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 I c .::. v : ±: E i 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 The Michigan Daily, edited and man- aged by students at the University of Michigan. News phone: 764-0552. Second Class postage paid at Ann Arbor, Mich- igan, 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104. Published daily Tues- day thrcugh -Sunday morning Univer- sity year. Subscription rates: $10 by carrier, $10 by mail. Summer Session pubtlshed Tuesday through Saturday morning. Subscrip- tion rates: $3.00 by carrier, $3.00 by mail. IxATIONAL SENERAL CORPORATION pFOX EASTERfN THEARES 375 No. MAPLE Ri.-769-1300 MON.-FRI.-7:15-9:15 SAT. & SUN.-- :30-3 20- 5:15-7:1.5-9:15 "THE YEAR'S BEST COMEDY !" --SATURDAY REVIEW 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 Foot Stomping Country Duo Dob ro, G itu, Harp - 95 % OF THE READING POPULATION READS ONLY 250 TO 300 WORDS PER MINUTE OR LESS PASTREAINGIS NT DFFIULT O LARN ~f#M~Tw N&Wso ?6 Su NI* All those who completed courses held this past year at the Bell Tower Hotel achieved speeds of 800 to 1800 w.pm. with the same or increased comprehension they had at their slower reading rates. SEE H OW EASTLY YOU CAN: -save hours, use your time more efficiently -learn to read 3 to 1(0 times faster than you do now -improve your comprehension and increase your enjoyment of reading material_ at a cost less than HALF that of nearly alt other commercial reading courses! T r w v ' f l , \ \i i t t .rte'-.- V : <:r ENDING J u WEDNESDAY THURSDAY: "OH, WHAT A LOVELY WAR" Reaxd and Use Daily Class ifieds Bring a book to a free, live demonstration of the reading skills which will be taught in a GUARANTEED course offered this semester, Demonstration Tuesday, Thursday, Jan. 20 & 22, 7:30 P.M., Order Your Subscription Today 764-0558 at the Bell Tower Hotel, 300 So. Thayer St., across from Burton Tower __......Nw:Yar5iu.NewBoo:eqal * I *Just return this card with $7.00 (check or money order u * payable to the MICHIGANENSIAN) to the Student Publi- *cations Building, 420 Maynard. A receipt will be sent within :3 weeks after your order is received.: NAMF * I ANN ARBOR ADDRESS * MAILING INSTRUCTIONS: * $1 additional charge if you wish Ia ~the book mailed anywhere in the: world. .. .. .: . . ............:........ ... .. '..... . .......... . . . . . .... ..:.... . . ... ... . . . . . 'r I q _______________________________ Schol (eg. SA, tc. a~ I~miinmnmm mmmm mmm mmimin mmmiinm mmm inmmninnin my: Our business is helping America breathe. That's quite a challenge. Wherever air contaminants are produced, we control them. We need technically oriented graduates to de- velop, design and sell the world's most complete line of environmental control equipment. If you're concerned about a future in an in- dustry as vital as life itself, talk with our repre- sentative when he visits the campus. He may help you breathe a little easier. American Air Filter Company, Inc., 215 Central Ave., Louisville, Kentucky 40208. An equal opportunity employer. merican Air Liter BETTER AIR Is OUR BU SINE SS Welcome to the Effluent Society Want to help us do something about it? AAF representative will be on campus January 26,1970 ' * American Studies Film Series WEDNESDAY ONLY : :