HOW DO YOU CELEBRATE A MUSICAL LEGACY?
For Morris Hayes and a community of artists and educators, playing the music is only part of the answer. So is inspiring the next generation, showing them what it takes and giving them opportunities.
If they can see it, they can be it.
It’s an idea at the heart of Crescendo Detroit, a nonprofit providing free after-school and summer programs that use music and dance, academics, life skills, and mentorship to nurture Detroit young people ages 5 to 18: let them see excellence up close, especially in people who look like them, come from similar backgrounds, or have walked paths they can imagine for themselves, and what once seemed distant can begin to feel possible.
But inspiration isn’t enough.
Young people also need a path: people who can show them what it takes, expect them to do the work, and give them real opportunities to put that work into practice.
This fall, Morris Hayes, Prince’s longtime keyboardist and music director who spent nearly two decades working alongside him, is bringing one of those opportunities to Crescendo.
He has chosen Detroit to debut a new production celebrating music from his journey with Prince and other architects of the Minneapolis Sound. The October 27 concert at the Bonstelle Playhouse will benefit Crescendo and give something back to a city that embraced Prince early and became an important part of his story.
For Crescendo’s young performers, that means a chance to be part of it.
Morris wanted them to have more than a seat in the audience. He wanted them to experience some of the work behind a professional production and ultimately take their place on the Bonstelle stage as the Opening Act, joined by Hayes and acclaimed Detroit artists Gayelynn McKinney, Maurice “Piranhahead” Herd and Raine Baker.
This isn’t a typical benefit concert built around a celebrity appearance, and Crescendo isn’t simply a cause attached to a show. The students are being brought into the work behind it: rehearsing, taking direction, learning what is expected in a professional setting, and preparing to perform alongside accomplished musicians.
For the artists involved, the evening is also a chance to pass something forward.
IT STARTED WITH A MASTERCLASS
When Morris Hayes first came to Crescendo Detroit in May 2025, no one was talking about a concert. He had come to spend time with the students. His own musical beginnings, he told them, were rooted in church in rural Arkansas. Music was already part of his life, but he had not yet imagined where it might take him.
Then, as a young man, he saw Prince perform in 1982.
“I want to do that,” he remembered thinking.
“I WANT TO DO THAT.” - Morris Hayes still has the ticket from the Prince concert he attended in 1982. Years later, he would spend nearly two decades working alongside Prince on some of the world’s biggest stages, including the Super Bowl.
But Morris was careful not to leave the students with only the inspirational part of the story. There had been no shortcuts. He talked about practice, preparation and persistence; about taking every job seriously, being the first one in and the last one out, and being ready when opportunity came.
“Know your instrument, and practice your craft,” he told them. “That’s the key.” His message was simple: “If I can do it, you can do it. But if you want to do it, you have to be willing to do the work."
For Crescendo founder and CEO Damien Crutcher, that combination was part of what made the visit so meaningful.
“His journey, work ethic, humility, and commitment to giving back set a powerful example,” Crutcher said. “I have no doubt his presence will inspire our students in ways that stay with them.”
The students weren’t the only ones listening. Faculty, parents and guests watched as Morris shared his story, played with the young musicians and talked about the experiences and choices that had shaped his life.
One parent saw the effect in her own sons.
“Representation matters in so many forms,” Mrs. N. Banks later wrote. She was struck by the way Morris spoke about his mother, his faith, the choices he made, and the responsibility he felt to honor where he came from. "Moments like this invite reflection, and what comes from the heart truly reaches the heart,” she wrote. “Mr. Hayes’ story has given our sons even more confidence in their own musical journeys.”
That mattered at Crescendo, where young people are intentionally given access to accomplished people who look like them, come from similar backgrounds, or have walked paths they can imagine for themselves.
And the conversation didn’t end when the masterclass did.
Over dinner with Crescendo’s leadership and staff, they talked about the teachers, mentors, families and communities that had shaped their own lives: people who had shown them what was possible, challenged them and helped prepare them for what came next. Morris spoke about those who had guided him and the responsibility he felt to pass something forward. Crutcher recognized the same idea at the center of Crescendo’s work.
By the end of the visit, both sides wanted the relationship to continue.
They just didn’t yet know what that would look like.
WHAT CAME NEXT
As Morris began developing a new live production, the idea of debuting it in Detroit took shape. It was a way to give something back to a city that had played an important role in Prince’s early career and build on the relationship Morris had begun with Crescendo.
He decided to bring the two together. The production would debut in Detroit, and Crescendo’s young performers would be part of the evening. He created a special Opening Act with the students at its center. They would prepare for a professional production and have a real role in the evening, ultimately taking the Bonstelle Playhouse stage alongside accomplished musicians.
But the opportunity wasn’t only about putting the students onstage. It was also about the acclaimed musicians they would have the chance to work alongside.
MORE THAN THE MUSIC
Detroit musicians have a long history of learning from one another and bringing younger artists along. It is one of the ways a musical culture sustains itself. Knowledge is shared. Standards are passed down. Opportunities are created, and those who benefit often turn around and do the same for someone else.
