Wednesday-Sunday • 18-22
Xhedos 10th Anniversary
MUSIC/FUN FOR ALL
After opening in the mid-’90s, Xhedos Café helped to anchor a rebounding downtown Ferndale. Xhedos celebrates its 10th anniversary with a five-day weekend that typifies what it’s always been. Popular for Sunday vegan brunches and menu options, Xhedos expands this concept Wednesday with something called the Harvest Grill. Thursday the venue hosts a series of short films by Test Pattern Pictures, and, in keeping with its tradition of giving back to the community, Xhedos transforms itself into the Detroit Free Store (which is exactly what it sounds like) Friday and Saturday. Saturday will also feature a through-the-years version of their infamous open mic nights. The whole shebang wraps up Sunday with the annual kid-friendly Family Hootenanny. At 240 W. Nine Mile Rd., Ferndale; 248-399-3946.
Thursday • 19
Stanley Mitchell Benefit
MUSIC/FUNDRAISER
They were called the Motor City Rhythm & Blues Pioneers for a reason: Joe Weaver, Stanley Mitchell and Kenny Martin helped pave the way for many starry-eyed local artists. We lost Weaver in July, and, sadly, Mitchell, 71, passed away last weekend. You’ll note that Mitchell recorded for the Chess label in the 1950s, and his group the Tornadoes (not the surf-rock outfit) hit No. 5 on the R&B Charts with “Four O’Clock in the Morning.” He toured with Billy Ward & the Dominoes, with whom he appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, and his song “Quit Twisting My Arm” is a must-have for Northern soul wonks. His sudden death has saddled his family with the difficult task of covering funeral arrangements. Valerie Barrymore, Odessa Harris, RJ’s Rhythm Rockers, Alberta Adams, Kenny Martin, Duncan McMillan and many others will play for a fund-raiser at the New Dodge, 8850 Joseph Campau, Hamtramck; 313-874-5963.
Friday • 20
Ellis Marsalis
MUSIC
Patriarch of a tour de forcejazz dynasty, Ellis Marsalis is more than just New Orleans incarnate; his thumbprint likely modified the sound of modern jazz. As a founding member of the American Jazz Quintet, he and his bandmates all but ruled Nawlins in the 1950s; by 1974, when Marsalis became director of Jazz Studies at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, he was training future greats like Harry Connick Jr., Terence Blanchard, Donald Harrison and Nicholas Payton, as well as his own kids Branford, Wynton, Delfaeyo and Jason. 8 p.m. at the Max M. Fisher Music Center, 3711 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-576-5100.
Friday • 20
Adult. with Viki and Indian Jewelry
MUSIC
Adult. is an electro band. No, scratch that. The Detroit duo made up of Adam Lee Miller and Nicola Kuperus — who met while they were art students at the College for Creative Studies — is a punk band. No, sorry. They’ve more recently been dubbed “cyborg … cheerleader pogo goth” by a writer at Pitchfork. Not bad, we have to admit, as a way of describing this dark, mechanistic, synth-rock band that started recording in the late 1990s on their own homemade Woodbridge-based imprint, Ersatz Audio. Adult. is now on the Thrill Jockey label, which last year released the LP Gimme Trouble and plans another full-length release in the spring of 2007. New songs from Adult.’s most recent sessions are promised on the fall tour, which rolls into Detroit this Friday. Viki and Indian Jewelry open the night. 9 p.m. at the Magic Stick, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-833-9700; $12.
Friday-Saturday • 20-21
Eighth Annual Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival
MUSIC
When this blues ’n’ boogie extravaganza rolls around, as it does this weekend, it’s always a question of which of the worthy acts to draw attention to. The hard-driving Howling Diablos? The big band boogie-woogie with the Paul Keller Orchestra and special guests Dave Bennett (the up-and-coming clarinetist) and Red Holloway (the tenor sax veteran)? Pianists such as Bob Seeley, Mr. B. and Charles Boles? The sacred steel guitar of the Calvin Cooke Band? One of the less well-known names we’ll point out is Detroiter Sir Mack Rice, who’s featured along with Johnnie Bassett and Alberta Adams in a Friday set with RJ’s Rhythm Rockers. Rice goes back to Detroit’s pre-Motown R&B scene when he sang alongside Wilson Pickett in the Falcons. His later accomplishments include penning such hits as “Mustang Sally” for Pickett and “Respect Yourself” for the Staple Singers. But have you heard his spin on those hits? Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W. Fourth St., Royal Oak; 1-800-919-6272.
