JAZZ VIRTUOSITY
It can be stressful covering a music fest the size of the Detroit International Jazz Festival. There is so much wonderful music to experience and I find myself stressing over what acts to see and what performances to miss. I wish I had the technology to clone myself — or at least the salesmanship to…
HANK & CHICK
On paper, legendary pianist Hank Jones, a jazz traditionalist with over seven decades of jazz experience, sharing the bill with mercurial musicians such as pianist Chick Corea, bassist Stanley Clarke and drummer Lenny White seemed like a odd pairing to kick off the opening night of the 30th Detroit International Jazz Festival. Surprisingly, both concerts…
Jazz beyond the official festival
Jazz won’t be confined to the official festival’s Campus Martius-to-Hart Plaza corridor this weekend. The city’s clubs are still open and happening, though we suspect that they’ll be a little slow during festival hours and then hopping for those final sets after the fest closes down. Among the notable beyond-the-festival events that have come to…
Tragic beauty
From Robocop to Transformers, Detroit has always served well as an apocalyptic post-industrial backlight for filmmakers the world over. So it was no big surprise when the Toronto-based emo band Moneen hit Detroit in early August, along with Canadian filmmakers Michael Maxxis and Christopher Walters, to shoot a gritty vid for the band’s new song…
The last king of swing
There’s a Detroit in Gerald Wilson’s head, and it’s so vivid to him, that he can make you feel it as he talks, even though his Detroit is frozen in the 1930s, when he arrived here as a teenager busting out of the South. He makes you feel it in another way, in the six-part…
Letters to the Editor
Give ’em a taste of their own fumes Re: "Bing’s wrong bus stop" (Aug. 19), our public transportation system cannot afford any cuts. Instead it is in a dire need of improvement. I know: There is no money. But as the old saying goes, where there is a will, there is a way. That is…
Couch Trip
Deadgirl Dark Sky Films Sex with an attractive girl with no emotional strings attached? Sounds like what dreams are made of for many dudes — just look at Craigslist. If that hot girl was actually more room temperature and discovered bound in the basement of a mental hospital, this might present a problem for some dudes…
Night and Day
WEDNESDAY-MONDAY SEPTEMBER 2-7 The Old Miami’s Labor Day Benefit SAVE THE BAR, SAVE THE WORLD To raise money for potential legal fees in its ongoing property dispute with University Auto, the Old Miami is hosting a six-day blowout of recommended beats, rhymes, bands and everything in between. Performers include Grandad Crunk and Elec/Trik on Wednesday;…
Park plates
Antonio’s is surprisingly down-market for Grosse Pointe (even the G.P. next door to Detroit). The Parmesan comes in powdered form. Meatballs are available with your spaghetti (“add $1.95”). Salt and pepper shakers are diner style, despite the white linens. Desserts are delivered by Sysco. Although the dishes are authentic Italian ones, mostly, they bow to…
Where jazz meets hip hop
A scene out of hip-hop history circa 1996: The venue is the 1,500-capacity House of Blues in Chicago, modeled loosely after a Prague opera house, a joint that’s hosted artists from Aretha to the Who. But tonight it’s a cavalcade of hip-hop stars. Lauryn Hill of the Fugees is there. De La Soul is there…
Bong water
Taking Woodstock is another tiny tugboat flying the freak flag of baby boomer mythology, but it’s got an unusual captain in Ang Lee, who can’t quite keep it from capsizing into swirls of colorful mandalas, nostalgia, groovy tunes and, of course, naked hippie chicks! At least the movie finds a fresh protagonist in geeky, inhibited…
Family affair
The Detroit International Jazz Festival celebrates its 30th Labor Day weekend with a tagline of "Keepin’ Up With the Joneses" and a theme of jazz families. Most notably, there’s Hank Jones, the survivor of a mighty Pontiac bop triumvirate that comprised him and his late brothers Thad and Elvin. The fest that opens with Hank…
Unmistaken Child
Since the age of seven, Tibetan monk Tenzin Zopa has been the companion, servant and student of Geshe Lama Konchong. When his master dies, Tenzin must embark on the most important journey of his life, to seek out Konchong’s reincarnated form. First time documentary-maker Nati Baratz takes a no-frills, fly-on-the-wall approach to Tenzin’s quest, capturing…
Time’s still on her side
Editor’s note: This is the complete transcript of an interview that appeared in the paper edition of Metro Times in an abridged form. Unlike a lot of musical royalty, Irma Thomas never called herself the "Soul Queen of New Orleans." That title was given to her by the citizens of one of the greatest music…
Lit up
