The Coat Puller

Bill Hutton's "Slavery" is the last installment in our Bicentennial literature series, which has run continuously since last October, in case you hadn't noticed. A History of America, by Bill Hutton, was published in 1968 by Island Press of Toronto, in association with Detroit's own Artists' Workshop Press, publishers of Hutton's first dynamite collection of stories, The Strange Odyssey of Howard Pow. Both volumes are long out-of-print, and enterprising publishers who might want to cash in on the slowly-swelling Hutton boom are urged to contact the Editor of this newspaper, who was Hutton's original editor back in 1964 . . . We're also very happy to pull your coat to the fact that the Detroit Sun, including our very own Kulchur section, will be publishing weekly starting with the next issue-out Friday, September 3. And we'll have a new serialization for you too, a continuing feature on this very page containing "You Can Make It If You Try- The Motown Story," written by the British critic Simon Frith and published in a collection called The Soul Book (Seymour Lawrence/Delta Books) earlier this year. After that, more special treats, but The Motown Story should run for the next six months or so . . . Look for us on the stands every Friday from now on, and for people who subscribe, you should know that weekly publication will get us sent out first-class by the Post Office, which means we'll get to you in time for you to use our ever-popular Calendar pages-soon to be known as the Motor City Edutainment Guide-for a change. Seriously, we'll be in the coinboxes by Wednesday, in our subscribers' mailboxes by Thursday or Friday, and everywhere we're distributed by Friday afternoon, in time for the weekend . . .
If you can tell us of any locations where the Sun should be shining every Friday from now on, call Vince Harrington or Kadija Cloyd at the Sun (961-3555) and we'll send you a poster for your trouble ...
We also want to take this opportunity to solicit information from our readers who are involved in activities they think other people should know about, especially in the arts-drop us a line " or give Peggy Taube a - call at the Sun - number and we'll -" try to pass it on...
AFTER HOURS: If any musical scene is really happening, it just doesn't close down at some arbitrary hour every night, like 2 a.m. Places that serve liquor are required by law to close their doors at 2, but that doesn't stop the folks from carrying on at some other place, which is what after-hours joints are all about. Detroit now has several of these hopping hotspots, not the least of which is Jazz West. The folks at Jazz West (next door to Watts' Club Mozambique) have happily decided to return live jazz music to the place on weekends (ending an experiment with an all-disco schedule) and with the Red Holt quartet on stage every Friday through Saturday from 2 to 6 am and free breakfast for every customer, things are looking good . . .
After-Hours Magic continues as ever at the RAPA House (if the all-night jams don't take care of you the creole will!) on Saturdays from 2 to 6 am, and at Roy Brooks' super-fine MUSIC Station in Trappers Alley at Greektown, where they start at 9 pm and go to 5 in the morning. After-hours disco has got the old Chessmate at Livernois and 6 Mile going again from 2 to 6 (watch out for flying bullets !), and the popular Dirty Helen 's downtown in the Leland House Hotel is currently on a midnight to 6 disco schedule ...
Definitely a happy scene the other night at Watts Club Mozambique over on Fenkell, where Carolyn Franklin was closing out a five-night stand that had the hipsters buzzing all over town. The crazed Andre Moore jammed on keyboards behind Carolyn on several tunes, and in the audience were none other than Eddie Kendricks, Val Benson (partner with Obie of the Four Tops), Clifford Fears, the noted poet James W. Thompson, Rev. CL. Franklin (Carolyn's father), and Margaret Branch and Brenda Bryant of the Prima Donnas (who sing backup for Carolyn's sister Aretha)
. . . Another illustrious figure frequently seen at Watts' is veteran Motown drummer Richard "Pistol" Allen, whose band is currently backing vocalist Ronnie Dyson. Sitting in with Pistol is guitarist Ron English, and they'll all be al Masonic on Aug. 22 with the Chi-Lites and Margie Joseph, and back at Watts' on September the first . . .
