The Coat Puller

     The weirdest day of the year --Halloween-- is jam-packed in '75 with the jumpin' jive that's truly alive, as my mentor Frantic Ernie Durham was once known to say.  Herbie Hancock & the Headhunters (featuring Detroit's own Bennie Maupin) at Masonic (with the dubious addition of Ramsey Lewis as the opener), the 4th Annual Ozone Parade in Ann Arbor in the afternoon, WDET-FM's "Halloween Disco Detroit" fundraiser (only two bucks!) at the Roostertail and broadcast live over 101.9 FM as well, Donny Hathaway opening at Lowman's Westside (thru Sunday), O.V. Wright ditto at Ethel's on the east side,Tribe at the Blind Pig in downtown Ann Arbor, and, right here where the SUN is, in the Shelby Hotel, the 14th Floor headlines a sure-to-be-crazed Masquerade Party and Dance in the Savoy Ballroom downstairs, with the Mighty Magic Stone Band and the hard prancing dancers known as the Hollywood Swingers backing them up.  And there's a $50.00 prize for the "best costume, so you might wear what you think will bring home the bacon that night. . . .

     The rest of the weekend looks pretty hot, too, with the Spinners/Minnie Riperton/Al Hudson & the Soul Partners show at Olympia topping the thrill list (Sunday night, 8:00pm). . . . The New McKinney's Cotton Pickers, the big band with the extra-deep roots, will do it in the afternoon at the Academy of Art Museum at Cranbrook, west of north Woodward Avenue on Lone Pine Road (Sunday, 3:00pm), in the second of the "Detroit 's Jazz Today" concerts produced by WDET's Bud Spangler and Cranbrook's John Peterson .... And in Ann Arbor, the magnificent pianist McCoy Tyner will perform with his stellar quintet at Hill Auditorium Sunday night before going into Baker's Keyboard Lounge for a week (Nov. 3-8). . . . Lonnie Liston Smith Just closed after a week at Baker's, and we must apologie tor putting McCoy in there (last issue) before he was really here.  Sorry, just got too excited, that's all! . . . Now if all that's not enough for you music lovers. Ms. Bonnie Raitt hits Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor Saturday night (Nov. 1, 8:00pm), sharing her bill with Buddy Guy & Junior Wells, the legendary Sippie Wallace (a blues woman turned Detroit churchwoman who began recording in the 1920's), and the equally noted Robert Pete Williams.  If there were just a few more pop artists with Bonnie's exquisite taste, my o my. . . .

     COMING UP:  Labelle and their "Phoenix" show at Masonic Temple, the scene of their last Motor City triumph, Thursday Nov. 6th--a sight (and sound) for sore eyes (and ears). . . . Lily Tomlin, one of Detroit's finest former citizens, will be at Ford Auditorium Nov. 11th. . . . Popfolkers will delight to Gordon Lightfoot with Mimi Farina at Masonic Nov. 8th (busy place these days) .... Shawn Phillips with Hall & Oates at Masonic the next night (Nov. 9). . . and rock & roll fans have Little Feat's opening spot on the Dave Mason concert at Cobo (Nov. 7th) to look forward to. . . . Oh yeah, and the Tubes will debut in Detroit (a Showcase Production), also at Masonic, on Wed. the 29th of October, the day this paper hits the streets. . . . Pure folk at MSU's University Auditorium in East Lansing on Nov. 7th when Jimmy Driftwood and the Rackensack Folklore Society present "Music of the Ozarks" as an official Bicentennial Event. . . . Let's not leave out the classics: the star-studded Detroit String Quartet, with special guest artist Brian Schweickhardt (clarinet), will perform the Detroit premier of the Hindemith Clarinet Quintet as the season-opening concert of the Laudenslager Society at Music Hall Center, Nov. 7th.  Also featured will be a Bicentennial Performance of Benj. Franklin's "StringQuartet," plus works by Haydn and Laudenslager himself. . . . And lest we forget, reggae king Jimmy Cliff plus the Mojo Boogie Band will kick off the SUN's fall concert series "After Midnight" at the Michigan Theatre in Ann Arbor the very same night, Nov. 7th, to be followed Nov. 22 by the incomparable Bobby "Blue" Bland plus Luther Allison and his power-packed show, at the same humble venue. . . .

