Motor City Musicians On The Move New Stars Of 1976

By JOHN SINCLAIR & BILL ADLER

Detroit has long been hotbed of emerging musical talent which has gone on from its Motor City origins to make a mark on the national and international music scene.
From McKinney's Cotton Pickers and the Jean Goldkette Orchestra in the 20's; through the bebop revolution of the 40's and 50's which contributed Milt Jackson, Lucky Thompson, the Jones brothers (Hank, Thad and Elvin), Barry Harris. Yusef Lateef. Donald Byrd, Pepper Adams, Curtis Fuller. Paul Chambers, Doug Watkins. and a host of others; through the rhythm & blues period of the 50's and 60's which gave the world Little Willie John, Hank Ballard & The Midnighters, John Lee Hooker. Wilson Pickett. Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye. the Supremes, the Temptations, the Four Tops, Stevie Wonder, Martha Reeves, the Spinners, the Dramatics, Jackie Wilson, aml scores of others; to the rock & roll heyday of the middle & late sixties which offered Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, Bob Seger, Ted Nugent, the MC-5, Alice Cooper, Catfish Hodge, Rare Earth, and numerous of others the Detroit pedigree s a long and splendid one.
Now. in the middle of the seventies, the Motor City continues to produce brilliant young musicians and performers who reach out beyond the immediate community to enter the lives of people all over the country and the world with their Detroit-bred music.
The artists we have chosen to feature in this modest article are only two peoples' view of the cream of the crop; if you talked to people on the set, in the joints and nightclubs and recording studios around town, you'd get two or three times as many more suggestions, and you'd do well to Follow up on all of them, as we hope to do in the months to come.
For now. however, we offer a handful of New Stars of 1976 for your consideration: musicians who have already begun to draw attention and who can get over in a big way - with a few breaks -  in 1976.
Some of them have been around a long time already, scuffling over years to get their trips together, while others are relatively new to the world of professional music.
All of them demand your close attention and they'll probably get it within the next 12 months.

NORMA BELL

It never occurred to young Norma Bell that her childhood transition from the study of clarinet to that of the alto saxophone was anything but natural. Still while it is always a special pleasure to hear an alto sax, that most expressive instrument, played well, it is an additional thrill to see a woman doing it. Norma carries it off with a casual grace and flair that indicates, at 24, her already considerable professionalism.
She grew up across from Chadsey High and began taking those (classical) clarinet lessons when she was seven.  Norma went to Chadsey, then Oakland Community College, and finally Wayne State where she "supposedly studied music."  The fact is that she had been listening throughout her adolescence to John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Ornette Coleman, and Jr. Walker, and teaching herself to play jazz and rock.
It all paid off when Norma was called to work with The Spinners when she was 16. She then toured with Stevie Wonder until his accident in 1973. In the summer of 1974 she began her fruitful association with the Lyman Woodward Organization. (Check out the soulful solo she contributes to "Joy Road" on the LWO's Saturday Night Special). 
Came the spring of 1975 and guitarist John McLaughlin called Norma to tour with his Mahavishnu Orchestra.  Tour over, she returned to the LWO and created undifferentiated joy as part of their performance at the Detroit Afro-American Festival this past summer.
Norma's recently been touring as part of Frank Zappa's Mother of Invention and will go with them soon to Europe, Japan, and New Zealand. And '76 will most likely bring us Norma's first "solo" LP, probably featuring, besides Norma, her good friend Ralphe Armstrong on bass, and budding young Blue Note recording artist, pianist Patrice Rushen. Norma's simple and elegant wish is that er album will "make everybody happy." Small cause for worry there!

