Special SUN Supplement ann arbor BLUES & JAZZ festival 1973 INSIDE. INTRODUCTION by Frank Bach......................PAGE 2 FESTIVAL ARTIST REVUE by David Fenton...........3 MOREBIOGRAPHIES................................................486 RECORD REVIEWS....................................................6&7 by Richard Dishman and Doug Fulton SUN RA INTERVIEW by John Sindair......................8 o >m D o o page 2 September 5-19, 1973 Ann Arbor SUN Supplement From FirstJoke toLastNate- A Community Event The Ann Arbor Sun would like to take the space of the next few pages to express its special pride in being part of the com­ munity which this week is host to the 1973 Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival. The five concerts of exciting, richly combined blues and jazz music about to go down at Otis Spann Memorial Field are, in fact, the culmination of years of work by people who live here in Ann Arbor - and we think it's important at this time to lay out the purposes and intentions of those who were involved in putting the Festival together. The Blues & Jazz Festival was just an idea back in the winter of 1971, when Rainrjow Multi-Media co-head Peter Andrews started trying to find a way to revive the original Ann Arbor Blues Festivals which had run (with tremendous artistic success) in 1969 and 1970 and then were halted by financial difficulties. The Blues Festival lost 530,000 in 1970 and there was no Festival at all in 1971 because student organizations at the University of Michigan (which had provided the backing for the Blues Festivals) would not give their financial support. Pete Andrews' plan was, first of all, to expand the scope of the Blues Festival with the addition of contemporary jazz and some of the more popular forms of blues- derived music, opening it up to more people and thereby increasing the possi­ bilities of financial success. The U of M organizations that had backed the previous Festivals didn't relate to Peter's plans, but Pete's new partner and Rainbow Multi- Media co-founder John Sinclair - who had missed the Blues Festivals while serving Aerial view of Otis Spann Memorial Field. 29 months of a 9'/i to 10 year prison sen­ tence for possession of two joints - got into it enthusiastically as soon as he heard about it. non-profit Rainbow Multi-Media corporation bers of the company. All of the money medical care, low-priced organic food and While at a free rock and roll concert in went about putting together a lineup of made from Rainbow Multi-Media's various juices, and the community-supported and Lansing Sinclair ran into a brother named artists for the event which was designed to programs (after expenses and minimal -controlled Psychedelic Ranger security Rick Dykstra who said that he had inherited make it an educational experience as well wages are taken out) go back to the com­ force (which completely replaces the uni­ a large sum of money and needed some ad­ as one which would provide the best and pany to further its goals and other projects. formed police usually dominating concerts vice as to how to invest it. A meeting with most exciting entertainment possible. And the project in which Rainbow Multi- and festivals). John, Pete, and Rick was set up and Rick Starting with the respect and admiration Media is involved are all designed to further One of the most direct ways that the decided to put up the money to get the for the blues which was already one of Ann its workers' collective vision of a strong, Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival supports Festival rolling. Arbor's highest traditions, Rainbow Multi- exciting, widely-based, musical/cultural/ its community is simply through employ­ Once they had secured the Festival's Media workers tried to illustrate (by book­ social community. As well as the Blues & ing all of the people who make up the on- economic base, Pete. John, and their new. ing different kinds and combinations of Jazz Festival, Rainbow Multi-Media works site and year-round Festival staffs more black-inspired musics) how the blues and on management of DETROIT, Lightnin', than 1,000 in all. And most of the people its culture was the root of the music popu­ arid Uprising (three of the finest energy who work hardest at organizing the Festi­ lar today (rock and roll) and the people bands from the area) and is trying to set up val are the same people who work here in who listen to rock and roll music and make non-profit printing, recording, and video organizations set up to serve different up its culture. companies as well as giving help to the segments of the Ann Arbor community all "Frankly, we see the educational and year-round efforts of progressive com­ year round. Drug problems will be handled cultural experience that most people in this munity organizations