     AROUND TOWN:  Ultra-dynamic Carolyn Crawford, the subject of a SUN interview a few issues back, is featured Fri. thru Sunday at B.J.'s Mardi Gras Lounge on Livernois south of Davison. . . . Popular Chicago vocalist Terry Collier is in the Lounge at Lowman's Westside right now. thru Nov. 2. ... Lyman Woodard Organization, with Norma Bell, Ron English, and Rabbi George Davidson, opens Nov. 5 at the Pretzel Bowl in Highland Park (Woodward north of Davison). ... All Directions has replaced Secret Life as the replacement for the LWO at J.J.'s Lounge in the Shelby Hotel, Wed. thru Saturdays. . . . Fito and his super-hip Salsa-Rock orquestra now at the Las Vegas club on the southwest side Thursday nights, jumping to The Trio (Northwestern Hwy. north of 12 Mile Rd.) on Sundays. . . . Coffeehouse sensation Claudia Schmidt plus Detroit's own Jef Fisk & Torn Shader at the Raven Gallery now thru Nov. 2. ... Holy Smoke at the Red Carpet on the east side (Warren west of Outer Drive) every Wed-Saturday for all you rug rats. . . . Premier pianist Harold McKinney can now be heard at the Blue Chip on West McNichols, weekends, so we're told. . . . Blues and jump artists supreme, Little Mack Collins and the Partymakers, now slamming it out at the Apex Lounge on Oakland .... Boogie Woogie Red, the Motor City's answer to Rachmaninoff, can be heard and seen at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor every Blue Monday night--a tradition one would hope could stand forever. . . . And Monday in Detroit is Disco Night, with doings at the 20 Grand ("Disco" Tec" with Tiger Dan), Henry's ("Demitrius" at the controls), the elegant ($10 cover) Roostertail, and probably a whole lot of other places. . . .

     SPECIAL EVENTS:  Literary giants William Burroughs, Ed Sanders, & John Giorno will read 'em and weep at EMU's Pease Auditorium Nov. 5, 1pm in conjunction with the conspiracy festival taking place at U of M.  Don't miss it!. . . . Maestro Redd Foxx plus the Pointer Sisters will be in town for a very special event Nov. 15th:  a Las Vegas Dinner Concert in appreciation of the NAACP, presented by The Concert People at Cobo Hall's "C" facility.  Tickets for the gala occasion (cocktails 5:30pm, dinner at 6:30) are set at $25.00 per, and the bar is cash and carry. . . . It's rumored that the mighty Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra will perform at Livonia's Clarenceville High School in the very near future, on one of Midge Ellis's much appreciated productions, but we didn't have the details straight at press-time.  Usually that doesn't stop us (right, friends?), but why add more confusion when you can call them and find out for yourselves?

     FLICKS KICKS:  The Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum is showing Fellini's landmark film "8 1/2" on Wednesday, Nov. 5th, in its current film-makers series. . . . The Ann Arbor Film Cooperative is staging a "Zappa Film Festival" Nov. 13th to prepare Frank's many fans for his Nov. 18th show at Crisler Arena.  Featured are "200 Motels," the midwest premier of a 1974 L.A. TV special directed by Zappa and featuring the Mothers, "Head" (a Monkees-Zappa weirdie), and assorted cartoons by Cal Schenkel, Zappa's art director for lo these many years. . . . Cass Cinema presents "fifteen animated films from a variety of Yugoslavian directors" in its "Zagreb Animation Festival" at the First Unitarian Church (Cass & Forest), Oct. 31-Nov. 1, followed the next Fri-Sat. by Bertolucci's "The Conformist" (Nov. 7-8). "Admission still $1.50," it sez here. . . .

     ON THE RUN:  The James Brown concert heralded in these pages last issue never came off; likewise the much anticipated Richard Pryor recital at Masonic, scheduled for last Sunday, and I don't know why. . . . Deejays Kim Weston & Butterball Jr. (WCHB) and Al Perkins (WJLB) plus columnist/activist Jim Ingram hosted a fund-raiser for the Coleman A. Young Action Group at the Riverview Ballroom of Cobo Hall Oct. 18th.  Musical attractions included Orthea Barnes, Ronnie McNair and the Instant Groove Band, Al Hudson & the Soul Partners, blues woman Charlene Newkirt, and Rudy Robinson and his Hungry 5. ... Motor City saxophonist Ralph "Buzz" Jones, late of Charles Moore's Shattering Effect and Kenny Cox's Guerrilla Jam Band, now based in Los Angeles with a gig in A&M recording/touring group Bazuka, getting ready to criss-cross the U.S. . . . Reginald "Shoo-Bee-Doo"

continued on page 20

COAT PULLER

continued from page 12

Fields and his Principles of Utility band special guested the annual awards banquet of the Wayne County Community College Alumni Assoc. Oct. 17th, which goes to show you those folks must've learned something good at WC3. . . . R&B great, drummer Al Jackson (BookerT. & the M.G.'s), was shot to death in his home in Memphis, Tennessee, October 1st.  And his associates at Stax Records, where Al Jackson supplied the bottom for scores of million selling classics, are suffering death-in-life from a series of torturous blows inflicted by Columbia Records, the IRS, the Justice Dept., and various other nemeses.  It seems to be all over for the late great Memphis soul goldmine.  A very sad affair indeed. . . . But to end on a happier note, Detroit gospel greats Harold Smith & the Majestics have just had their LP "Lord Help Me To Hold Out" certified gold after two years on the charts, according to the Chronicle's ace music man Steve Holsey.  And the tune you've heard kicking off the Nat Morris/Ray Henderson Dance Party show on Channel 62 (WGPR-TV)--Johnny Griffiths "On the Scene"--has just been released in 45 rpm's on Griffith's Geneva label, where we hope it could match the Majestics' mighty feat.  Nuf sed for this time, as my man used to say, and to quote Ernie D. once again, it's time to put the twister to the slammer for this bad mammer jammer.  Later!