THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Wednesday, January
THE MICHIGAN DAILY Wednesday, January
records
30
years
of
all
that
jazz
To close out the album and
I.
By BERT STRATTON
Jass is a monolith - it's the
name given to practically all the
music that falls within the
enormous r a n g e separating
Blood, Sweat, and Tears, and
the Miles Davis Quintet. Ob-
viously, there is no "true" or
pure jazz. Yet, there certainly
is a middle-of-the-road jazz, and
that's the type of music pro-
duced by the Blue Note re-
cording company.
Blue Note jazz is a well mixed
stew - always greasy and down-
home. The cooks: Jimmy Smith
(organ), Lou Donaldson (alto),
Lee Morgan (trumpet), George
Benson (guitar), and man y
others. The brand-name often
used is "soul" or "funky" jazz.
Thanks primarily to w h i t e,
jazz flutist Herbie Mann many
new audiences are finding out
about this jazz, the same music
that has been a part of the
black community for so long.
Yet the irony is that dynamic,
black source of Mann's music
has received the "effete" label,
from none other than LeRoi
Jones, the noted black critic. He
has a derogatory name for the
black "soul" jazzmen - he calls
them "groove, funk merchants."
However not everybody, .a n d
probably most black people a r e
not particularly atuned to Jones'
favorite music either, which is
"avant-garde" jazz (meaning
men like Pharoah Sanders, Al-
bert Ayler, and Archie Shepp,
all of whom are far-out, N e w
York saxophonists).
Whatever comes along, be it
a LeRoi Jones' vindictive or the
periodic "jazz is dead" syndrome,
it seems that Blue Note ignores
it and keeps going strong. In
fact, Blue Note is presently
celebrating its 30th birthday,
and in so doing has issued three
commemorative double albums,
one for each decade: 1939-1949,
1949-1959, and 1959-1969.
The first album appeals to
the historians, featuring a pair
of Albert Ammons and James
P. Johnson piano boogie woog-
ies. Dixieland from the g r e a t,
New Orleanls soprano saxophon-
ist and clarinetist Sidney Be-
chet, playing Summertime and
Blue Horizon. There's Thelonius
Monk and the beginnings of bop
with Round About Midnight and
Epistrophy.
The second album moves into
the fifties, one of jazz's most
lucrative if not most creative
decades. This album is almost
entirely bop, emphasizing the
up-tempo, simple four-to-the-bar
melody over heavy cymbal work.
Jimmy Smith plays Hammond
in Yardbird Suite, Sonny Rol-
lins, a principal force during the
fifties on tenor, does Tune Up,
the John Coltrane Sextet plays
Blue Train, a song in which
one can feel Coltrane's incip-
ient scale-running technique col-
liding with the heavy accented
4/4 signature that he and all
the other bop musicians were us-
ing in the late fifties. Art
Blakey's Jazz Messengers and
Lou Donaldson close out the de-
cade and the album with a pair
of funky blues ,tunes, the style
that would predominate in the
early sixties.
The third album, 1959-1969,
is undoubtedly the most exciting
record, and the one to buy. The
sixties were financially h a r d
times for all but a few jazz
musicians, but that doesn't
mean that the music remained
dormant.
Actually, the sixties was t h e
decade of the battle between
"soul" jazz and "avant-garde"
jazz. At first, most jazzmen were
riding high on "smack" and the
"soul revival," the latter caused
mainly by the rocketing popular-
ity of Ray Charles. Examples of
this "soul" music on the al-
bum are Jimmy Smith's Back
at the Chicken Shack, Kenny
Burrell's guitar work on Chit-
tiers Con Carne, and Lee Mor-
gan's extended blues, The Side-
winder. For innovation in the
"soul" jazz genre, Donald Byrd
set his trumpet to an eight-man
chorus background in his slow
gospel tune Cristo Redentor.
Enter the iconoclasts, E r i c
Dolphy (alto) and Ornette Cole-
man (alto, violin, and trum-
pet). Dolphy made Out to Lunch
in 1964, just a couple months
before his death. It's an ex-
periment in complex rhythms
and 5/4 timing. About the song,
Dolphy said in the liner notes,
"Everybody is a leader in this
session." The others in that ses-
sion were more up-and-coming
rebels: Freddie Hubbard (trum-
pet), Bobby Hutcherson (vibes),
Richard Davis (bass), and Tony
Williams (drums), all of who
figure to stand-out in the sev-
enties.
Perhaps the most outstand-
ing and innovative musician in
jazz today along with M i1 e s
Davis (trumpet) is Ornette Cole-
man. In the early sixties he was
looking for something new. Cole-
man went into temporary seclus-
ion, learned violin and trum-
pet, and came back to the jazz
scene approximately five years
before it was ready for him. In
1965, he, David Izenzon, t h e
white bassist, and C h a r 1 e s
Moffitt (drums) broke up' a
jazz club in Stockholm w i t h
European Echoes. It was the
start of many concepts that we
listeners are now only begin-
ning to comprehend - polyrhy-
thms, the use of space as a
sound, and atonality. Ornette is
the definitive avant-gardist, and
as is often the case, is the only.
avant-gardist whose talents ap-
peal to "soul" jazz listeners
as well.
the sixties, the record producer
displays the Blue Note bias to-
wards "soul'' jazz, with Peepin'
Lou Donaldson on alto and
Lonnie Smith on organ - that's
good old fundamental blues with
only slight embellishment. Jazz,
like all the other forms of Amer-
ican music, can't shake its blues
roots, and it doesn't want to
either.
