Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • 478

Sound check THE HARTFORD COURANT MUSIC NEWS AND VIEWS THURSDAY APRIL 27, 1989 Tom Petty on tour; no news on ticket sales for Who ZULU NEWS By ROGER CATLIN Courant Rock Critic I POP ROCK It was a long, cold winter as Boston's Zulus sat around waiting for their first full album, "Down on the Floor," essentially finished last September, to be released on SlashWarner Brothers records. But lead singer Larry Bangor said from Boston that the quartet is pleased with the work, produced by ex-Hiisker Dii member Bob Mould and having a harder, possibly more commercial edge to it than earlier work. "We always felt the band was not just college radio material," he said. With the new work out, the band's embarking on a six-week U.S. tour that has a stop at the Night Shift Cafe on Saturday.

Bangor recalls with delight the last show at the Night Shift. "We were mostly playing in Boston and Providence while we were waiting for the record to come out. It was a strange new thrill to go to a foreign city and do it. And people stood back and watched for half the set, but then they got into it." Highlights this week include: Burning Spear at Toad's Place in New Haven tonight. Hyenas at the Night Shift Cafe in Naugatuck tonight.

Cray, Tower of Power, Toots and the Maytals and Ivan Neville at the Centrum in Worcester Friday. Lazy Lester at Gemini's Cafe in Simsbury Friday. Whitfield the Savages at the El 'n' Gee Club in New London Saturday. Persuasions, Magneatos and others in a benefit at the Polish National Home Saturday. Cult Brothers at the Bridges Cafe in East Windsor Saturday.

Two-Step at Lloyds Saturday. The Randy Newman show slated for Tuesday at Toad's Place in New Haven has been postponed to July 27. Tickets will be honored for that show. Added to the schedule there are Suzanne Vega for two shows May 30 and The Proclaimers June 1. Randy Travis plays the Centrum in Worcester Saturday, with K.T.

Oslin opening. NRBQ plays CitiLites May 11. Jay and the Americans play the Treadway Hartford Hotel in Cromwell May 12. Delbert McClinton plays the Pearl Street in Northampton, Sunday. The Oakdale Musical Theatre in Wallingford is the stopping place of the O'Jays July 27, the Judds July 28, and Wayne Newton July 29.

No tickets available there until May 13. Blues and zydeco are on the menu at Lloyds in Hartford in the coming weeks, with Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson appearing May 4, Buckwheat Zydeco May 30, File May 31 and Garence "Gatemouth" Brown June 7. Also worth noting is the bluegrass band Hot Rize and their alter egos Red Knuckles and the Trailblazers May 18 and gospel's Sister Sadie and the Biblettes May 20. Ringo Starr is reportedly putting together his first tour since drumming with the Beatles in 1966. The tour, to note the 25th anniversary of the "Pepsi Generation" ad campaign, is to include a band featuring Peter Frampton, Joe Walsh, Jack Bruce, Clarence Clemons and Billy Preston.

It's being produced by oldies concert packager David Fishof, whose other summer offering is "Dick Gark's American Bandstand Concert Tour," which plays May 13 at the Springfield Civic Center, featuring the Spinners, the Association, The Guess Who and the Drifters. It will tentatively play Lake Compounce Festival Park July 4. If that happens, youmay have two identity-crises Independence Day options: the Who in Hartford or the Guess Who in Bristol. With a new solo album out this week, Tom Petty rejoins the Heartbreak-ers for a summer tour, which will likely bring them to Lake Corn-pounce Festival Park in Bristol Aug. 31.

But the date is not confirmed and a bidding war might bring Petty to the New Haven Coliseum instead. Sources say you can almost count on a June 10 date by Poison at Lake Compounce. Officially speaking, though, tickets do go on sale Saturday for four new shows at Lake Compounce, including a massive, four-hour "Night of the Guitar" June 5 that features Leslie West, the original lineups of Bachman-Turner Overdrive and Wishbone Ash, as well as Ronnie Montrose, Spirit, ex-Doors guitarist Robbie Krieger, Steve Hunter, ex-Climax Blues Band guitarist Peter Haycock, and The Truth. Other new dates are Christian singer Sandi Patti June 26, British pop star Rick Astley July 17 and Jimmy Buffett with the Neville Brothers July 15. There's no news about ticket sales for the Who concert at the Hartford Civic Center July 4 announced earlier this week or if it is going to take place on that date or at all, now that the Hartford Police Department has said it could not accommodate crowds on the same day that up to 400,000 people are expected for this year's July 4 Riverfest.

