ENTERTAINMENT I GOING PLACES I WEEK OF DEC. 30-JAN SPECIAL EVENTS GREAT LAKES INVITATIONAL HOCKEY TOURNAMENT Joe Louis Arena, today, admission. 567-6000. COMEDY COMEDY CASTLE 2593 Woodward, Berkley, Roger Behr, today; Thom Sharp, Tuesday through Jan. 7, admission. 542-9900. JOANNE ZUROFF Special 7b The Jewish News J on Liebman was a lanky 15-year- old high school student when he first joined his brother Marty's Hebrew band as a bass player. For the next five years, he traveled with the group, Kol Yisrael, throughout the Midwest, playing most- ly for bar and bat mitzvah parties and youth group events. Thday, Liebman and his bass still travel extensively, but the itineraries, the music and the au- diences are far removed from the in- timate crowds of his Kol Yisrael years. Most recently, Liebman played in the Virgin Islands with the 1950s soul group, the Coasters, and went to Washington, D.C., to play for the an- nual Congressional Hispanic Caucus dinner. He also appeared in Puerto Rico with the vocalist Cheyenne, in an outdoor concert for 30,000 people. Earlier this year he toured South Florida with Julius LaRosa and per- formed with Kay Starr. Liebman has traveled to the Dominican Republic with the Latin recording star, Braulio, and performed at the Latin Singers' Awards ceremony in Miami, rubbing elbows with Jose Feliciano and Julio Iglesias. He also "did some jazz" on the Billy Eckstein show. In addition, Liebman appeared on Miami television for a March of Dimes fund-raiser, did tours in Guatemala, Puerto Rico and Los Angeles, and swung through Thxas and Mexico where, he says, "We played to bull rings and arenas of screaming 16-year-old girls!" Amid this, he managed to con- tinue his work as music arranger and proofreader for Columbia Pictures. Born in Cleveland in 1960, Lieb- man moved to Detroit at 7, and con- siders this city the "place where I grew up." Music has always been a part of his family life. His father, Jerry Lieb- man, was a popular rock and roll disc jockey in the '50s and '60s, known as Specs Howard. "I always knew every song on the radio. My brother Marty Jon Liebman has built a studio in his home to pursue music through electronics. Jon Liebman has become a master of music — through performing, writing and arranging. and I used to test each other on the top 20 times. I didn't know how to read but I knew how to find a song on an L.P. record and I could work the hi fi." The youngest child of Jerry and Ceil Liebman, his siblings are Shelly, Marty and Lisa. "We all took piano," he quips, "But Marty's the only one who made it sound like music." A first grader when he began piano, Liebman hated to practice and finally quit. In third grade he tried violin, and in fifth grade, the drums. "But," he explains, "ever since I was 7 or 8, I used to pick up the guitar — never really studied it — just fooled around. By the time I got into high school I was a pretty good guitarist. "In fact:' he continued, "I really wanted to play guitar, but my brother's band needed a bass player, so I played the bass because I had to. After five years, I learned to do it really well." Liebman credits his brother Mar- ty, a musician in his own right, with teaching him a lot about music. Liebman attended Hillel Day School for the elementary grades, and went to Akiva for grades seven, eight and nine. He sang in the B'nai David choir and "really enjoyed that a lot." After graduating from Southfield High School, Liebman attended the Univer- sity of Michigan — Dearborn, for two years, studying music and business and choosing bass as his instrument of study in his freshman year. At U of M, Liebman sang in the Vocal Chamber Ensemble. At the music director's re- quest, he wrote an arrangement of "Oifen Prippichik" for soprano, alto, tenor and bass. After his second year at U of M, Liebman was awarded a scholarship to a summer jazz workshop at Henry Ford Community College. It was here that he realized he would have to change schools if he intended to study music seriously. He transferred to Wayne State University on a scholarship and became, he says, "a performance major playing classical, and also a jazz ma- jor." Eventually, he concentrated on the jazz In May 1981, Liebman began the radio and TV broadcasting course at his family's Specs Howard School of Broadcast Arts. In August, he landed a job at WWJ radio, where his respon- sibilities included running the audio control board, doing production, pro- gramming the computer, making com- mercials and editing tapes. . He fondly recalled one experience at the station. "I was working in the control room and a guy came running in with a tape in his hand. He was frantic and insisted that he needed it to air right away. I threw it on the ma- chine and it was a tape of my Dad!" In February 1982, Liebman took on , another radio job, this one at WIQB in Ann Arbor, playing rock and roll, but he gave up the position due to the long drive and his increased workload at school. In addition to his musical, academic and radio pursuits, Liebman studied with Max Janowksi, who is with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Lieb- man had an exhausting stint in com- munity orchestras, school ensembles, with Southfield's Scandinavian Sym- phony, the WSU Orchestra, the WSU Symphony Band and the WSU Jazz THEATER HILBERRY AND BONSTELLE THEATERS Wayne St. University, Detroit, Romeo and Juliet, now through Jan. 28; admission. 577-2972. GREENFIELD VILLAGE Dearborn, The Wizard of Oz, today, admission. 271-1620. BIRMINGHAM THEATRE 211 S. Woodward, Birmingham, Stepping Out, now through Feb. 5, admission. 644-3533. MEADOW BROOK THEATRE Oakland University, Rochester, I Ought to be in Pictures, Thursday through Jan. 29, admission. 377-3300. MUSIC DETROIT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Ford Auditorium, Nutcracker, today and Saturday, admission. 567-1400. ART SHOWS TROY ART GALLERY 755 W. Big Beaver, Troy, "Holiday time at Troy Art Gallery," with gifts of art available, now through Jan. 7. 362-0112. DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS 5200 Woodward, "Sixteenth Century Tuscan drawings from the Uffizi," now through Jan. 8; Andrew Wyeth: The Helga Pictures, now through Jan. 22; photographs by Frederick H. Evans, now through Feb. 12; "Tom Parish: Selected Paintings," now through Feb. 19 832-2730. UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN MUSEUM OF ART 525 S. State, Ann Arbor, • Continued on Page 46 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 43