DETROIT, MI — Get ready to dance.

On Monday, October 12, Sky Covington’s Preservation of Jazz Monday Night Music Series: Tributes turns up the rhythm with a special Tribute to R&B & Funk celebrating the music and legacy of Teddy Riley & Zapp, performed by Twon & Band.

Hosted by comedian Mike Bonner and curated and produced by Sky Covington, the evening will take audiences back to an era when R&B met hip-hop, funk met the dance floor, and a revolutionary new sound called New Jack Swing changed popular music.

THE ARCHITECT OF NEW JACK SWING

Teddy Riley is widely credited with creating New Jack Swing, blending R&B vocals with hip-hop rhythms and electronic production. His influence stretches through Guy and Blackstreet and into his work with artists including Michael Jackson, Bobby Brown, Keith Sweat and Heavy D & The Boyz.

Teddy Riley

His musical fingerprints can be heard across songs and productions including “My Prerogative,” “Remember the Time,” “I Want Her” and Blackstreet’s Grammy-winning smash “No Diggity.”

Teddy Riley

On October 12, Twon & Band will bring that spirit to the stage—not as an impersonation, but as a live Detroit interpretation celebrating the grooves, harmonies, funk and unmistakable energy of the Teddy Riley era.

FROM JAZZ TO FUNK TO NEW JACK SWING

The evening also speaks directly to the mission of The Preservation of Jazz: showing audiences how one generation of music leads into another.

Jazz gave birth to countless musical conversations. Soul, funk, R&B and hip-hop carried those conversations forward, and Teddy Riley’s New Jack Swing became another chapter in that evolving story.

“Preservation is not about putting music in a museum,” says producer Sky Covington. “It is about showing people how the music keeps moving. Teddy Riley created a sound that made an entire generation move.

Twon and the band are going to help us celebrate that energy live.”

This is not a sit-still kind of Monday night.

Come ready to groove. Come ready to remember. And come ready to dance.

EVENT DETAILS

Sky Covington’s Preservation of Jazz Monday Night Music Series: Tributes

A TRIBUTE TO R&B & FUNK

Celebrating the Music of Teddy Riley & Zapp

Featuring Twon & Band

@Julian Roberts

@Johnny Murray on Drums

@Mahagony on Backgrounds

Monday, October 12, 2026

Aretha’s Jazz Café at Music Hall

350 Madison Avenue

Detroit, Michigan

Doors: 6:00 PM

Showtime: 7:00 PM

Tickets: $35

Reserve tickets at the Door.

248 383.3385

Cashapp: $hugdetdaydonation

Hosted by: Mike Bonner

Curated & Produced by: Sky Covington

NEW JACK SWING IS COMING TO MONDAY NIGHT.

From Guy to Blackstreet, Zapp from R&B slow jams to irresistible dance-floor grooves, October 12 is a celebration of a musical movement that helped define an era.