As promoters and city officials scramble for a compromise, or an alternate date here, tickets for Who stops at Sullivan Stadium in Foxboro, on July 12 and Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., June 29 could go Slash The Zulus will be at the Night Shift Cafe in Naugatuck on Saturday. on sale as soon as Friday or Monday. There's a tug of war going on between Lake Compounce and the New Haven Coliseum for a Connecticut Rod Stewart date at the end of May. Meantime, at the New Haven Coliseum, Bobby Brown brings his first headlining tour there Wednesday, with Karyn White and Le-vert opening. Ozzy Osbourne returns to the New Haven Coliseum June 28, with Vixen and White Lion opening.

A Freddie Jackson concert is possible there in late June; Little Feat may play there in July. Meanwhile, Little Feat plays Western Connecticut State College in Dan-bury at 2 p.m. May 6. Tickets go on sale Mondayfor a June 2 Ashford Simpson show at the Palace Performing Arts Center in New Haven. Joe Jackson may open his world tour at the Palace at the end of July.

Jody Watley has put the Bushnell Memorial on her itinerary for a July 13 concert. Bad-finger plays Bopper's in New Haven May 2. Queen Ida plays the Merry Widow in Bridgeport May 7. Write to Roger Catlin in care of Sound Check, The Courant, 285 Broad Hartford, Conn. 06115.

Please include a telephone number. Stamford company cooks up batch of CD treasures "The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Freddie Redd." The noted be-bop pianist on three LPs at $27 or two CDs at $30. "The Complete Atlantic and EMI Jazz Recordings of Shorty Rogers." Trumpeter, arraneer and maior in By OWEN McNALLY Courant Jazz Critic The Japanese musician first made a name for herself with her be-bop piano playing in the 1950s. Later, with her husband Lew Ta-backin, she created one of the best modern mainstream bands. Despite her success in the big-band field, she has kept her piano chops well-honed and is still the master of the razor-sharp be-bop chorus.

Cover: $13. Continuing its jazz guitar policy, Lloyds will present the John Scofield Trio May 5 at 8:30 p.m. Cover: $14. Pianist Dave McKenna returns to Lloyds with tenor saxophonist Scott Hamilton May 14 at 7 and 9 p.m. McKenna is a familiar but ever welcome standby at Lloyds, whose cabaret series has presented an impressive array of piano greats, including McCoy Tyner, Ahmad Jamal, Hank Jones, Tommy Flanagan and Marian McPartland.

Hamilton's warm tenor playing a style recalling the halcyon days of Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young also has long been a popular attraction at John Chapin's establishment. Cover: $14. I JAZZ CONTEMPORARY tic of the jazz avant-garde are focusing on, of all things, tunes from Walt Disney classics. This Sun Ra-Disney blend can be experienced when the cosmic, caped crusader of the atonal performs with his ensemble May 22 at the Iron Horse Music Hall, 20 Center Northampton, Mass. As part of his dizzy, dadaistic Disneyana shtick, the mystic maestro likes to ask members of the audience to sing their favorite tunes from Disney films.

Then the band joins in, taking such sweet songs as "When You Wish Upon a Star" into new astral heights and beyond. OTHER NOTES Alto saxophonist Frank Morgan and pianist George Cables perform Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Lloyds Restaurant, 60 Washington Hartford. Morgan ISas absorbed all the innovations of Charlie Parker and fashioned an exciting, original style all his own. Cables is the consummate sideman and a favorite of many great saxophonists including Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon and Joe Henderson.

Cover: $13. For reservations call: 549-4322. Toshiko Akiyoshi, the band leader, composer and arranger, will display her pianc-play- osaic Records, a Stamford-based Mi label internationally renowned for its high-quality reissues of classic jazz, has released its first batch of fluence in the cool, West HODGES Coast school on six LPs at $54, or four CDs at $60. "The Complete Johnny Hodges Sessions 1951-1955." Duke Ellington's sophisticated alto saxophone master on six LPs at $54 (not available on CD). "The Complete Candid Recordings of Cecil Taylor Buell Neidlinger." Explorations by Taylor, a founding father of the jazz avant-garde, on six LPs at $54, or four CDs at $60.

There is an additional shipping charge of $3.50 for the first set and $1.25 for each additional set. Mosaic sells its product through direct mail only. Its address is: 35 Melrose Place, Stamford, 06902. Call: 327-7111. SUN RA MEETS DISNEY i Sun Ra and his Arkestra the most galac- compact discs.

Mosaic has long been a delight for connoisseurs and vinylphiles, those true believers who hold that vinyl is still the summit of hightech. Mosaic's catalog of deluxe, boxed sets is stocked with out-of-print masterworks by many great artists, including Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Art Pepper, Buddy DeFranco and Paul Desmond. The just-released additions to its catalog are: dnjasdaj5lt.8j30iB.miyJ Lloydi.j Write to Owen McNally, The Hartford Cou- I IV.