Sonny Rollins performs Saturday 10/13/07 at Music Hall in Detroit

Be sure to check out the greatest living legend of jazz - Sonny Rollins.

And you don’t have to drive to Ann Arbor or fall asleep in Orchestra Hall to see him perform, because Sonny Rollins is finally playing in a proper venue right in the heart of Detroit: that little gem called the Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts.

This is a fantastic place - with all the opulence of a fine theater, but small and intimate so there’s not really a bad seat in the house. If you haven’t been there, you’re missing out on a unique venue.

He’ll have band members Clifton Anderson, Steve Jordan, Bobby Broom, Kimati Dinizulu, and the ageless Bob Cranshaw on bass (doesn’t he look the same as he did in the 1970’s?). Tickets are $27-$37-$47, plus all those fees that seem to add up - especially if you buy them online.

So avoid the excess fees and go to the theater to buy your tickets - you’ll save some real money. Not sure if you can order them by phone, but that’s worth a shot, too. Their number is 313-963-2366.

Here is an excellent Sonny Rollins interview in today’s Detroit Free Press with columnist Mark Stryker.

Now, just a little rant on the fees …

…for me to get two Main Floor tickets at $47 each while sitting here on the internet, I have to pay an additional $16.10 “convenience charge” as well as a $6.00 “building facility charge”, whatever that is.

So now the total price for two tickets is $116.10. This is over 23% more than the face value of the ticket!

I can go down to Music Hall and buy the tickets which could eliminate the “convenience charge” (I think), but there’s no way around that “building facility charge.” Since I love the venue, I feel ashamed to bitch about this one - but I wish they’d just include it in the ticket price and tell us about it in small type on the back of the stub with all the legal disclaimers, etc..

Sonny’s definitely worth it all, and then some - but with all the hype about a service tax here in Michigan, it makes me wonder: would I be taxed on the face value of the ticket, or would the convenience charge and building facility charge be taxed, too?