Allan Barnes

Saxophonist Allan Barnes showed up in our pages last week as one of the artists featured on the posthumously completed J Dilla release Rebirth of Detroit. Since his days at Howard, he’s been one of the guys with one foot in the tradition and the foot (as James Brown would say, “the good foot”) in what’s au courant. It was at Howard that faculty member Donald Byrd (luminary ex-Detroiter) tapped Barnes for his new group the Blackbyrds. The group’s first disc — including the Barnes-penned “Summer Love” and “The Blackbirds Theme” — went gold. After his lengthy run with the Blackbyrds, other stops for Barnes have included work with Lyman Woodard (Don’t Stop the Groove), Carl Craig’s Inner Zone Orchestra, The Detroit Experiment recording on Rope a Dope, and Finale’s A Pipe Dream and a Promise. Some Saturdays you can also catch him practicing his chops busking at Eastern Market. You can hear him Saturday night too, leading his band at Baker’s Keyboard Lounge, 20510 Livernois Ave., Detroit, 313-345-6300; $10 cover.