Homecoming-short, Sweet, Ends In Defeat City Celebration Cut Short

Homecoming-short, Sweet, Ends In Defeat

City Celebration Cut Short

By Frank Bach & John Sinclair

On Monday, July 19, halfway through an incredible program of thirteen major concerts featuring Motor City-originated artists, the Detroit Bicentennial Commission abruptly cancelled all but three of the remaining events in the gala Homecoming '76 celebration.

With ticket sales amounting to only a few hundred persons per show and going no-where for the rest of the series, Bicentennial Executive Director Joyce Garrett and Festival Executive Producer Walter Mason announced that the remaining concerts scheduled for Masonic Temple - including Kim Weston's Tribute to Dinah Washington" and Clifford Fears' "Blues Ballet" set for that night's What Color Is The Blues show; the Keyboard Harmony concert featuring Dorothy Ashby, Harold McKinney, Barry Harris, Tommy Flanagan, Roland Hanna, and other Detroit piano greats, scheduled for Tuesday night; Wednesday's Star Track show, whose stars remained a mystery until it was scratched from the list; and Detroit Renaissance, the Thursday night concert which was going to try to present a long list of locally-based talent at a low ticket price- would be cancelled.

Two concerts at the city-owned Ford Auditorium- A Touch of Class, featuring Yusef Lateef with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, conducted by James Frazier; and Jazz Synthesis, a concert by the West Bloomfield Symphony of work by Detroit composer/ arranger/ orchestrator Dave VanDePitte - would be staged as scheduled at Ford Auditorium.

Although only eight of its thirteen major events ever got off the ground, Homecoming '76 was a tremendous artistic success for the musicians, the City, and the limited number of people who were able to attend. Despite everything that went wrong- principally the stunning lack of paying customers- the Homecoming Festival, while it lasted, was a warm and wonderful tribute to the native art of Detroit and the deals, if not the promotional expertise, of the Festival 's producers.

Things got off to a somewhat awkward start on July 16 with The  Stars Salute Detroit. On the positive side was a major performance by The Homecoming Dancers, a youthful troupe especially assembled by dancer/choreographer/teacher Clifford Fears, and a guest spot by the legendary jazz vocalist Billy Eckstine.

Fears' troupe had what turned out to be their best opportunity during the Festival, at this concert, as they presented an extended series of skits conceived and choreographed by Vera Embree. The routines loosely reflected the history of this area, representing the first settlers with a piece based on an early French square dance, the English with a waltz-inspired routine, and contemporary culture with a thumbnail sketch of popular dances of the last few decades. They finished with Embree's "Tribute to Ziggy," in memory of the great Detroit dancer/entertainer/teacher, Ziggy Johnson, with whom Fears began his studies as a teenager.

Although they had only three weeks to prepare Embree's works for the Festival, this performance displayed the exciting potential of Fears' students, slated to appear several times throughout Homecoming. To get from the dancers to headliner Eckstine, however, the tiny crowd at Masonic had to sit through the likes of Itojo Kumano, the Japanese pop star whose renditions of Frank Sinatra and Carpenters songs in no way justified her presence on the bill. Unfortunately, our reviewers never made  it through to the end of the concert to see Eckstine or Detroit child wonder Lisa Stone (scheduled to sing the Val Benson-Jimmy Griffith song "Detroit Renaissance" at the show's closing) because things were running about two hours late, and the next, much more promising event was already underway at Orchestra Hall.

Midnight Jams brought Motor City jazz back to the funky but still-vibrating Orchestra Hall, which was built for the Detroit Symphony in 1919; showcased jazz, vaudeville, and films as the Paradise Theatre during the 40's and 50's; and is currently undergoing extensive renovation. The old place rang out with the creative contemporary music that consistently proved to be the most exciting stuff Homecoming had to offer, spiced with brief but refreshing spots bv Virginia Capers, star of the musical Raisin (which was then closing a long run at the Fisher Theatre), and the hot song-and-dance team from All Night Strut (which was at Music Hall).

Homecoming was quite fortunate that Jimmy Wilkins' big band offered its services for no less than three events- the orchestra's big, beautiful sound got things off to a swinging start at the Midnight Jam, warming it up and introducing vocalist Dennis Rowland, whose exquisite baritone proved a tasteful complement  to the classic sound of the Wilkins organization. The Shoo Be Doo Show ]azz-A-Go-Go Band, despite its goofy moniker, provided several very interesting pieces with the assistance of Professor Barry Harris on piano and Eli Fountain, Jr. doing percussion. Roy Brooks directed his large Aboriginal Percussion Choir through an extended, multi-textured exercise in rhythmic creativity, and a quiet guitar duo by Wayne Wright and Ron English mellowed things out at about 4:00 AM. The show closed with a competent but ill-timed "disco" set by The Contagious Others band, with the well-known Other Brothers out in front.