Gayelynn McKinney, Maurice “Piranhahead” Herd and Damien Crutcher know that tradition firsthand. McKinney grew up in it. Her father, Harold McKinney, was a renowned jazz pianist and educator who performed with artists including John Coltrane and Wes Montgomery, but made Detroit the center of his life’s work, helping develop generations of younger musicians. Another important mentor was master jazz trumpeter and educator Marcus Belgrave, who toured and recorded with Ray Charles before becoming a major figure in Detroit music and a mentor to generations of musicians.
Herd learned from masters including Paul Riser, the Motown arranger behind some of the label’s most enduring recordings, and acclaimed arranger and producer Benjamin Wright. What they passed along went beyond musicianship to the discipline and expectations of making music professionally.
Crutcher’s path also runs through Detroit’s music and education community. A Cass Tech graduate who went on to study music at Michigan State and the University of Michigan, he became a conductor and educator before founding Crescendo. Teachers and mentors invested in his development. Crescendo gives him a way to make that same investment in young people growing up in Detroit today.
McKinney, Herd and Crutcher have each been named Kresge Artist Fellows, one of the region’s most prestigious distinctions, honoring both their artistic excellence and the influence their work has on Detroit’s cultural life.
Each has also made teaching, mentoring, and creating opportunities for others part of their work.
DETROIT’S MUSICAL LEGACY ISN’T ONLY WHAT WAS MADE HERE.
IT’S ALSO WHAT MUSICIANS HAVE PASSED ON TO ONE ANOTHER.
Morris comes to the project with much the same philosophy.
His path took him from Arkansas to nearly two decades working alongside Prince, but people helped Morris get there. He speaks often about those who taught him, challenged him, believed in him, and gave him a chance, and about his responsibility to do the same for others.
That responsibility has become part of his work. Morris regularly leads masterclasses, sharing not only what he has learned about music, but what years of working at the highest level taught him about preparation, discipline and professionalism.
Each understands the importance of showing young people what is possible, teaching them what it takes to get there, and creating opportunities for them to put that work into practice.
They benefited from people who did that for them. Now they are doing it for the next generation. This time, Crescendo’s young performers are the ones being brought along.
A MUSICAL LEGACY IS MORE THAN THE MUSIC.
IT’S ALSO THE KNOWLEDGE, STANDARDS, DISCIPLINE AND OPPORTUNITIES PASSED FROM ONE GENERATION TO THE NEXT.
“THIS IS THE SAUSAGE-MAKING PART”
That’s how Morris described it to the students during one rehearsal. It has never been easier to see success. Young people can watch the performance, follow the artist, and see the finished product almost in real time. What is harder to see is everything behind it.
The years spent developing a craft. The rehearsals that don’t go well. The corrections. The repetition. The people who challenge you and expect more. The work that happens long before anyone is watching. There may be more ways than ever to make music and share it, but there are still no shortcuts to developing real musicianship.
And the lesson is bigger than music. Whatever these young people ultimately choose to do, the habits are much the same: prepare, take the work seriously, learn from people who know more than you do, respond to correction and be ready when opportunity comes.
Eventually, the expectation has to become your own.
That is something Morris, Crutcher, and the musicians around them have in common. They have built their careers not only around high standards, but around holding themselves to them.
That belief runs deep at Crescendo.
“You have to build a culture of high expectations,” Crutcher has said.
Supporting young people means taking them seriously enough to expect something from them. But the larger goal is for them to begin expecting something from themselves. The expectation says: you belong in this room. And because you belong here, something is required of you.
The students have been given the opportunity. Now they have to do the work.
A TRUE CELEBRATION
On October 27, Crescendo’s young performers will take the Bonstelle Playhouse stage as the Opening Act, joined by Hayes and Detroit artists Gayelynn McKinney, Maurice “Piranhahead” Herd and Raine Baker.
Then Hayes takes the stage for Celebrating the Music of the Minneapolis Sound with Mr. Hayes and Friends, an intimate night of music featuring some of the most iconic songs marking his musical journey with Prince and other architects of the Minneapolis Sound. He will be joined by special guests MacKenzie and former New Power Generation (NPG) MC/rapper Tony M.
For VIP guests, the night continues with a Late Set, as more Detroit musicians come out to support Crescendo and jam.
The music alone makes this an extraordinary night.
But the music is only part of what is being celebrated.
Before the show even begins, Crescendo’s young performers will have spent months preparing. Their Crescendo teachers and staff have worked with them day after day, reinforcing the high expectations that are part of the program and helping them prepare for what is ahead. Along the way, the students have also had the opportunity to work with a world-class music director and nationally acclaimed artists who know what it takes to perform at the highest level.
Then the doors will open.
The audience will take their seats inside the historic Bonstelle Playhouse, and the young people who once sat listening to Morris Hayes tell them what was possible will walk onto that stage themselves.
That, too, is how a musical legacy is celebrated.
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