Archival Buffalo News feature articles

  By this time, I’d caught up with the solo careers of every other former member of Raven except for the fabled rock band’s fabulous singer. Turns out it had taken him a while to emerge from his post-Raven shell.   May 5, 1973   Raven Changed Its Musical Feathers   THREE YEARS AGO this spring, the rock band Raven had just finished a series of recording sessions in Philadelphia for a single to follow their slow-selling album on Columbia Records.           The five of them had gone further into the big time than any Buffalo group till then. And coming up was a tour of England .           It was there the blow fell that ultimately split the group. Columbia announced they’d renew Raven’s contract if the band stayed in the British Isles six months to a year to build up momentum, the old Jimi Hendrix route. Raven decided they’d rather come home. A month later it was all...

  An early portrait of a man who kept big band stylings alive for 50 years.   April 28, 1973   Alex Rene Styles Miller-Dorsey Sound   “DON’T CALL a saxophone a sax,” Alex Rene corrects his restaurant tablemate as the coffee arrives. “I think it degrades the instrument. After all, you don’t call a trumpet a trump or a clarinet a clare.”           Alex’s respect for the saxophone dates back to his high school days in Cleveland – Sammy Kaye’s hometown, he’ll tell you – when the only chance he got to play it was as a reserve man in his high school dance band (see separate story).           That was where his love of swing music began, too. And although he’s not old enough to remember the days when big bands were in their prime (he’s 29), he’s not only made the style his own, but also has put together a 15-piece orchestra in the mold of Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey. * *...

  KB radio at the top of its game.   March 31, 1973 WKBW Finds a New DJ in an Unusual Way   IT’S FEB. 19 , Jack Armstrong’s next-to-last night on WKBW and he’s wailing through a commercial, stretching the 30-second spot into what he calls “my 90-second thirty” and embellishing the written pitch for shoes.           “I wanta get a date with a girl from Holland ,” he fires out suddenly in his hoarse, gatling-gun delivery. “Why? Because of her tu-LIPS!” The engineer frowns.           Yes, Jack misses sometimes, but he never falters. He comes on so fast you scarcely have time to groan. He’s energy, pure adrenalin, and he can make your blood dance the boogaloo. * * * HIS TRIUMPH comes when he closes his show with a two- or three-minute rap that screeches and sails like a cyclone.           You follow it off-balance. Up, down, i...

  Meet a reluctant performer who’d really rather be behind the scenes.   March 24, 1973 Michael Koren Grows Up the Musical Scale   YOU’D EXPECT the Korens would be, well, not exactly pleased with their son Michael’s decision to drop out of his major in speech therapy at Ohio University , especially when he was doing so well.           Not that he wanted to quit school, you understand. Ohio had just opened an experimental program and Michael thought his senior year would be better spent songwriting. He’d work under the guidance of a professor and get a general studies degree.           “It was really a good program for me,” he remarks. “My folks thought it was destined that I be a speech therapist, but we’ve had many conversations about it and they know exactly what I want to do. They’ve even gotten very protective of what I’m doing since I’ve gotten good reviews.” * * ...

  Another visit to that venerable Allentown venue Gabriel’s Gate and another sighting of the irrepressible Tom Calandra.   March 17, 1973   Old Friends Enjoy Gingerbread Express   THE COUPLE at the back table is carrying on with enthusiastic conversation about what a classy home Gabriel’s Gate on Allen Street would make if it ever stopped being a classy nightspot.           A kitchen at the bar and a sauna where the restrooms are. Put a big bed down in that lower section to the side and pillows everywhere. Keep the tree and DEF-initely keep the stained glass windows.           The chances of that happening are about as likely as NFT asking for lower bus fares. This is a Wednesday night and business is burgeoning. And up there on the tiny stage Toni Castellani already looks right at home. * * * “I LOVE THE GATE ,” she’ll tell you. “It’s like hosting a cocktail ...