Alexander Zonjic is a prime example of the adage “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.”
The 65-year-old musician best known as a flutist is channeling his enthusiasm for music into an expanding network of projects. He performs approximately 100 live shows a year, acts as artistic director or owner of nine major regional music festivals, hosts a syndicated radio program, and can now include television host/producer to his resume.
Zonjic thought it would be fun to do a TV show with a live studio audience, featuring guest artists he’s come to know over the years. So he launched a half-hour television program on Detroit TV WADL-Channel 38, plus a two-hour radio show on Detroit Superstation 910-AM.
“Alexander Zonjic From A to Z” is a hybrid show with inspiration from “Daryl’s House” – a web series of concerts featuring singer-songwriter Daryl Hall and his band with guests – and Bravo’s series “Inside The Actors Studio.” Zonjic’s format combines a concert, interview and Q&A session with the audience.
Airing at 7:30 Saturday nights on WADL, the half-hour program came to be after a casual dinner conversation with Kevin Adell, owner of WADL as well as 910-AM and The Word Network. Zonjic had already produced three programs and was looking for the right outlet when he mentioned the concept in passing. Adell liked the idea and set up a meeting with his station heads.
No stranger to the airwaves, Zonjic spent 12 years as a morning DJ at smooth jazz station WDZH-FM (98.7) and still hosts an internationally syndicated radio program. His new radio show, “Doin’ The D” is more of a magazine-style talk and music format, airing from 5-7 p.m. Sundays on 910-AM. Between in-studio guests and live call-ins, interviews since the show’s debut on Oct. 24 have included Kenny G, Martha Reeves, Bob James, and former Detroit Police Chief Ike McKinnon.
Listeners get a sense of Zonjic’s passion for all things Detroit. Born and raised in Windsor, where he still resides, Zonjic excitedly recounted stories during a recent phone conversation from his office. His grandmother brought him to Detroit almost every day when he was 7 or 8 years old. They didn’t have a car, so they would walk and take a bus, visiting Detroit landmarks Grand Circus Park, Hudson’s and – because he is of Greek/Serbian decent – Greektown was a must.
“It was always Detroit for me,” Zonjic says.
He doesn’t remember a time when it wasn’t about Detroit, fondly recalling the Big 8 (CKLW, which broadcast Top-40 music and talk to the Detroit and Windsor markets), the Grande Ballroom days and Motown. Zonjic released his first album in 1978, and the first radio station to play it was WJR-AM (760). He also credits African-American listeners as a big part of his longevity.
“I wouldn’t have a career without my African-American audience,” he says. “They are my core audience.”
That core audience associates Zonjic with jazz, but he is quick to say he feels his music is “jazzy, not really JAZZ.”
His first foray as a musician was when he picked up an electric guitar at age 9, then played with an R&B band in high school and worked as a rock guitarist before touring internationally as a jazz flutist. He didn’t begin playing flute until he was 21, and the majority of his training was in classical music, studying under the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Ervin Monroe.
Zonjic’s musical taste is equally eclectic – he cites the Beatles, James Brown, Sting, James Taylor and The Rolling Stones as some of his favorites. He also finds Lady Gaga “an amazingly talented lady.”
Although “Alexander Zonjic From A to Z” and “Doin’ The D” are both going strong and scheduling guests well into 2017, Zonjic quips, “In the meantime, I haven’t quit my other 10 day jobs.”
He practices what he preaches, telling young musicians, “You can avoid a real job, but you can’t avoid real work.” Judging by the durability of his career, whatever Zonjic is doing, it’s working.
* The next TV taping of Alexander Zonjic A to Z is Saturday, Jan. 21, at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center, Studio A, 15801 Michigan Ave, Dearborn. Tickets are $20 and the guests will be keyboardist Alex Bugnon and guitarist Matt Marshak.
