Archival Buffalo News feature articles

  A glimpse of this homegrown hero as he was blasting off on his rocket ride to the big time. The best was yet to come and it was approaching at warp speed.   March 3, 1973   Blue Chip Star Comes Home for Visit   ASK CLINT HOLMES about “Playground in My Mind” and he’ll tell you it’s not like what he usually does in his show. He may mention “Candy Man,” a rather appropriate comparison, and the good things that it did for Sammy Davis Jr.           And “Playground” has sold like Inaugural souvenirs in and around Washington , D.C. , where Clint has been building his career for about three years now – maybe 60,000 or 70,000 copies. It’s put him right on top of the town.           Since it came out in July, the crowds have gotten bigger and the clubs he plays have gotten plusher. The big one, the ultimate, came right after New Year’s. The Shoreham Blue Room, the room Tony B...

  A band with quite a pedigree. See the Footnote.   Feb. 17, 1973 ‘The Professors’ Offer Musical Variety with Style   WHEN STEVE WILLIS doesn’t have to play vibes or flugelhorn, he’s standing back a bit, rocking from one foot to another in severe reverence like a Zen wrestler waiting for a gong.           Waiting until the solo section swells to meet the main theme again, ready to move in with it, right on with every velvet note, drawing them from some mandala of perfect sounds that’s revealed only to the most dedicated.           When the music dies, he’s speaking into the microphone with the painful gentleness of those Keeper of the Mystic Light jazz deejays from the early ‘60s:           “Today … I was watching the Merv Griffin Show … and this well-known en-ter-TAIN-er … got up and did this next song by Antonio Carlos Jobim...

  This group played one of our favorite Buffalo News haunts, Jack’s Cellar, a cozy little bar and restaurant in the basement of the historic Dun Building, only a couple blocks away from the newsroom, which in February 1973 was in its final weeks in the old offices at Main and Seneca streets.   Feb. 10, 1973 Plenty of Talent, Flair in ‘Small Society’   THE SMALL SOCIETY is practicing this night in Jimmy Edwin’s store on Broadway near Bailey. Well, actually it’s his father, Edwin Grzankowski’s, store – Jimmy and his brother Greg are only vice presidents – but he lets them use it.           For a band, it’s the perfect set-up. The store is a music store and from the bright quarter-note sign in front to the dozen or more practice rooms at the rear, it’s chocked full of guitars, amps, tambourines, heaven knows what-all, and it’s entirely at their disposal. * * * IT’S BEEN particularly handy this past month or so, what ...

  In which we discover that Niagara Falls , along with its natural wonders, also is home to a few unnatural ones.   Feb. 3, 1973   A Zany Jug Band with Happy, Shuffling Sounds   Breathing Machine Recalls ‘30s In Song, Costume and Kazoos   “HI THERE,” one member of The Amazing Dr. Zarcon’s Breathing Machine says in greeting. “You must be Mr. and Mrs. John Smith of Anytown , U.S.A. This here’s Joe …”           “And this here’s Ed,” says the guy next to him. “Whatcha say we go bend a couple in the Doodah Room. If ya catch my meanin’ … If you get my drift.”           Sheila Farrell – she’s the singer, the one sitting on the couch with the red hair and the long black ‘30s dress, she hadn’t said anything over the phone about how zany her friends would be.           No, she didn’t say they spring whole scenes out of...

  We first encountered Bob Bakert as half of the highly promising folk duo Gold back in January 1971. Two years later, things have changed.   Jan. 27, 1973   A Man and His Guitar – Bob Bakert’s Music Keeps ‘em Dancing   “THERE’S DOC D’AMATO,” Bob Bakert says matter-of-factly, spying the manager of the folk duo Gold, the group he quit a little over a year ago, as he wheels the big red Cadillac into the parking lot of a Snyder discotheque.           It’s breakfast time for Bob. Hungry after two hours of practicing guitar, he orders a club sandwich and a draft beer.           As the waitress leaves, Doc joins us, his bubbling cordiality jolting Bob as if someone woke him up too early.           “Say,” Doc goes, “you got an open night? I was talking to this club owner and he wants to have you.” * * * “IF HE WANTED me...