Transformation is always at the heart of Marcus Elliot’s work, writes Layla McMurtrie in the Metro Detroit Times.
The Detroit saxophonist, composer, and educator says his upcoming project, Sounds from the Park, will be no different.
Commissioned by the Detroit Parks Coalition, the collection of work will reflect the diverse stories, histories, and cultures of Detroit’s parks and their surrounding neighborhoods.
Elliot’s creative process is deeply rooted in community.
He’s been visiting Palmer Park, Eliza Howell Park, Clark Park, Chandler Park, and Belle Isle to engage with locals and get a feel for the essence of each area. His goal is to blend structured music with improvisation, drawing inspiration from the organic sounds and atmospheres of the parks.
“When I do a project, when I’m learning about a certain topic, going through that process transforms me as a person and I allow that transformation to inform the music,” Elliot says. “These parks to me represent abundance… Especially in the world that we’re in right now, to have access to a place where you can just be a part of that and put down whatever it is that you’re carrying, it’s a serious gift.”
The project is made possible by a $100,000 grant from The Joyce Foundation, an organization dedicated to supporting artists of color in the Great Lakes region in creating community-centered work. Sounds from the Park is one of five 2024 Joyce Award recipients and one of two Michigan-based initiatives recognized. The other is DRONE, a multimedia theater production by Andrea Assaf in collaboration with the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn.
In the summer of 2025, Sounds from the Park will culminate in a series of outdoor concerts at the parks that inspired the music. Elliot will perform alongside community artists connected to each park, with each concert being filmed and recorded for a full-length vinyl album and video series documenting the project.
Despite Elliot’s deep personal connection to Detroit’s parks — having grown up on the westside and frequently visiting Eliza Howell and Belle Isle — he’s also wrestling with the doubts that often accompany creative work. Since being awarded the grant, he found himself asking questions like: “Am I worthy of this? Am I good enough? Am I the right artist for this? Is this even something I can do?”
“As I kind of traced my emotions back, it’s kind of this idea that I don’t deserve the abundance that’s in front of me,” Elliot says. “I think just the process of going to these parks on a regular basis, it’s been really good for me to just accept like, ‘Hey, this is here for you.’ You don’t have to pay money to be there. You don’t have to be at a certain status. You can just show up. It’s here and it's beautiful.”
In collaboration with the Detroit Parks Coalition and Sidewalk Detroit, an organization focused on advancing public life through art and equity, a main mission of Sounds from the Park is to “deepen connections between residents and the land, reaffirming community identity and belonging.”
“I think it’s important for us as a city to embrace the abundance of what we have here,” Elliot says. “These places, they’re very special and they’re worth spending time in and worth investing in… The hope is that the music can kind of just help bring some more awareness of just how precious these parks are.”
As Elliot continues to immerse himself in each park and surrounding neighborhood, he’s also in the midst of composing.
“Through my personal experience, I found that when I’m learning about a new thing or doing a project, the process of doing the things that I’m doing has an effect on my creative space,” he says. “I really try not to force anything, but just to kind of show up and be myself and create.”
He adds, “I do a lot of recording myself, recording ideas on the piano, so right now that’s the space that I’m in, and then, in a couple of months here, I’ll go into actually starting to kind of organize the ideas and see what I have and see what themes kind of come from that.” For Elliot, these parks — and nature in general — symbolize transformation, harmony, and inspiration.
“I’m constantly thinking about how things come together and how they can support one another,” he says. “I just feel like naturally that’s just what nature does. It harmonizes and produces in a beautiful, beautiful way. I feel like I’m always trying to be inspired by how nature just naturally creates harmony and just doing the best that I can to allow the music to do the same.”
