Cadieux Cafe Presents: Alexander Zonjic and Friends!

Cadieux Café 4300 Cadieux Rd, Detroit MI 40224

In 2020, eleven years after releasing Doin’ the D, an album paying dynamic homage to the music and magic of Detroit, Alexander Zonjic got back in the throwback R&B groove with the release of another infectious, high-spirited valentine to his beloved adopted hometown. Written and produced for the veteran, multiple award winning flutist by Pieces of a Dream keyboardist James Lloyd, “”Motor City Sway” – the infectious lead single from Playing It Forward, Zonjic’s first collection on his own Hi-Falutin Music label – quickly hit the Billboard Smooth Jazz Songs chart and was one of the most added singles on the Billboard BDS chart two weeks in a row. Ten of the eleven tracks on Playing It Forward were produced by keyboardist Jeff Lorber, who helmed the majority of sessions for Zonjic’s previous albums Reach for the Sky (2001), Seldom Blues (2004) and Doin’ The D.

A native of Windsor, Ontario (immediately across the Detroit River), Zonic is a 15-time Detroit Music Awards winner with deep and multi-faceted ties to and influence on the city. He has been a multi-media personality since he began hosting the morning radio show at the longtime smooth jazz station WVMV in 1998 – a popular stint that ran through 2010. Since 2016, he has hosted “Alexander Zonjic from A to Z,” a weekly half hour hybrid TV show on WADL TV-38 (airing Sundays at 10 p.m., with an encore at 1:30 a.m. mixing live concert elements with special guest live interviews.

Also in 2016, Zonjic launched “Doin’ The D,” a magazine-style talk radio and music show, airing from 5-7 p.m. Sundays on WFDF 910-AM. Between in studio guests and call-ins, his mostly Detroit centric interviews have included Kenny G, Martha Reeves, former Detroit Police Chief Ike McKinnon and legendary Grammy and Emmy Award winning keyboard icon Bob James, who discovered Zonjic in 1981 when the flutist was playing in Detroit’s famous Baker’s Keyboard Lounge. James invited Zonjic to join his band on and off on tour, and the keyboardist later was a producer (along with saxophonist Kirk Whalum) on Neon, Zonjic’s first major label album (Reprise Records) in 1990. James also appeared on the flutist’s 1993 follow-up album Passion, which featured a vocal track by Angela Bofill.

Over the years, as Zonjic puts it, he has morphed from “that flute guy from Canada” into the owner of a veritable cottage industry as the artistic director and producer of more than 10 annual festival events in the region and philanthropist under the umbrella of his Hi-Falutin Music. .

Believing in Gandhi’s words that the “best way to find oneself is to lose oneself in the service of others,” Zonjic and Hi-Falutin work with numerous large charity organizations in the Detroit area. They host an annual “Soup City” fundraiser for COTS (Coalition on Temporary Shelter); and have partnered on a variety of fundraisers for many years with the Children’s Foundation, including he upcoming “Derby For Kids.” Their work with Mariner’s Inn, a shelter and treatment center for the homeless in Midtown Detroit, includes a recent virtual fundraiser. Other organizations Zonjic’s organization has supported include Franklin Wright Settlements, Habitat for Humanities, Lighthouse of Oakland County, Windsor Downtown Mission , SAY Detroit and Grace Centers of Hope in Pontiac, Michigan.

Host or Publisher Cadieux Cafe