I Opt h Hogging
All the Action?
Lionel Richie
Under Fire Again
Inotrerle� itdidn'ttakc
long for a U.s. District Court to
dismiss allegati by two apiring
ngwriters that sing r Lionel
Richi copied treir work.
For, tlnse of you Liorel Richie
• fars ut trere, word from Motown
is lhata greatest hits album reported­
ly contains several new Liorel
Richie � is due in February.
Meanwhil , if you're wonder­
ing what' happening with re and
wife, Brenda. Trey will be going
ahead with divorce prcccedings
afterall.
Gregory Battles
It Out In Court
A battle that rearty cost co
dian-activist Dick Gregory his
borre, has finally been resolved.
Tbat battle was over control of his
di t formula bisiress.
Tbe over three-year old dispute
between be aOO two forrrerpanrers
tied up his ircorre ard ready t
him his $700, lakefront rome in
Plymouth, Mass.
It all tarted in l� wren two'
partners questioned ' me personal
purchases made by Gregory with
rporaic funds, as well 'rome
lavish charges to corporate credit
cards.
A board meeting was beld in his
absence, whereupon the partners is-
ued skin order to oecrease his
controlling shares. A tring of law­
suits foUwed. Tbe recent settlement
gf.\ve the fonner partrers rearty
S250,(ll), for treir stock aOO their
leaving the rompany
-By The Way
SidIl:y Poitier will team with
oorx: oeer than Robert Redford for
hi next film, entitle'
"S�II .. Lasuy, be sure and
keep 57-year old "Mission Impos­
sible" star Greg l\t>rris in your
prayers.
Morris , is gravely ill in a Las
Vegas bospital, battling career.
The Show Will
Go O.n Afterall
The national office of the
NAACP and tre Beverly Hills­
fbUywood chap r anmUlYXd that
�y've readrd a unity pact to
resolve a lenghty disp that had
threatered both th airing and
prodWion of tre uproming Image
AwaJds.
'Ire local had thre�ueJ¥XJ to go to
court.af1ercharging that tre mtioml
brach had ized ronttol f tre
Image Awards in a power play ..
Meanwhile, lhe upcom.
image Awards are lat d for
January 11 th.
- romplicd by K BaOO
- rontn utor: Lisa Collins
(Bebirxl tB: Scene)
-/I .... ard III tretch" Joh on,
former :/IIn ton Mil , jan
Duk Ellington i recognized
one 0 th gre t Am rican om­
po ers 0 th 20th century. In
creer th t pann d half a century,
he became a hou ehold name
throughout the world a ma ter
howrnan, a tirele entertainer, a
star in hi own mu ical galaxy.
But who wa Duke Ellingt n­
the man? Duke Ellington -
Remini cing In Temp - a 90-
minut pedal produced by R bert
S. Levi, and written by Geoffrey C.
Ward principal writer of The Civil
War, and Levi - i the first
documentary to r veal the non­
publi p onality of thi creative
geniu .ro how the connection h -
tween his p r onallife and hi enor­
mou ,la ring body of work.
Made with the cooperation 0
Ellington's on, Mercer Ellington,
and featuring Mcree- first inter­
view about hi (ather in an
American documentary, the film
premiere Monday, December 9 at
9 p.m. (ET; check local I' ting ) a
part of the fourth season of The
American Experience erie on
PBS. (Dat and time m y vary due
to pecial cheduling during
December pledge.)
Rcrnini: cing In Tempo take it
till from a 1935 Ellin ton w rk,
but il al 0 de ribe the approach of
the program. Underscored virtual­
ly throughout with more than 40
Elli ngton piece , the film move
through the compo er' life and
I H ea on, Th
American E p rience, public
televi ion' p pular rie of film.
about America'. pa t, i ho ted by
author and hi torian D vid Mc­
Cullough, wh provide an intro­
ductory e ay or each weekly
broadcast. A co-production of
WGBH/B ton, Thirteen/WNET in
New York, and KCET/Lo An­
gele , The Am rican Experience i
made p.o ible by upport from th
Corporation for Public Broadcast­
ing and public television tations.
Aetna Life Ca ualty continue
for a fourth year a a series' cor­
porate underwriter.
Judy Crichton i the cries' ex­
ecutive producer.
"Duke Ellington i one of
America's great musical legends,"
notes M . Crichton. "Although
many American are well ac­
quainted with hi rnu ic, few know
the man behind the glamorou
image he worked 0 hard to cul­
tivate. We at Th American Ex­
peri nee er int res d in elng
hi remarkable musical career in the
light of hi personal life - to get a
ense of the extraordinary humanity
from which i music prings."
In 1927, Edward Kennedy
The Wail
r
"Duke Ellington, a relatively inex­
perienced but talented young pian
player, made hi debut a a
bandleader t the Colton Club in
Harlem - a wank, notorious
nightspot run by the mob. Hi
"jungle music" was a hit with while
patrons - but Ellington had more
ambitiou idea. Between ets, he
showca ed original jazz compo i­
tion , some of the mo t exciting
mu ic America had ever heard.