REGGAE IN DETROIT: Even though they don't play it much on the radio here, the Jamaican music scene just keeps on growing in the Motor City. The Jamaican Express just finished two weekends at King's Row, the Brothers Steel Band from Trinidad plays Aug. 28 at the Jamaican Social Celebrity Club at 7540 McNichols just west of Livenois, and Sept. 12 is Jamaican Day in Detroit with reggae sounds at the Belle Isle Bandshell from 2-8 pm.
MUSICAL CHAIRS: Greg s

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Gillispie has replaced Dave Loncao (former CJOM Program Director) at WIOT in Toledo. Loncao had replaced Neil Lasher, who is back in Ann Arbor as Program Director at WIQB-FM. At WDET-FM in Detroit, Bud Spangler's much-loved "Jazz Today" show has been replaced on the schedule with Leonard King's "Full Circle" (Mondays at 9 pm) and Judy Adams' "New Jazz in Review" (Fridays at 10 pm). Spangler left the Motor City for the west coast this spring.
ART BEAT: McArthur Binion, former Detroiter and art alumnus of Wayne State, has been awarded a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship Grant. While living in the city Mr. Binion, who received his Master of Fine Arts degree at Cranbrook, won several awards and grants including the Werbe Award from the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1972. One of his paintings is now in the permanent collection of the Detroit Art Institute, and his last showing in this area was held in September and October of last year at Gallery 7. He has lived in New York City for the last four years, and an exhibition of his recent work is planned for a gallery in the Big Apple this fall . . . Over 200 black artists from Michigan and throughout the Midwest have been invited to take part in a three-day Black Arts Conference at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo Sept. 17-19. WMU's Black Americana Studies (BAS) department, sponsors of the exhibition and conference, note: "we have defined art so that hardly any creative expressive medium is left out and no black artist excluded." This includes both students and the more skilled folks, so if you want to participate in any way call or write BAS, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo 49008.
Here and There: As reported in the Sun, the Harbinger Dance Company recently lost the support of the Community Music School due to a financial squeeze at the school. The Harbinger folks aren't about to give up, though, and two members, Theresa Kowall and Director Lisa Nowak, are currently active as instructors of new modern dance programs at the Feminist Women's City Club. Call FWCC 964-2620 for more details, and look for more on Harbinger in coming issues of this paper . . . If you have any info on dance activity anywhere in this area, we suggest you get in touch with Harriet Berg or Elaine Moon, two members of the Bi-Centennial Arts Task Force currently preparing a Detroit Arts Newsletter for publication late this year. Write the Bi-Centennial Commission at the Veterans Memorial Bldg., Detroit 48226 . . . Popular innuendo expert J. Rupert Jones recently had a full half-page of the Michigan Chronicle devoted to his regular gossip tidbits column - keep us guessing, Rupe ! . . . , Brunch with Bach (which is a chamber series presented by the Detroit Institute of Arts and not a session at Biff's with our Kulchur Editor) presents the Detroit Saxophone Quartet on Sunday, Aug. 15, with music by Joplin, Haydn, and Shumann. The laid-back Sunday series continues at it's regular time (10, 11:15 am, and 12:30 pm) at the Institute's comfortable Kresge Court . . . The people at Compared to What coffeehouse will be vacationing Aug. 20 to Sept. 10, but their last two nights were tasty treats, with Oakland U's Afram Jazz Ensemble (directed by Marvin "Doc" Holladay) going in on Aug. 6 and the former John Lee Hooker compatriot, Boogie Woogie Red, tickling the keys Aug. 13. They continue every Friday night at Highland Park's Trinity Methodist Church building in the fall . . . Clarence Baker (of the Keyboard Lounge of the same name) got a well-deserved rest Aug. 2 to Aug. 12 ... and many members of our staff did likewise around the same time . . . After Sept. 3 we'll be back and pulling your coat every week- see you then!