LAVERNA MASON

One of Detroit's least treasure is its vast wealth of gospel talent. Although everyone's heard and felt its power through the medium of Motown's pop mutation of the real church thing, or Aretha Franklin's secular rendition of the gospel soul, the master workers of the form labor in the vineyards of the Lord, performing week after week in churches and church-sponsored Gospel Music Extravaganzas which attract thousands of the faithful to the city's major concert venues.
Detroit's Harold Smith & the Majestics won a gold record this year, however, and the mighty Voices of Tabernacle Choir, under the direction of Rev. James Cleveland, went to Number One on the gospel charts with their last Savoy Records release.
Now that Savoy has been acquired by Clive Davis's Arista Records, the way is clear for the star of the Voices of Tabernacle Choir album, Ms. LaVerna Mason, to step out on her own as a major Motor City recording artist. Not only a supremely powerful gospel shouter with an amazing range of music and emotion at her command, LaVerna Mason has additional strength as a straight-out pop performer as well.
With the right attention and an astute producer, LaVerna (now on a national tour) could develop into one of America's biggest recording star - and if it doesn't happen in '76, it won't be her fault.

CAROLYN CRAWFORD

The subject of an extensive - and exclusive - SUN Ken Kelley interview this past summer (Vol.3, No.16), Carolyn Crawford is a new star by virtue of her long-awaited, about-to-happen emergence as a national recording phenomenon. It hasn't happened yet - her early sides as a teen-aged co-ed counterpart to Stevie Wonder at Motown never really hit hard outside Detroit, and her first two or three 45-rpm releases for Gamble & Huff's Philadelphia International label haven't exactly blown down the walls of popdom. 
But 1976 is another matter, and if the Philly hit machine can hook up its promotion aces with Ms. Crawford's hot single product sometime in the next twelve month, the Motor City's dynamic Carolyn will be singing back at us from all over the world.
With more than an album's worth of Gamble & Huff produced tunes in the can a new single  - "Good & Plenty," an instant pop crossover if we've ever heard one - ready to hit the air-waives now, Carolyn Crawford has already created the means by which she can expect to get her due this year.
With a little bit of luck, and some strong managerial guidance, Carolyn could give Detroit Philly International's first big single-woman star - and it couldn't be more fitting.

LYMAN WOODARD ORGANIZATION

Last but certainly not least is the powerful jazz-based outfit known as the Lyman Woodard Organization. Centered on organist Lyman Woodard, a composer and improviser of incredible strength and vision whose credits range from the Artists' Workshop Music Ensemble and the Don Davis Trio to Martha & the Vandellas and the 8th Day, the LWO features guitarist Ron English ( who has worked with Gladys Knight & the Pips and the Four Tops and is a composer and recording artist in his own right) and drummer George Davidson ( a veteran of the Aretha Franklin and Paul Butterfield bands). Norma Bell has been a member of the Organization for long stretches, and the brilliant multi-percussionist Lorenzo "Mr. Rhythm" Brown also passes in and out of the band as his regular gig with the popular Bohannon permits. Alto saxophonist Larry Smith has been heard with the LWO lately, since Norma's been on the road with Zappa, and the Organization has worked for extended periods at J. J.'s Lounge, the Pretzel Bowl in Highland Park, and the Huron Hotel in Ypsilanti over the past two years, spelled occasionally by concert-opening gigs for the likes of Herbie Hancock and the Crusaders. Represented on record by only one LP, Saturday Night Special, on the Detroit-based Strata Records, this uniquely exciting aggregation could break out big with a few good breaks in '76.

MICHAEL HENDERSON

Michael Henderson is a rarely fortunate musician, one whose star has been rising nearly without pause since the day he first decided to pick up an electric bass. Then 12 years old, Michael's original inspiration was the prime Motown hits of the day and the work master Motown session bassist James Jameson in particular (I still haven't heard anybody come close to him.")
A mere six month after he began to teach himself, he landed a job with the Detroit Emeralds. He has yet to look back. In the next eight years he would tour and/or record with The Temptations, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, The Foundations, The Spinner, Dr. John, The Rolling Stones, Gladys Knight and The Pips, Stevie Wonder, and others so numerous he doesn't recall them all.
It was during an engage-