Although only a small crowd of a couple hundred people were in attendance and things were loose as ever  onstage, the spontaneous, impromptu nature of the event was inoffensive. Two well-stocked refreshment stands turned the lobby into a unique social scene, as young City government people rubbed elbows with musicians,artists and other folks who happened to make it to the show. The musicians swapped stories and tried to gauge the groove that would carry them through the rest of the week.

The groove they hit the next night, at Saturday's Jazz Reunion show, was undoubtedly Homecoming's highest experience. Although ticket sales were slow again, the Bi-Centennial Commission wisely decided to fill some seats by any means necessary and, with the help of WJZZ radio, the Tribe organization, and this newspaper, gave away almost 1,000 complimentary tickets the afternoon of the concert. The audience was a fortunate one.

The Kenny Burrell Quartet brought the glory of the 50's jazz scene squarely into focus, opening the concert with a serious, well-received set. Recreating late 20 searly-30's big-band music was The New McKinney Cotton Pickers, performing with Dave Wilborn, the vocalist with William McKinney's original Detroit band. After a respectful reception for the Cotton Pickers' subtle and interesting arrangements, tenor I saxophonist Candy Johnson (who was sitting in with the Pickers) came out front as  leader of a quintet with Tommy Flanagan on piano, Herbie Williams on trumpet, Ed Locke on drums, and Eugene Taylor on bass. Famous for his tenor part on "Honky Tonk," Johnson played his 40's and 50's funk to the general delight of  the still-gathering crowd.

Della Reese closed Part One with a set of popular material that got an absolutely explosive response. Brought back for an entirely unexpected encore by a long standing ovation, Della loved every minute of it and responded with some very inspired, down-to-earth vocalizing in front of Jimmy Wilkins' smoking  band, conducted by her musical director Marvin Jenkins.

In contrast to the first half of the concert, which seemed to build perfectly from Burrell's tasteful guitar on through to the fire of Della Reese, the  second half was a series of high-energy blasts and musical surprises. An army of Detroit jazz giants set the tone with a highly communicative (and highly competitive) "jam" in the classic, solo-trading tradition. TV crews should have been there to record this historic occasion so that every citizen could have the opportunity to witness, and study, the high-level Motor City musical exchange.

Colorful Roy Brooks was on drums; Herman Wright, bass; the highly-respected Barry Harris on piano; Wayne Wright, guitar; a quiet  but incomparable Marcus Belgrave on trumpet; George Bohannon, the popular West Coast-based trombonist; and saxophone players Sonny Red (alto) and George Benson (tenor). They were joined by Jack Brokensha on vibraphone, who was soon nudged aside by none other than Terri Pollard, demonstrating that she is every bit as good on vibes as she is on piano with the Wilkins band.

A late-running program gave brief sets to The Homecoming Dancers, who looked like they were rushing through Embree's "Jazz Ballet," and Gerald Wilson, who got to lead the Wilkins' band through only one song, his well-known "Viva Torado." Donald Byrd and The Blackbyrds hit for a quick batch of electric boogie, with Byrd surprisingly favoring the tamborine to his trumpet and keyboard man Michael Toney providing most of the musical direction. Still, "Funky Music Makes Me Feel Good," the Blackbyrds' smash, provided a suitable release for whatever pent-up energies were left in the place.

Sunday was a day of relaxation and meditative music for Homecoming-and a lot of it, including two concerts and two boat rides. Tastiest on the bill was Riverboat Rhythms, which featured Tribe (with Spanky Wilson) and members of the New McKinney's Cotton Pickers on the deck of the cozy (125 capacity) Papoose, which cruised the Detroit River from the Bob-Lo dock past Belle Isle and back around by the Ethnic Festival site. We could do this every Sunday!

Sunday afternoon's religious performance at Masonic Temple, The Power and the Glory, was highlighted by a truly inspirational reading of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech by actor Tommy Butler (of Selma fame); Rev. Charles Nicks and the mighty Saint James Choir; James Tatum's jazz Mass, including a segment performed with The Homecoming Dancers;and the gospel-soul of Tessie Hill. Sunday evening at Orchestra Hall saw the Metropolitan Magie presentation, which featured the vocal resonance of Shirley Love and black tenor George Shirley singing separately and together in segments from Carmen.