Friday-Sunday • 20 - 22
Shostakovich Centennial Festival
MUSIC
You can’t divorce Dmitri Shostakovich’s life from his works. The native Russian had a tenuous relationship with the Soviet government — enduring two official denunciations of his music (in 1936 and 1948), as well as other periodic bannings. But despite a lifetime of controversy and censorship, Shostakovich remains one of the most popular Soviet composers in modern history. His haunting and sometimes atonal masterpieces are a sacred soundtrack to his countrymen’s longtime oppression, and yet they are considered some of the most radiant music ever written. The Kirov Orchestra of St. Peterburg performs his works at 8 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 20, and Saturday, Oct. 21; and at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 22, at 825 N. University, Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor; 734-763-8587.
Saturday • 21
Tavis Smiley
ISSUES & LEARNING
What we like best about TV-radio show host Tavis Smiley is his unabashed ability to express love for his fellow man. Don’t get us wrong: Smiley doesn’t mince words either, but he has parlayed his love-thy-neighbor ethic and sharp wit into a unique brand of high-profile journalism. That he regularly taps such outspoken African-American leaders as Dr. Cornel West and Michael Eric Dyson for commentary makes his shows all the more engaging. He’ll be in Detroit this week to discuss his book What I Know for Sure at the Detroit Public Library. Tickets are free, but required for admittance. Once confirmed, tickets will only be available for pick-up through Thursday, Oct. 19. Lecture begins at 6 p.m. at DPL Main Branch, 5201 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-833-1000. For tickets online, see detroit.lib.mi.us.
Saturday-Sunday • 21-22
Jerry Gonzalez & the Fort Apache Band
MUSIC
Trumpeter-percussionist Jerry Gonzalez has spent his career expanding and deepening both the “Latin” and “jazz” components of Latin jazz. With the international exposure that followed his role in the Latin jazz documentary Calle 54 in 2000, for instance, he split to Spain and hooked up with adventurous flamenco players (check out Jerry Gonzalez y Los Piratos del Flamenco on Sunnyside). In his latest project, Gonzalez and his Fort Apache Band pay tribute to Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Rumba Buhaina on Random Chance takes tunes by such Messengers as Freddie Hubbard, Benny Golson and Wayne Shorter and, rather than just laying Latin rhythms on top, reconfigures them around a Latin feel at the core. Gonzalez swings this way with Joe Ford on sax, Larry Willis on piano, Steve Berrios on drums and percussion, and brother Andy Gonzalez on bass. In the Jazz Café at Music Hall, 350 Madison Ave., Detroit; 313-887-8501. Admission, $25; shows at 7:30 and 10:30 p.m.
Sunday • 22
Disco/Secret: Düsseldorf Edition
MUSIC
The secret is out. A mysterious Detroit-based collective called Disco/Secret — made up of musicians, DJs, artists and promoters who have been scurrying around in the shadows since 2004 — is emerging to host three left-field electronic-rock bands from Germany. As part of its Private Joy sessions held each Sunday, the group presents the Düsseldorf Edition, featuring live performances by Unit 4 (Ralf Beck and Michael Künzer), Toulouse Low Trax (a solo project by Kreidler member Detlef Weirich) and Musiccargo, a two-person group whose song “One Way Ticket” was included on a recent mix CD by Chloe and Ivan Smagghe of the Paris-based Kill the DJ crew. Disco/Secret is devoted to preserving dance music from the pre-digital era, a worthy pop ideal if ever there was one. The show is co-produced by ViaCirca. 9:30 p.m. at the Detroit Eagle, 1501 Holden St. (corner of Trumbull), Detroit; 313-873-6969; $5.
Ongoing
Urban Legends Haunted House
HOLIDAY: HALLOWEEN
Detroit’s Urban Legends Haunted House is in a 120-year-old church in Detroit’s Cass Corridor, which gives them a leg up on places that have to fake that 19th century feel. This place is a two-story labyrinth of dread that features video, a sewer rat named Sammy and snacks for kids and adults alike. Cass Community Social Services volunteers stage the attraction, and proceeds benefit area homeless women and children. Opens Friday, Oct. 20, at Cass Community United Methodist Church, 3901 Cass Ave., Detroit. Call 313-883-2277 or visit casscommunity.org. Ends Halloween.
