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atlantheatre

I CAN'T COPEDon't Bother Me.l Can't Cope. a

sophisticated black musical review, is nowat the Peachtree Playhouse. It is one ofthe six shows that Atlanta's New CosmosCultural Theater, Inc. is planning forthis year.

1 Can't Cope is almost all musicand dance. It features the culture of NewYork's Harlem, out of which many ofthe singers and dancers come. Alongwith this is a bit of the West Indies, asdancers move to island rythms and singin the dialect of Jamaica and Barbados.

Choreography is by George Faisonwhose troup was recently in Atlanta.

Cope's appearance in Atlanta ispart of New Cosmos' ambitious campaignto bring Atlanta into the world as a the-atrical cultural center. Cope's messageis not only that life in the ghetto canbe hard, but also that black artists andperformers are good, funny, and exciting.It's really about time that Atlantans foundthis out.

For ticket information call 892-4110.

-steve seaberg

•musleBROMBERG AT THE MUSIC HALL

David Bromberg returns to the GreatSoutheast Music Hall this week (until Sun-day) to ply his trade/tirade on your hun-gry ears. Highly respected for his pro-ficiency on guitar, dobro, mandolin, fid-dle and what not, Bromberg will undoub-tedly live up to last spring's gig. He's aman who loves to play.

For a long time Bromberg was asession man-the list of musicians he'splayed with is lengthy-with work onDylan's New Morning being one. of hismore notable efforts. Not until 1972did he record a solo album, however.There have been two more since then,Wanted Dead or Alive being his latest.By now you've probably heard his "El-ectric Chair Blues". Performed in con-cert it's a special treat. His new band isapparently minus Bob Gurian, "The Trum-pet That Walks Like A Man" which istoo bad, but Bromberg isn't one to letthe dust settle and you can always ex-pect a few new surprises. Word has ithe's fiddle crazy now and that's guaran-teed to get the Hall moving.

If you like country and blues witha brassy flourish here and there, DavidBromberg is right up your alley.

-war4 silver

McCOYlYNER

McCoy Tyner is an intensely reli-gious man. He is a member of the Ah-madiyaya Movement in Islam. His Mos-lem name is Salaimon Saud. Those factsare probably as unimportant as most factsare, as is the fact that McCoy Tyner haswon so many awards and received somuch praise from critics, other musiciansand audiences as to make them all seem(to me, at least) to melt into one bigcosmic. pat of approval. But the spiritthese facts represent is not unimportant.It manifests in his music. It manifestsin his relationships with people (evencasual aquaintances). It manifests in theenergy that comes from any stage he's on.

McCoy Tyner occupies a specialplace in my emotional and musical "heart"And I should explain why I wax so sac-charinelyeloquent. When Robin Feldand I decided to go "the whole route"

t , saand remodel, revitalize the Twelfth Gate,we knew almost instin~tively that McCoyTyner was the ideal person to inauguratethe "new" Gate. By one of those cos-mic coincidences, we didn't even haveto call him. Wayne Shorter of WeatherReport had done our work for us, andMcCoy called us. He agreed to come- play(for a pittance considering his stature)for our Grand reOpening, and The Gatewas on its glorious, if short lived, way.McCoy's belief in what we were doinggave us much needed energy; and a re-turn engagement during those last rockydays fed us with optomism about whatwe had done, however long we had ma-naged to do it.

s e r

a eRAMSEY LEWIS TRIO

Jazz pianiit Ramsey Lewis, BassistCleveland Eaton, and drummer MorrisJellDinp have fmally moved across town!The Ramsey Lewis Trio, which they com-prise, was once the staple entertainmentat Paschal's Carousel Lounge on Atlanta'sWest Hunter Street and center of theblack West Side commercial community.In fact, for awhile, the names Carouseland Ramsey Lewis Trio seemed synony-mous. Now they have made the trip, viaNew York and Boston-so short in spacebut so long in time-to Atlanta's North-east (and white) part of town for a oneday appearance at The Great SoutheastMusic Hall. Monday, Dec. 16

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You wonder whdl thiS is all ahollt? F~i~dcJ THE LAST ROCI< FESTIVf\L,a novel in sericil forn~ startlrllj flex t w(:ek ill the B I R0 NothincJ like it('nywhercl

Well, McCoy Tyner is coming backto Atlanta, to get to the point of all this.And this article/letter is a way of tryingto repay him. 'He's coming to the MusicHall, and I hope this encourages every-one who reads it to consider putting outtheir precious dollars to hear him. Be-cause McCoy Tyner and his music arean experience. There is no music any-where like his.