Punk rock is a loaded term these days. It’s evolved (and devolved) and changed meaning enough times over the years to render it virtually meaningless in 2009. The story goes — and it’s mentioned in this book — that Detroit rock critic Dave Marsh first used the term in 1971 to describe fellow Michiganders Question…
Still burning
At last week’s meeting of the Environmental Justice Committee that she chairs, Detroit City Council member JoAnn Watson noted that she frequently talks with people who think efforts last year to close the city’s municipal waste incinerator were successful. The mistake is understandable, considering that the council twice voted last year to stop sending trash…
From the Future
There was a time not so long ago in Detroit when the mere mention of Scrummage made the CCS kids and downtown trendspotters go a little gaga in their fancypants. Scrummage was a place (a space in Eastern Market, specifically) as well as a collective aesthetic (Hey! Look what fun and art we can make…
The art of victory
The Grosse Pointe Park ordinance used to prosecute an artist’s husband because paintings were displayed in the couple’s yard is unconstitutional, a Wayne County judge has ruled. Score one for the First Amendment. Erica Chappuis and her husband, Laurent Chappuis, have displayed her colorful pieces at their house for years, and dog walkers, bike riders…
Going down
When it comes to economic news in Michigan, the headlines in recent months have been mostly about the financial crises facing the state of Michigan, the city of Detroit and Detroit Public Schools, all of which are awash in red ink. Below the radar of a lot of people, though, is another layer of trouble…
Motor City Cribs
For all that talk of Detroit "garage rock" bands, I have never seen a Detroit band that actually practiced in a garage. Pas/Cal comes the closest for having recorded much of its brilliant pop (and very un-garage) music in vocalist Casimer’s former garage. But as far as truly rocking the garage in the Detroit area,…
Comics
The Boiling Point – by Mikhaela Reid
Jazz fest highlights
Praise for the elders: At 93, Hank Jones (Friday, 7:15 p.m.) is the sole surviving and eldest of three jazz greats from one extraordinary Pontiac family. Fittingly, a grand master among jazz pianists of any style, Jones is the first major performer of the festival. He’ll be featured in a meet-the-artist session at 4:15 p.m.…
Life lesson
Nearly a half century ago, an aspiring musician of 20 or so introduced himself to one of his heroes after a set at Detroit’s famed Minor Key Lounge. When the young guy said that he’d begun flute lessons, the hero graciously handed his instrument over and said play. A half-hour’s lesson ensued: How to balance…
Ups, downs, changes
Q: I love my boyfriend of three years, but I fucked up. We’ve had our ups and downs — he broke up with me for two months last summer because he said he was "young and needs to feel free" — but we’ve always worked through things. He is super supportive of me, and we’ve…
Slices of heaven
Amici’s Pizza and Living Room 3249 W. 12 Mile Rd., Berkley, 248-544-4100, $$, Pizza crust made with bran, biodegradable dishes and soy candles, no smoking, no TV, even a couple of organic vodkas — Amici’s manages both to be virtuous and to pull it off without a hint of self-righteousness. It is a bar, after…
Defend real Americans
They come from the hellholes of the earth, from the torture cells of the former Yugoslavia, the military prisons of South America and the killing fields of sub-Saharan Africa. Usually tortured, with family members murdered, they show up on the doorstep of the century-old former convent they call Freedom House. They have risked their lives…
Food Stuff
Way to go, Faygo — This September, the culinary commissars at Bon Appetit have named Faygo’s root beer the No. 1 root beer in the country. According to the magazine, Faygo won because of its "dry and crisp taste, frothy head, good bite and long finish." Better still, it’s available using 100 percent cane sugar…
Bars and strips
She’s a working-class Polish punk chick. She runs with a bunch of buxom burlesque types. But, as part of her voyeuristic side — one that puts her behind the video camera and in front of an easel — she prefers to paint her pinups rather than play dress-up. Either way, though, Beth Amber gets dirty. …
Home free
The old, narrow apartment complex is ravaged. Curtains blow out of broken windows and weeds smother its courtyard. All signs point to its abandonment. But there’s a handful of colorful toys scattered on the porch outside one of the backdoors, which faces a long, empty field. And clothes hang on a line to dry. Amazingly,…
LOCAL MUSIC TIDBITS
*Got an e-mail from local scribe and Paybacks leader Wendy Case, announcing the FIfth Annual Life -Affirming Rock ‘N’ Roll Garage Sale, which will be held in Ferndale this coming weekend — Saturday, September 5th, to be exact. If we’re talking “exact,” then it’s not exactly an “annual event,” since Ms. Case and crew took…
