The Coat Puller

THE COAT PULLER

We're still trying to pull it together here at the Motor City Cultural Association, what with the move to weekly publication and all, but the prospect does seem to get more and more exciting each day --we can get twice as many features in, reviews every week, the Calendar gets hotter all the time . . . now all we have to do is keep up! We do plan to expand -or begin, you might say- our coverage of the visual and plastic arts.especially work being done by Detroit-based artists, and we will add regular features and listings in the long-neglected Book Department as soon as we can get a grip on things . . . If you would like to "cover" art events, review books, write features on artists, poets, authors, and other innaresting people, or do any of the writing we already feature here in Kulchur, please contact Frank Bach at 961-3555 and talk it over. We pay a couple bucks once in a while, too, in case you 're as crass as the rest of us eaters and renters at The Sun . . .

A WARM WELCOME to new Kulchur contributors Steve Holsey (the Ronnie McNeir profile on page 11 is his first feature for The Sun) and drama critic David Rambeau, who offers his observations on the Afro-Centric Theatre's latest production in The Vortex. With Herb Boyd, Ron English, Patricia Hughey, Lowell Cauffield, Leonard King, Armond White, and now Rambeau and Holsey contributing regularly to these pages, The Coat Puller's running in pretty , fast comparry! Now if we could just get Harriet Berg to do those dance pieces we wanted to run . . . Sorry if you missed The Sun's "going weekly" party Sept. 2, but the folks who packed the Orleans Room of the Detroit Leland House downtown -where we slave away the rest of the time- didn't miss a trick. LaVerna Mason, now featured prominently in Tommy Butler's production of Selma, was so beautiful as to stop in and sing a set (backed by the dynamic Quadra Funk) before hitting the stage at Music Hall for the night's performance, as was Fito and his dangerous salsa-rock outfit (with Chartes Moore and Herbie Williams on trumpets and new papa Ronnie Johnson on drums), who had to beat it over to El Sol after the party for their regular gig. Eddie Jefferson and Leon Thomas fell by together, but if we start naming names we'll never get out of here . . .

"IT IS VAGUELY FRIGHTENING to think that Jimmy Carter could raise money to run for president from a bunch of stoned-out, apathetic kids who didn't know who he was . . ."write a couple of Americans named Joe Klein and Dave Marsh n the current issue of Rolling Stone magazine, the fortnightly rock-and-politics journal that claims two million readers nationwide. A Klein-Marsh piece titled "Rock and Politics" details with utter disgust how pop musicians have participated in - and even helped organize - benefit concerts this year tor the campaigns of Jerry Brown Tom Hayden and Jimmy Carter. The two concerned young men go all out to prove that musicians who do political benefits (including the Allman "Brothers," Jackson Browne, the Eagles, and Linda Ronstadt) are being tricked or pressured into doing so against their own best impulses by power-hungry big-wigs in the music business . . . Those of us who have followed Dave Marsh since he started here in Detroit in the late sixties as a White Panther and writer for Creem magazine have watched in shocked dismay as the former radical has danced farther and farther to the right along with the rest of the popular music industry, which has quite an investment in keeping its musical properties locked into a one-dimensional, a-political lifestyle. But now Dave, a self-styled "good white liberal "and presently Record Review Editor at Stone, has outdone even the chump who wrote the Rolling Stone article on Jamaican politics - a real cold-war piece if we've ever seen one. He's becoming sort of the Norman Podhoretz of the aging-rock critic establishment ("yesterday I was only 16, now I 'm going on 55 even though the card says 26") . . . or should we say the Eldridge Cleaver of the Woodstock generation? Good luck,-Dave- there are big rewards out there for young men like you who see the mistakes of your radical past . . . maybe a post in the Ford Administration, along with Bicentennial Youth Administration official Russ Gibb, former impressario of the Grande Ballroom . . .

ON THE UPSIDE, we note that Your Heritage House marks its seventh year of operation as an alternative cultural center for Detroit-area youths of all heritages with íts Founding Committee Luncheon/Meeting, Saturday Sept. 11 at the Engineering Society of Detroit. Last year they had to turn away almost a hundred folks from this popular fund-raiser. Founded in 1969 by Detroit concert pianist Josephine Love and her associates, Your Heritage House offers a variety of programs in music and the arts, as well as regular exhibits open to the public. They're located at Kirby and John R (871-1667) ...

R.I.P.: Blues giant Jimmy Reed passed away last week, leaving a long list of classic tunes like "Bright Lights, Big City," "Hush Hush," "Big Boss Man," "Ain't That Lovin' You Baby," "Down in Virginia," and a whole generation of derivative musicians, from the Rolling Stones to Bob Dylan. Jimmy was just making a comeback on records, with his first Lp for Miami's TK Productions currently in release (see Bullets, P.-11).

DIG THIS DEPT.: When she appeared as the top attraction at the Michigan State Fair last week, sister Aretha Franklin told us she had just signce a contract for her first movie, in which she plays the legendary Bessie Smith. We'll review the State Fair concert next week, and pass on more details re: Aretha's big film as we get them ...

A Canadian musical unit.known as Stringband s currently putting togeher its third Lp in a most unique manner. bypassing all the usual music . biz hassles, (to p. 14)

(continued from page 8) Stringband raises money to pay for production of their albums by getting folks to invest $5 per copy before the records are produced. As soon as they get enough bread to go ahead, they record and press the albums themselves, and ship copies to everyone who sent in five bucks. If this sounds as interesting to you as it does to us, contact the band at 44 Sussex Ave., Toronto . . . Detroit bassist extraordinaire Ron Carter has just signed to the Milestone Fantasy label, moving from CTI . . .

Other activity at Fantasy/Prestige/Milestone includes the release of tenor saxophonist Azar Lawrence's new Lp, People Moving, and the taping last month of new records by pianist McCoy Tyner, vocalist Flora Purim, and ever-changing saxophone giant Sonny Rollins . . . Lots and lots of action at ABC Records, which just announced the signing of Harold Meivin and the Blue Notes (does this mean the other Blue Notes, with lead singer Teddy Pendergrass, will stay with the hit-making Philly International team that Harold just left behind?) . . .

Detroit production whiz Don Davis' latest effort with ex-Fifth Dimension singer Marilyn McCoo, an Lp with Billy Davis, Jr. called Hope I Get to Love In-Time, just released on ABC . . . And ABC A&R Vice President Herb Belkin, who used to be A&R chief at Motown Records, continues to draw some of the most talented of his former employees into the ABC fold. Latest is Art Director Frank Mulvey, who was responsible for all of Motown's eye-grabbing album art (Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Commodores, Temptations, Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, etc., etc., etc.) over the past few years . . .

SPEAKING OF MOTOWN: We expect the full lowdown on their return to Detroit (currently the No. 1 topic of conversation among local music people) in next week's issue of Kulchur, along with the inside dope on former Miles Davis/Norman Connors vocalist/bassist Michael Henderson and the full story on the Hastings Street Jazz Experience. See you then . . .