By way of background information,McCoy met John Coltrane when he wasjust 17, forming a long and productiverelationship which both paid homage to.McCoy quickly became a major force inimprovisational piano, a force he stillmaintains. McCoy's piano is the soundof water flowing and spiritual forces col-liding and blending and moving througheach other and out again. The Orientalinfluences of his trips to Japan and hiswife Aisha move throughout his music.

McCoy once said something aboutColtrane which I feel like. saying abou thim. "He felt that music was like theuniverse. It's like you look up and seethe stars, but beyond them are manyother stars. John was looking for thestars you can't see." McCoy puts youin touch with those stars and you comeaway feeling rounder and more positivefrom being in contact with his vision.

Come see him at The Great South-east Music Hall Thursday, December 12through Sunday, December IS. The num-ber there is 261-8643.

-ursula

Starting as a performing pianistat the age of fifteen, Lewis recent appea-rance on the white music scene has beenin preparation for many years, Even amillion selling The In Crowd couldn'tbridge the.gap until now. Not that play-ing for white youth is anything new toblack musicians-how else do white musi-cians learn about jazz?-it's just that weought to remember how far the trip real-ly is, right here in our own home town.

gl is

lip a

PRAIRIE FIRE

Puzzled about Christmas presents?You know that you can give your littlebrother a Bird subscription, but whatabout your Grandmother?

Knowing what to give for Christmasis always a problem for people who areinto alternatives, but don't want to total-ly alienate their relatives-in fact, wantto give something that represents thoughtand love.

Prairie Fire Book Center to therescue. Prairie Fire (75 Cone St. NW,between Walton and Marietta) has laidin a supply of papercuts, scrolls, prints,posters, picture books, children's books,greeting cards, records, and so on, parti-cularly for the holidays. Prairie Fire isan anti-profit store any money we makegoes back into expanding our stock, in-stead of into sorneonc's pocket. So you

can help us grow and serve the communi-ty, by giving a gift that is beautiful andeducational.

Papercuts, for example, are a Chi-nese folk art that was stifled before therevolution. Today in the People's Repub-lic of China, craftspeople use only a scis-sor and knife to turn out incredibly intri-cate and lovely designs-flowers, butter-flies, children, dancers, revolutionaryfighters and more. These mounted de-signs also come in different colors, andrange in price from 15t to $5.00.

Store hours are II :00 a.m, to 6:00p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday;11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Thursday;and noon to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday.Drop by and check out the holiday selec-tion, and be sure to come back to lookthrough our stock of books from revo-lutionary movements around the world.

u f wWHY WE BOYCOTT

The Atlanta Chapter of the UnitedFarmworkers of America AFL-CIO will

..hold a meeting at 7:30 pm on Thursday,December 4, at Emmaeus House, whichis located at 1017 Capitol Avenue in At-lanta. The meeting will be open to ev-eryone and the movie "Why We Boycott"will be shown. The subject of the mo-vie is the 1973 Grape Strike in Califor-nia at which time 10,000 workers wentout-on strike and 4,000 people werejailed.

The meeting will also be to discussstrategy in the upcoming boycott cam-paign against Atlanta A &.p, which hasrefused to stop selling non-union lettuce,grapes, and wine.

A & P, which is already haveingthree of its stores picketted by MetroSummit Leadership Congress for sellingsecond rate meat and produce to theblack community, is also being taken tocourt by the Farmworkers for harassingtheir pickets in previous boycott demon-strations.

Due to national boycotts by thefarmworkers, the price of best gradegrapes is now down to $4.50 a lug, adrop of $6 since early summer, says Ken-ny Snodgrass, Farmwroker boycott or-ganizer. Come help the boycott. Don'tbuy non-union grapes, lettuce, or GalloWine. Look for the Aztec Eagle Farm-worker label.

-steve seaberg

benefitsKESSLER & MARTINEZ

A benefit dinner for Stephen Kess-ler and Jose Martinez will be held at 5: 30p.m. Monday December 9 at the Morn-ingstar Inn, located at 1451 Oxford Road,next to the Emory Cinema. Tickets are$2.00 at the Morningstar, the Great Speck-led Bird, or at the door.

Kessler and Martinez have been injail for seven and fifteen years respec-tively on charges of crimes against pro-perty. On the eve of their paroles lastsummer they were charged again, thistime for the murder of another convict,which took place some six years ago.Kessler and Martinez protested this charge.Although Martinez is now out on bailKessler is still in jail and at this momenthas been put into solitary confinement.

All money collected at the bene-fit will go toward their defense fund.