in Ann Arbor such as by Ann Arbor's own Drug Help; child care country have been given as being rather the Community Parks Program and the is done by the Ann Arbor Children's barren," says John Sinclair, "particularly Children's Community Center with dona­ Community Center; sound and video proj­ as related to black music and culture." tions of energy, equipment, time, talent, ections are being done by Fanfare, Inc. of The five concerts that made up the first materials, and money. Ann Arbor; the stage is the responsibility Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival presented Portions of the proceeds from the - of Craig Blazier, equipment manager for just about as diverse a range of black Festival gate receipts have been set aside the DETROIT band; security is being dealt musics as it's possible to put together - (once again, both in '72 and '73) for a with by Ann Arbor's unique Psychedelic from country blues to the city, from gospel number of locally-based community-con­ Ranger force; site construction and stage to soul, from space music back to the trolled self-determination projects. The covering have been handled by Cozmic boogie -- a whole spectrum of music and 1973 Festival has a full 30% of the profits Construction Co. of Ann Arbor; and infor­ culture, or, as it's called on the poster for designated for used by groups other than mation distribution will be coordinated by this year's Festival, "A Rainbow of Sound." Rainbow Multi-Media itself 10% each to Ann Arbor's non-profit Rainbow Trucking The powerful effect of the music isn't Project Community (a primarily black Co. the only concern of the Rainbow Multi- student organization at the University of So, what we have ahead of us at Otis Media people, as they've given much at­ Michigan involved in tutoring and other Spann Memorial Field on September 7, 8, tention (both in I97'2and 1973) to how educational programs), the People's Ball­ and 9 is a major musical event produced the power of the music is used - partic­ room project (currently trying to re-open primarily by energy generated right here in ularly the question of use of the economic its low-priced, community-controlled, non­ Ann Arbor. And because the production ot power of the Festival; or who makes the profit Ballroom), and the Community Parks the Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival has money and what do they do with it once Program (which produces weekly free con­ been based on the highest principles and they get it. certs every summer in Ann Arbor). some of the conscious and progressive Rainbow Multi-Media's approach to the But before the money taken in at the politics currently being put into practice, question of the Festival money is just as Festival gate becomes profit, most of it is the Festival returns that energy, and more, unique as its approach to the Festival's used to pay the Festival artists (who cer­ to the Ann Arbor community and helps music - because Rainbow Multi-Media's tainly deserve a fair wage) and for the insure our community's survival and (hope­ own economic organization is itself unique many people-oriented services which Rain­ fully) shows it, and other communities, a in the music industry. The company is non­ bow Multi-Media has seen to provide at the way to move. profit, which means that no profits are events. These include free child care, ex­ Preparing the site fcr the festival. used to further the gain of individual mem­ tensive information facilities, drug help and -Frank Bach September 5-19, 1973 Ann Arbor SUN Supplement page3 Artist Revue Count Basic ROOSEVELT SYKES - Born January 31, 1906, bines Afro-American music with Middle-and Far-Eastern Roosevelt "The Honeydripper" Sykes' first musical ex­ influences. Before that he played with Donald Byrd, perience came while playing his grandfather's church Charles Mingus, Olatunji, and Cannonball Adderly, Friday Night organ down in West Helena, Arkansas. Sykes soon among others. A renowned master of the flute, Lateef jumped to the barroom piano, playing whorehouses and rejects the term "Jazz" for-his music. "If you must de­ fine what I play, the term is auto-physio-psychic. That FREDDIE KING hails from early 1930'sTexas. speakeasies. He cut his first record, "Boot That Thing," in 1929, and in 1943 signed with Victor along with his means music that comes from the physical, mental, His family picked guitar along with the first records spiritual and intellectual self." Freddie ever heard - by Blind Lemon Jefferson, Big band, the Honeydrippers. Sykes currently holds forth Bill Broonzy and the like. In the 1940's the King family in the French Quarter of New Orleans, with followings CJQ The Contemporary Jazz Quintet is a Detroit- moved to Chicago where 16-year-old Freddie would in Europe, Chicago, and Ann Arbor.