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The Coat Puller

The Coat Puller image The Coat Puller image
Parent Issue
Day
19
Month
November
Year
1975
OCR Text

The SUN's first After Midnight concert at Ann Arbor's Michigan Theatre last Friday niglit was a smashing success, bringing Jamaican reggae giant Jimmy Cliff (star of the dynamite movie The Harder They Come) to a packed house of typically crazed Ann Arbor music fans. Unfortunately the thrill-packed Bobby "Blue" Bland/Luther Allison show scheduled for the same venue Nov. 22 has had to be cancelled, but the series will resume early in December and continue into the spring with a line-up of artists we'll begin to announce in our next issue. Stand by, and thanks for the turnout for Jimmy Cliff. The SUN certainly appreciates it, and we know you appreciate the music. Let's keep doin' it together!... Detroit blues fans can look forward to a series of "Blue Monday" sessions at Ethel's Lounge soon, featuring the best of the Motor City's resident masters of the form, including Little Jr. Canady, Mr. Bo, Mack Collins and the Party Makers. James Chaney and the J.C. 's, Johnnie Jones. Jessie Williams, M.C. L. C. Minor, and a host of others.

More news next time... Speaking of reggae, you might not realize it but there are some 22,000 Jamaicans living in the Detroit area, but Horatio Bennett, host of the popular "West Indian Radio" program heard at noon Thursdays over WIID ( 1090 AM), is on top of the whole scene, and he's just added a weekly show on WDET-FM (101.9) - Tuesday nights at 11:30 - to his broadcast schedule. A native Jamaican himself, Horatio is also the leader and lead singer of Heatwave Express, a West Indian Music band based here in the Motor City. Check 'em out...

And speaking of WDET-FM, the public radio powerhouse pulled in over $35,000 in pledges during the big fundraising drive two weeks ago, packing the plush Roostertail tor a Disco Bash Halloween night to capacity and beyond. They started turning folks away at 1 1 :00pm, and the thing lasted until six! Your humble correspondent was one of those who couldn't get in, but it sure sounded ' good over the radio, as did the special marathon programming all weekend long, and the live broadcast f rum Shoo-Bee-Doo and his Principles of Utility , band, who are now appearing every Friday and Saturday at Sonny Wilson's Celebrity Room, downtown. Congratulations to WDET and its hustling staff on their heartening success, and we're looking forward to more marathons, more often. to keep that kind of down-front radio coming our way...

SPECIAL EVENTS: Poetry freaks got a big treat last week when William Burroughs, Ed Sanders and John Giorno hallucinated themselves in Ann Arbor for a wrap-up reading to end the Conspiracy Festival. Burroughs, on his first visit ever to the area, read from his brilliant prose works The Exterminator and The Wild Boys, among others; Giorno jammed one long pounding chant-ode, and Sanders led off the proceedings with some thrilling poetic morsels. Now that Squeaky Fromme and Charles Manson are back in the headlines you might want to check out Ed's definitive work The Family, a spine-tingling study of death-dwarf doings on the west coast centered on the Manson gang. And his new novel, Tales of Beatnik glory, is hot off the Stonehill Press. Giorno is well known for his Dial-A-Poem poets, including Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Robert Creeley. Anne Waldnian, Diane DiPrima, and a cast of thousands.

The LaBelle concert at Masonic Nov. 6 has to rate as a special event this time too, for the three dynamic ladies and their supertight back-up band tore the place apart with their spectacular show. A lot of people missed this one for some reason, but these soulful veterans have put together the most exciting live act your correspondent has witnessed in recent years, and you would do yourselves a favor to take it off at your earliest opportunity.

The MOST special event carne Nov. 2, when the mighty Spinners were awarded, not only the key to the City of Detroit, but a proclamation from the office of Governor "Beefsteak Bill" Milliken making last week officially "Spinners Week" throughout the State of Michigan . Now, that's a good place to start, ain't it? But what about Spinners YEAR? Phillippe "Soul Wynn, the Spinner's only non-Michigan member, turned his key over to the family of stricken Motor City singer Jackie Wilson, who is still in serious condition at a New Jersey hospital with the effects of a massive heart attack suffered last month,. A benefit fund is being organized now, and we'll bring you details as soon as they're released...

AROUND TOWN: The Bob McDonald/Rod Hicks/Frank Isola trio has added Sunday nights to their regular Monday-night stand at Cobb's Corner Bar (Cass and Willis), with Peaches (Wednesdays) and Dixie Peach (Thursdays) holding down a weekly spot as well. Tuesday night is "amateur night" at the beatnik social center, but we heard that Rob Tyner and guitarist James McCarty and Jody Blair had been seen banging 'em out together at Cobb's on one of those Tuesday nights lately, so maybe they just mean the musicians don't get paid that night... Little Jr. Cannady has been rehearsing a new blues band over on the east side of late, getting ready for a three-day Blues Bash at the 20 Grand coming up in December.

A local rock band called Quorum is starting to get off the ground with their single "Dream A Dream" on their own Quorum Records.