Tuesday night's Touch of Class show was attended by many Detroit Symphony regulars, as well as people who were especially interested in the combination of the Symphony and Detroit jazzman Yusef Lateef. The crowd filled over half of the seats at Ford and was the largest to attend a Homecoming concert. Lateef's segment was the biggest treat, as his quartet (Kenny Barron, piano; Albert Heath, drums; and Bob Cunningham, bass), accompanied by the Symphony and conducted by James Frazier, performed Yusef's "Detroit Suite" (excerpted from the Atlantic Lp, Yusef Lateef's Detroit). Although it seemed to suffer from the Symphony's unfamiliarity with the piece. "Detroit Suite" was exceptionally moving nonetheless, with Lateef introducing the five separate segments- recreating scenes from his childhood in the city- and switching off on flute, tenor sax, seal- horn, and assorted bells and percussion instruments. Pianist Ruth Mekler Laredo also performed with the Symphony, and Lloyd Richards, Michael Tolan, and Leigh Taylor-Young read patriotic pieces in front of Detroit's Euro-classic orchestra.

The artistic success of Home coming, however brilliant, was far overshadowed by the mental financial and political disaster spawned in its wake. The concerts at Masonic (4642 seats), for example, where hall costs amount to nearly a dollar a seat before overtime charges (and the Detroit Reunion show ran until almost 3 a.m.), sold something like 49 (Friday) and 75 (Saturday)  advance tickets. This put the Bicentennial Commission thousands and thousands of dollars behind with each successive concert, until finally the Monday morning panic brought the Festival to a shuddering standstill.

How did the Commission get nto such a mess? The problem started last fall, when the idea of a Homecoming festival was still being finalized by Bicentennial Executive Director Joyce Garrett and her staff at the Veteran's Memorial Building. The Commission had plied for-and was ultimately rewarded-a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) with which to organize a "Bicentennial Jazz Festival" in the city of Detroit.

The Commission's first step was to retain superstar producer Walter Mason (Sammy Davis Jr., Diana Ross, the Supremes) as Executive Producer for the event. Mason would be responsible for shaping, directing, producing, and helping to sell the series of Homecoming concerts to the public, while the Commission would provide its prestige, contacts, staff, and general support services to make the event a success.

 Mason, a brilliant producer, evidently has few  skills as a promoter; unfortunately, the two functions are equally dominant in the concert business, with promotion making the ultimate difference in terms of the financial success or failure of a commercial musical event -that is, one for which tickets are sold. Without adequate promotion, the most stunning artistic production is doomed to financial failure, and the performers are robbed of their rightful audience in the bargain.

The concert business is a cut-throat affair. A leading contender in the yearly $2 billion plus popular music sweepstakes, the concert industry demands the promotional skills of a P.T. Barnum, the advertising know-how to reach the necessary ten or twenty thousand people in a community of four-and-a-half-million at the lowest possible cost, an intimate familiarity with the waxing and waning of popular trends and the artists who popularize them, and an iron-clad determination to get the money by any means necessary.

While only a few years ago amateurs could enter the concert business with a little money and even less experience, counting on their superior musical taste or their special knowledge of the burgeoning concert market to get them across, nowadays the professional promoters have sewn up the business to a frightening degree, and they leave very little room for inexperienced or under financed competition. Through adroit packaging and the careful manipulation of popular taste-carried out in full partnership with the corporate-owned recording companies- the pros have reduced the concert business to an increasingly simplified formula, one which pays off handsomely for them while degrading and simplifying the paying customers, steadily limiting their cultural choices to those "acts" which can be quickly and easily marketed to the most people at once.

The Homecoming Festival was a landmark attempt at reversing this trend, but its methodology brought to mind the folly of attempting to stop an elephant with a peashooter. Starting with a totally inexperienced and hopelessly under financed Bicentennial Commission staff, a producer apparently devoid of promotional skills, and a daring,  non-commercial artistic concept, the Commission further crippled its chances of success with a series of idiotic, almost scandalous errors:

First, when the Commission was approached by representatives of the a locally-based, non-profit Allied Artists' Association of America (AAAA)  and other community arts organizations which wished to participate in the Homecoming affair-experienced grass-roots institutions with deep community ties and the desire to contribute their knowledge and  expertise to the effort-Walter Mason and the Commission callously picked their brains, took their best ideas out of context, excluded them from the planning process thereafter, and ultimatelv took all the credit themselves tor the homecoming's artistic concept.

After repudiating the participation and advice of the locally-based arts institutions, Mason compounded the Commission's problems by remaining out of town most of the time, effectively destroying any possibility of meeting the a Commission's original, fairly sensible timetable, which called for all artists and shows to be secured by January 1st, 1976. This would have given the Commission fully six months

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