After hi five-year tenure at the or­
ton Club, Ellington would go on to
change American 20th-century
music forever.
With hi orche tra a hi main
in. trument, Ellington toured the
country for half a century, inter­
rupted only by recording e ions
and by extensive tours around the
w rId. Yet, omehow, he found the
time to compose more than 1,500
musical piece, from popular eta -
ic like "Take the A Train, " "Mood
Indigo, II "Sophisticated Lady," "It
Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got
That Swing," to orche tral uites
like "Black, Brown, and Beige,"
"The Far East Suite" and "Afro­
Eurasian Eclip "t hi final
rna terworks, th "Scared Con­
cert ."
Rcmini cing in Tempo point
out that Ellingt n': musical ambi­
tl n carried a pri e-hi marriage
eggaein
h
�1';� , ,
�� " .
:�.,,l � . '
:.1· .... ,'. ,__. '
(l-r), rt Lindo, Mich I
TH W IL - (front row I-r): Irvin Jarrett and ton BarTelt. Back ro
Rich rd Junior Marvin, Andre Mclntrye and Earl Fltzslmmoods.
If there was a band ynonymous
with the internationalization of reg-
gae, it i The Waiters Band. From
their early day in the 1960's as the
top pop action in Jamaica, when
Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny
Living tone uirrcd up righteou
'harmonies, to the glory day of
Marley and hi crack back-up group
in the 1970'" to their pre ent incar­
nation a The Waiters Band - the
legacy ha moved forward as relent-
les I y a the drum-and-bas
rhythm of their music.
Ba �i�t Aston "Familyman" Bar­
rell. alon 1 with hi. drumplaying
broth r. the late Carlton "Carty"
Barren.joined the Waiters family in
the late 1960' '.
Current membc
Earl "Wia" Lindo
(organ/ ynthesi
zer), Alvin
"Seeco" Paller-
on (percu -
'i 0 n / b a c kin g
ocal ) and
Junior Marvin
( uiiars/lcad vo­
cals) be arne part
01 the roup in'
the I ()7(r • con­
iuhuun not only
10 the mavsivcly
II�hl Wailcr-,
ound hut to the
�( n J\ ruing and arrangement
alon \ Itl1 Marlc .
dnn: Marky dieu in 1981, he
t k JunIOr anu . milyman a:iu
emu a,kcu ttH.:m to ke 'P the Wallers
to Jeth·r. "H' �alu to mc, it might
take 10 ) ear� hut keep tryin' and
kecp pu!)hln!. no matter what the
odu arc," recalls Junior. "It'
taken ab Lit 10 years for people to
take u. eri�u.ly the Wail rs
Band Without Bob. Thc mu�i for
me I, vcr. rna 11cal and (thInk It wa
w rth the \! ait."
With the rclea e
Warri r on Tahu/ M, a d cadc
of patl nee, per onncl
did not la t, and for much f hi life,
hi tru home wa the road. A th
program travel through hi
remarkabl areer, th rememhran­
ce of the p ople who knew El­
lington be t reveal a personality
who wa ine tricably linked to hi'
work:
III
Mercede Ellin 'ton, on hi chara -
ter: "H was a harmin man .... Hc
h rm m H h
women. He harmed th amity.
He charmed the mu ician . Oth r
See DUKE, 8-2
'90'
. harpcncd rnu: iciaru hip and c n­
stant tourin J ha paid tl', The I:!
track -.deuicated to "all rc ·U( m
Fighters. past, pre cnt and luturc"
- ignal a return to n ck-solid rc 1_
a after the .ros over attempts
how a cd on th ir 19 <) tlantic
r lea e, I.D, JUnior des ribcs th
hard w rk that went into the
development or Majc ti Warriors.
"We tartcd rchcarsin in I t)<)l)
for thi album - we went through
about a hundred .ongs, Wc had a
pIa out ide Kin ston (Jamaica) in
th country whcr w rhea ed for
ab ut thr e or f ur month, si day:
a week ... and the r t� song 'am
ut stron zcr anu more po: iuv .."
Onc a pc t
of the new
album that
com manu th
I i. tener ' at­
t nti n i how
Farnil yrnan .�
b min
tained n tes,"
say: Junior, "which I think wa part
of the magic that happeneu bctwe n
him and Bob."
Playin live in the 'tudio \! ct.
an thcr part th Wailc Band'� at­
tempt to capture that 'pc ial vih .
"All the 'on x 'cpttwo, 'Dan 109
Boy' and' weet ry Of Freed m,'
were live rcc rdings with five 0 us
playing at n e... we c utd get
more 0 a human contact-type
make you u funny thin in 'Jnny
pia c ."
Alth u h Junior h ndle m st f
See REGGAE, 8-2
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