the free Detroit Jazz Festival, which her foundation has underwritten since 2006.