Music Notes

The Lyman Woodard Organization, a band which some of you may remember for opening the Herbie Hancock show at Hill in February, has just released their first lp. Entitled "Saturday Night Special," the record cover features one of the more common implements of problem-resolution in Murder City, a handgun. The music inside is soothing and mellow jazz.

"Saturday Night Special" is released on Strata Records, a non-profit, artist-controlled alternative record label out of Detroit. Check it out on WCBN or at your local record store. Lyman has been around for a long time the SUN will feature an interview with the Organization in our next issue, out May 9.

Showcase Jazz in East Lansing is presenting the improvisational energized music of the Sam Rivers Trio, featuring bassist Dave Holland, percussionist Barry Altshul and "multi-instrumentalist composer" Rivers, on May 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the McDonel Kiva on the MSU campus. Shows are at 8 and 10:30pm, with admission $2.50. Free jazz lovers, this is one you won't want to miss...Actually there's been quite a bit of good music in the Lansing area lately. What with the Stables, Showcase Jazz & various campus concerts, East Lansing is far outpacing Ann Arbor in terms of exciting, available and frequent musical attractions. For example, in the weeks to come Lansing will also feature Bonnie Raitt with Mose Allison and jazzman Ahmad Jamal.

Ann Arbor should be taking its historical lead in this field, but isn't. This year all we've had, except for rare Chances Are gigs, has been the University Activities Center (UAC) concerts, which have been, as a whole, disappointing and confined to a narrow genre of largely acoustical music. Not one of UAC's concerts has been a poor choice in and of itself, but taken as a series there is an evident imbalance. We've had Souther-Hillman-Furay, John Prine, David Bromberg, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, Phoebe Snow, and coming up, John Denver and Jesse Colin Young. The two UAC shows that stand out from this series were Herbie Hancock and Earth, Wind and Fire, period. Hopefully next season UAC will broaden out its musical scope and include more rock and roll, jazz and rhythm and blues. In the past the UAC series has been simply outstanding in these fields. The music scene in this town deserves more exciting variety than it got from UAC this year.

Speaking of which, WIQB "Quadrock," as it's being hyped, recently refused to add the Sky King album "Secret Sauce" to its rigid format, until the efforts of several staffers finally prevailed on the inside. A typical narrow move for IQB. Sky King's lp is getting national airplay, but here in their home town the local radio station has to be convinced their music isn't "too far out" or "too black-inspired" for the audience. The SUN has been promising an article on the new station -- it will appear shortly.

Congratulations are in order to the people from Douglass Sound, SGC, Stroh's Beer and whoever else was responsible for a great free concert on Madison Street last Tuesday, featuring the Detroit jazz group Tribe and two other local bands. More street parties!...The Free Concerts will hopefully come off this year, but there's no guarantee. Much of what happens depends on whether the Republicans will allow Al Wheeler to rightfully take office as Mayor. In the meantime, read the letter from the Parks Program on page 2, and think about how you can help get the 9th summer of free music off the ground. Don't take it for granted this year.

The Friends Road Show is going to Europe in June for two months...Jim McCarty and John Badanjek, formerly of the Rockets, have been smoking people out of the Red Carpet in Detroit as part of a new aggregation known as Ace High. The band also includes Rusty Day on lead vocals.

The Beatles have finally surfaced in Moscow. The Soviet State Record Factory, '"Melodiya," began issuing Beatles records for the first time ever recently...Frank Zappa has a new vocalist with the Mothers -- it's Captain Beefheart!...John Fogerty is about to release a solo album on Asylum, after finally breaking away from his Fantasy contract...The new Koko Taylor album on Alligator is a must...