Pianist Harold McKinney's major work "Blue Sonata," which was supported in its composition by a grant from the Michigan Council of the Arts, will make its premier performance at Varner Recital Hall at Oakland University Wednesday, Nov. 19, featuring McKinney with a trio and as a soloist with Tribe, the hard-driving collective led by Wendell Harrison.

Laura Mosley Jackson, the former publicity director for the City of Detroit, bas been appointed executive director of the Detroit Arts Council, where she will oversee the funding of a plethora of arts projects in the city. Congratlulations, Ms. Jackson, and don't let Bob Talbert's' slurs in the Free Press bring you down.

Detroiter Barry Hankerson is leaving his post as Mayor Young's assistant for community affairs to produce (with Ron Milner and Gladys Knight, Hankerson's spouse) a major film starring Ms. Knight. Milner's stunning musical "Season's Reasons: Just a Natural Change" continues to run Thursday-Sunday at the Langston Hughes Theatre, Livernois at Davison, thru November, as does Val Benson's "Little Red" (matinees Saturday and Sundays at 2:00 p.m.) Please don't miss these great theatrical events if you can possibly help it...And in Ann Arbor, "Moon Children," a play about the 60s by Michael Wells, will be staged at the Couzens Ensemble Theatre Nov. 20-23. For more information contact Director Judith Easton at 764-6009. 

IN AND OUT: David Crosby and Graham Nash, at EMU's Bowen Fieldhouse last Sunday, with a scorching band featuring some of the best solo guitar work heard in some time.

The Dynamic Superiors graced King's Row for a week, with the Fantastic Four playing opposite at Henry's Lounge, followed by the Manhattans who are in town right now.

Donny Hathaway made his co comeback debut after two years off the scène with a weekend showcase gig in the Regency Room at Lowman's Westside. The ever-popular Terry Collier was held over in Lowman's lounge for a week by popular demand -for real!.

..And in the whatever-happened-to-rock and-roll department, movie star Faye Dunaway was seen swapping spit with Henry "Dr. Strangelove" Kissinger in a wire-service photo last week. Ms. Dunaway's hubbie Peter Wolf of the J. Geils Band, seems to be just a kiss away from Secretary of State. Wolf will be in town Nov. 29 with the J. Geils Band and ex-Spooky Toother Gary Wright at Cobo Hall. 

COMING UP: Gato Barbieri and his band at McDonel Kiva, MSU, in East Lansing, Nov. 20-21-22.

Art Ensemble of Chicago, also at MSU Wonder Kiva, this weekend, Nov. 14-15.

The Dangerous Isley Bros.at Olympia this Friday, Nov. 14, for a Disco Happening Concert", or so it sez here.

Jazz 75 returns to Masonic Nov. 23 with the hot Grover Washington Jr. headlining, backed up by Marlene Shaw, George "Bad" Benson, and vibist Roy Ayers.

Toots and the Maytalls will grace the Ponmet debut of the Who Dec.6, if you can feature your reggae from a few thousand feet away.

Back in Lansing, Billy Cobham and George Duke bring their bands into the Silver Dollar Saloon for the night, Nov. 20, and blues master Jimmy Dawkins hits Lizard's the 17th...

Bloodstone, who are featured in the film "Train Ride to Hollywood" making its world premier at local theatres currently, will be here in person for a stand at King's Row next week.

 
Josh White Jr. with Gove al the Raven Gallery now thru the 16th with Second Generation (bluegrass) coming Nov. 18 for two weeks.

Cedar Walton at Baker' s. ditto, followed by Detroit's own Kenny Burrell Nov. 21-30

Joe Williams coming to Ethel's this week, also thru the 16th

Melvin Sparks at the Jazz West after hours, with tenorman Houston Person and vocalist Etta James next door at Watt's Club Mozambique until the 23rd, followed by organist Charles Earland..

Lyman Woodard Organization at the Pretzel Bowl, Wed.-Sun.

And to top it all off, the killer Four Tops return to their old stomping ground for tour days at the 20 Grand Thanksgiving weekend - right on time!

PARTING SHOTS: It seems that the latest in a long stream of imported editors at Creem magazine has left town almost as fast as he got here. This one's name was Wayne Roblns, and rumor has it that he couldn't take all the cynical drunkslet by Lester Bangs - who color the prose at the Birmingham-based teensploitation rag. Now if they could just get former White Panther Dave Marsh to come back... .And this heartening bit trom Billboard, the bible of the music industry: Bob Krasnow has just signed to Warner Bros. Records jazz artists Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Geo George Benson, Pat Martino, David "Fathead" Newman, and Detroit' own Alice (McLeod) Coltrane. The news is that these acts will be recorded and promoted as "pop", rather than "jazz" artists, which means that the average consumer will have a much better chance at hearing their work. Krasnow, whose first WB signing was the Staple Singers, commented: "Today, the jazz musician is like the underground rock musician of ten years ago.... There is now a renaissance of jazz musicians in the New York area like that which occurred in San Francisco in the late 1960s." Well put, dear readers, and good night....