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TRIBE 

A very solid yet extremely combustible combination of Detroit music veterans which has never stopped developing in its four or five-year lifespan, the current Tribe line-up could easily be subtitled 'The Motor City Dream Band." A fully cooperative unit now captained (mostly for business purposes) by international trumpet star Marcus Belgrave. the first choice of Charles Mingus and a Ray Charles Band alumnus as well, Tribe comprises six of the tip-top Detroit jazz players of the past fifteen years: Belgrave on trumpet and flugelhorn; Wendell Harrison. tenor saxophone and flute: Phil Ranelin. trombone; the great Harold McKinney, piano and electric piano; Roderick Hicks, bass; and Bud Spangler, drums. Belgrave. Harrison, Ranelin,

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New Stars of '76

TRIBE continued from page 13

McKinney, and Hicks all contribute compositions and arrangements to Tribe's mind-blowing book, which ranges from straight-out R&B to super-funk to jazz from the entire spectrum of modern improvisational music, rooted in bebop and stretching out to tomorrow. Spangler, well-known for his radio work with WDET-FM, is just what the band needed on drums, holding everything together without holding anybody back from travelling in any direction the spirit will take them.
Already gaining heavy notoriety throughout southeastern Michigan for his smashing performances in concerts and in clubs this band plays everywhere! - Tribe finally has all its personnel, music and performance problems taken care of, and nothing hut the traditional blindness of most music industry moguls should stop them from going over the top in '76.

RALPHE ARMSTRONG

recently with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.
It all began when Ralphe's father, a blues violin player, built Ralphe' an acoustic bass and started to teach him how to play it. His instruction continued at Barbour Jr. High under Alfred Hickman. an alumnus of Duke Ellington's band and the first black teacher in the Detroit Public School system. Ralphe later started going to Cass Tech but lost a full year due to illness. It was during this time when he "couldn't do anything, but play music" that Ralphe says he got his chops together.
He played "alley music" with Mad Dog and the Pups in 1969 and got the call to work with the Miracles in 1970. This was followed by a sojourn with The Dramatics. When the first Mahavishnu Orchestra broke up in 1973, Ralphe was the man McLaughlin wanted on bass. The young bassist was faced, at that point with the dizzying dilemma of choosing between the gig with the new Mahavishnu Orchestra or one with Santana. He went with John.
Ralphe is currently flush with several options including an offer to work as a part of Jeff Beck's next group. In the meantime he's planning his first solo album which will feature, among others, his friend Norma Bell, drummer Michael Walden, and keyboardist Jan Hammer. He's also taken his first big step into the international limelight. The Mahavishnu's next single release, "Planetary Citizen," is written and sung by one R. Armstrong.

MICHAEL HENDERSON

ment with Stevie in 1970 at New York's Copacabana that Michael, who "had never listened to any jazz records," was asked by Miles Davis to join his group. Incredibly. Michael turned him down cold. it wasn'1 until months later, as Miles continued to reassure him that "we'll play the type of music you want to play," that Michael assented.
Five years later Michael finds that Miles' music continues to challenge him, although this still-young man (24) has his nimble Fingers in any number of other pies. He wrote and sings on Norman Connors' current smash hit "Valentine Love." He recently produced an as-yet-unreleased LP for Santana's drummer Mike Shreve. And you will find that Michael wrote and produced a couple of tunes on the Dramatics' latest ABC LP: "Dramatic's Theme"/Treat Me Like A Man" and "Just Shopping." What's more, he plays on altoist Gary Bartz's latest, "The Shadow Do" and contributed his own "Make Me Feel Better" to the album. And the sunny future? Well, for one thing, look for lots of this East Side kid on Norman Connors' soon-to-be-released "Starship." which includes another vocal effort with Jean Carn, "We Both Need Each Other." And surely 1976 will be the year that sees multi-talented Michael's first "solo" effort. Watch for it.

Photos of Norma Bell, Carolyn Crawford and Ralphe Armstrong by Barbara Weinberg. Photos of LaVerna Mason,Lyman Woodard and Marcus Belgrave by Leni Sinclair. Photo of Michael Henderson by Derryck Fort.