Tuning In
To The Music Scene ...

Former Southfield resident
Howard Kramer "shops" for the Rock
and Roll Hall ofFame.

GARY GRAFF SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

mementos of rock 'n' roll's past and tries to
acquire them for the Hall of Fame's exhib-
it space. Most recently he's been working
on displays commemorating the progres-
sive rock movement and Detroit's own
Grande Ballroom, the famed late '60s rock
showcase.
"For so many years, my mother used to
say to me, 'What is listening to all this mu-
sic, reading all these magazines, going to
do for you?' It got me this job," Kramer, 35,
says as he eats a brown bag lunch in his
windowless office at the museum, where
he's surrounded by magazines, books, the
cover of a Marvin Gaye live album
and a framed set of autographed
set lists from Elvis Costello shows.
"I kinda feel like this is what I've
been headed toward all this time."
After graduating from South-
field High, Kramer — whose par-
ents, Lillian and the late Bernie
Kramer, owned the Marble Book
Co. near the Wayne State Univer-
sity campus — attended Oakland
Community College and decided
to take his musical interests in a
radio direction. He worked at
WJR-FM (which later became
WHYT) and Metro Traffic Control
before switching gears and sign-
ing on as a talent booker at the
Prism agency in Ann Arbor.
He worked there from 1985-87,
then left for Philadelphia, where
he worked with a management
company that handled artists such
as the Dead Milkmen, Ben
Vaughn and, from Ann Arbor, the
Scott Morgan Band. Kramer kept
his hand in radio as well, working
as a DJ on the University of Penn-
sylvania radio station.
In Philadelphia he also met his
wife, the former Sally Brandeis.
They married in 1993, shortly be-
fore he received an offer to work
for the Rosebud Agency, a man-
agement and booking company in
San Francisco.
"My wife had never been there,"
Kramer says, "so we said, 'Let's try

PHOTO BY NEAL HAMILTON

ike many avid rock 'n' roll fans,
Howard Kramer anxiously await-
d his chance to see U2's lavish
new PopMart tour. But Kramer
wasn't going just for the music.
"I get to go shopping," he says with a
smile.
Kramer isn't referring to the supermar-
ket motif of the PopMart stage. As an as-
sistant curator at the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, the De-
troit native — who was raised in Southfield
— checked out the U2 production for pos-
sible memorabilia: the 35-foot mirrorball
lemon, perhaps, or the olive suspended on
a 100-foot toothpick.
This is what Kramer does; he looks for

8

Howard Kramer: Looking for rock 'n' roll mementos.

something differ-
ent.' "
At
Rosebud,
Kramer served as a
manager,
tour
working
with
younger acts such
as Jeffrey Gaines
and G Love & Spe-
cial Sauce. He also
got to spend time
with a famous De-
troiter, blues legend
John Lee Hooker,
who now lives in
the Bay Area.
"[Hooker] loved
talking about De-
troit — Hastings
Street and all the
things that hap-
pened there,"
Kramer says. "It's
just awesome to be
in the presence of
someone like that."
Eventually a de-
sire to be closer to
their families
brought Kramer
and his wife back to David Fishof: The Jewish "Jerry Maguire"?
the Midwest. He
saw the Hall of
Fame job adver-
Gaye's classic "What's Going On"). He's al-
tised in the music industry trade publica- ready collected a variety of items for the
tion Billboard, and he was persistent Grande Ballroom exhibit — including cloth-
throughout the hiring process, ringing mu- ing from the Stooges and MC5, Iggy Pop's
seum officials rather than waiting for them lap steel guitar and Elektra Records' letter
to call him back.
releasing the MC5 from the label.
'Most of the people here come from a mu-
And the progressive rock exhibit is also
seum or journalism background," he says.
coming along; while he's lunching, Kramer
"I come from a different side of the busi- receives a fax from John Wetton, the singer
ness. I think they weren't sure about that and bassist for bands such as King Crim-
at first ... but now I think they see it just son, U.K., Roby Music and Asia.
brings another frame of reference to the op-
"The fun thing about being a curator,"
eration."
he says, "is you get to look in storage. I was
Kramer made his impact quickly by in there one day, and in this open cabinet
helping to bulk up the museum's Motown there was this very old guitar case, and in
exhibit with a batch of new items, includ- it is Eddie Cochran's guitar.
ing a studio log book used by the Artists &
"I couldn't resist; I picked it up and start-
Repertoire department (in the Hall's show- ed playing 'Summertime Blues.' What a
case, it's opened to the page for Marvin charge!"

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