21
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BERVE
FOLK-WAVES
PlC ARK
F _ _-
41
ATTENTION ALL UNDERGRAD WOMEN !
Here's your chance for a night out
at the courtesy of Elliot House
oin. 24at 8:00 P.M.
Dining Room 3, Markley Hall
Featuring: Dancing, Bananasplit Bush, Refreshments
Music by Bobby Sox and the U-Trow
Another Babcock-Neaton Production-"We serve to please"
Paul
Geremia
rCamille': Keep that dress on!
By NEAL GABLER
I must confess that I have
a soft spot in my heart for the
poor nudie film-maker. Here's
a fellow - maybe a budding
Welles, although I rather doubt
it - who has the difficult task
of not only titillating the view-
ing yoyeurs but also of reliev-
ing their sense of guilt, a rem-
nant of colonial morality, as
they scan the unclad lasses. Two
breasts appear on t h e screen
staring at us like bloodshot eyes.
Ahhhhhh! But then you won-
der, "What the hell am I doing,
" ogling this chick's bosoms?"
'uritanism strikes again, and
you get warts all over your lit-
tle hands.
The trick of a successful skin-
flick is to serve the nudity with
a big side order of comedy. Com-
edy creates a casualness that
suffocates self-doubt. For exam-
*,pie, Russ Meyer has his vixen
disrobe while- chattering about
civil rights. The incongruity of
word and deed is humorous; the
'spoofing dissipates guilt-feel-
ing; one can nestle down to the
nitty-gritty, and a good time is
had by all.
Radley Metzger of I, A Wo-
man fame could take lessons
from. Meyer. Although I make
no cilaim of objective truth, in
the cinema at least, sex and ser-
iousness seldom mix well, and
M'etzger's latest film Camille
2000, now showing at the Cam-
pus Theater, is the c a s e in
point. It has no wit, no redeem-
e ing social v a 1 u e and, what's
more, makes an incredibly futile
appeal to one's prurient intern.
est. So what e l s e is there? I
=slid, down in my -seat, embar-
rassedl to the point- of wanting
to rush the screen a n d yell,
' "No! ,Don't take it off. Let's just.
g '..et ,this whole thing over with."
The: film is loosely based on
Alexander Dumas' Lady of the
Camillias - thus, the name Ca-
mille - but Alexander fares less
well than he has in the past.
';The dialogue sounds as if somne
lame-brained script-girl mixed
the pages of a third-rate 1950's
love story and an abominable
imitation of Blow-Up: "'T h e
hills are covered with the bodies
of the men she's ruined.' 'There
are tears in your eyes.' 'It's on-
ly smoke '" And how's this for
deep symbolism, " 'You see this
bubble. It's alive for the mo-
- ment. Then it hits the rim of
the glass. It's gone. So, you see,
we have only now.'"
The story deals with a kept
woman. The Baron de Varville,
however, doesn't keep her for
"his .pleasure, -but . .. are "You
ready for this? . . . because she
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reminds hin of his dead daugh-
ter! Meanwhile, back on the in-
ternational jet-set scene, Ca-
mille meets the dashing Ar-
mand du Val; I guess he's what
you'd call a hip boy-scout-type.
Lights flash. Bells ring. For the
first time the shady lady is real-
ly in love. But all sorts of con-
plications block the path to true
romance. First, t h e r e is Ar-
mand's father. Secondly, the
couple is hit by inflation. Next
.Anyway at the film's con-
clusion Camille is wasting away
in a Rome hospital room. Too
much of a good thing. Armand
bursts in. He delivers a spate of
trite lines. She slowly lifts her
head, "I'm going, to live." Pres-
to! She collapses into -.eternal
slumber.
While the bare bones are the
same as in Garbo's time, the
story has been updated in the
newest version. Camille and Ar-
mand fall in love, but by love
I don't mean to' imply that they
sneak away from a party and
steal a kiss a la 1940. Nor are
these the kind of parties pre-
war cinema has accustomed us
to; orgies would be a more ap-
propriate word. Most of the ac-
tion occurs in Camille's b e d-
rgom (d o n e in early lucite),
and, as a matter of fact, in Ca-
mille's bed which resembles a
large plastic bathtub. It m a y
not be too comfortable but if a
flood ever hits Rome, it won't
interrupt them.
The picture does have one as-
set. Daniele Gaubert, who plays
the title role, may not be Garbo
but she's quite a girl nonethe-
less - an amply endowed red-
head with the virginal sweet-
ness of the girl next door.. And
for all you frat men, she's ath-
,letic as well.- As for her acting
ability, if that need be mention-
ed at all, she does excellent f a-
cial contortions, and she exhib-
its a fine ear for erotica records.
Unfortunately, not even Dan-
iele can save Metzger. The film
lacks the humorous underpin-
nings which rescue a skin-flick.
In addition, Metzger never re-
veals enough flesh for the real
connoissuer-only a few breasts
and a couple dozen derierres.
For all the asthetic admirers of
the female anatomy, if you find
Camille 2000 satisfying, I extend
my heart-felt sympathy. A n d
for the under eighteen set, just
be thankful this film is rated X.
By the way: For sheer taste-
lessness I find it hard to beat a
scene of simulated sex perform-
ed to t h e accompaniment of
ooh's and all's with the camera
going rhythmically in and out
of focus. Is this the ace that
launched a thousand hips?
% --_
The Beit Midrash
is pleased to announce a course in
Talmr~ud
with RABBI YITSCHAK MAN
For Information and Registration
CALL 761 -891.0, Evenings
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