Page Two

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

Saturday, October 9, 1971

PageTwoTHEMICHGANDAIY Saurdy, ctobr 9 97


Van Morrisonand The Band:
Alliance which gets it together

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THE ALLEY
330 MAYNARD
TONIGHT
SATURDAY-SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9, 10

By HERB BOWIE
Cahoots-The Band (Capitol SMAS 651)
Somehow, it just doesn't seem
fair. I mean, the Rolling Stones
have Mike Jagger, The Faces
have Rod Stewart; why should
the The Band have to make do
with the reincarnation of Gen-
eral Lee's horse?
The Band is the greatest rock
and roll band in the world. To
believe anything else is as ab-
surd as believing that Dylan al-
ways sounded like Johnny Cash's
grandmother. They make the
Rolling Stones, their nearest
competitors, sound like the win-
ners of the local Battle of the
Bands. Which is only natural,
since, for the last ten years,
while Keith Richards has been
having his ears pierced, and
Jagger has been flexing his lips,
and Charlie Watts and Billy
Wyman have been picking each
other's noses, the Band has been
playing its collective tushie off
and getting together a sound so
tight, yet so rich and complex,

that not even the fame associa-
ted with being Dylan's back-up
band could touch it. In that
case, then, why is it that I listen
to Let It Bleed about ten times
as much as I do Stage Fright?
And why was it that God did
smite down his faithful servant
Job and bring mighty affliction
unto his household? He works
in strange and mysterious ways.
The Band is unique in Rock
in that they are good and yet
don't have a leader. Most groups
consist of one dominant member
who writes and sings, and a
back-up band that serves main-
ly as an extension of the leader,
reinforcing or echoing his per-
formance. Witness the Rolling
Stones in concert: even when
they do take a brief instrumen-
tal break, Jagger remains in
con' rol of the show, dancing,
gesturing, and grimacing to keep
the audience's attention. The
Band. lacking a dominant mem-
ber, developed into an entirely
different sort of group, one in

... images

which the band itself is the ba-
sic organism and its members
merely its constituent parts.
This unity is evident in the vo-
cals which, while always being
immediately recognizable as The
Band's, are less easily disting-
uishable as products of indivi-
duals in the group. Their instru-
mental sound also reflects their
integrity as a group; the musi-
cians never call attention to
themselves as, for example,
Cream's members were con-
stantly striving to do. Instead,
they continuelly interact with
and compliment each other.
What The Band lacks is mem-
bers who can write and sing
well. The trouble withthe songs
and vocals is that they're so pas-
sive. Listen, for example to "Sat-
isfaction" and then to The
Band's "Jemima Surrender."
Both songs are about lust, but,
whereas the Stones express a
desperate physical need, The
Band sounds like Jed Clampett
serenading Granny. The trouble
is that, no matter how good the
instrumentation on a cut is, it
can onld reinforce emotions ex-
pressed by the singer, not add to
them, so that even though The
Band generally takes a song as
far as it will go, it's usually just
not enough to make the cut very
distinctive. The result is that
most of their tracks, and conse-
quently their albums, end up
sounding pretty similar. Which
brings us to Cahoots, The
Band's latest release.
I'm beginning to wonder whe-
ther The Band is a rock group
or a recycling center for old
songs. The LP opens with "Life
is a Carnival," the all-new-for-
1971 version of "W. S. Walcott
Medicine Show," and continues
in much the same manner. Only
two cuts stand out enough to be
noteworthy.
"The River Hymn" is signi-
ficant because it is quintessen-
tial Band. They are able to pull
it off mainly because the song
calls for precisely the kind of
sterilely spiritual vocal that they
have available in great abun-
dance. The song produces a
mood of peaceful acceptance
that makes McCartney's "Let It
Be" sound like the glib crap it
is, even though it glacks a mel-
ody as classic as Paul's. oYu see,
whereas McCartney acquired his
Mother Mary at Woolworth's
and gives it an honored place
on the dashboard of his Rolls-
Royce, where it'll be handy in
case he gets a traffic ticket,
The Band's river is a little less
accessible and its powers are not
quite as extensive.
It's dark and wide and deep,
towards the sea it creeps
I'm so glad I brought along
my mandolin
To play the river hymn ...
You can ride on it or drink it
Poison it or dam it
Fish in it and wash in it
Swim in it and you can die in
it, run you river, run
"4 Per Cent Pantomime" dem-
onstrates just how good The
Band could be if they had some-
one who could write and sing as
well as they can play. The song
is penned by Robertson and Van
Morrison, and both Morrison
and Richard Manuel sing on it.
The song itself is pretty good,
but what really clinches it is
Morrison's great vocal. Even
though Morrison only co-wrote
the song and only sings half of
it, he dominates the cut by the
sheer strength of his perform-
ance. About halfway through
the song The Band begins to get
the idea and starts to really
cook. By the end of the track
they've reached an intensity
that they've never achieved be-
fore on record.

DR. ROSS

2 SHOWS N IGHTLY-7:30-10:00
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OCT. 22, 23, 24-JIMMY REED
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Pinball Alley in the Basement

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COMMISSION...AND 12 RULINGS BY THE SUPREME
COURT TO ALLOW YOU, A CONSENTING
AIIT T8 SEE THIS MUTION PICTURE. .

-Daily-Jim Judkis
Blast these late concerts! It's getting to be so a body can't review a decent concert, but again The
Daily apologizes to its readers for not running the B. B. King-Howling Wolf review the night of
the concert. Will the picture do? We promise faithfully that in Sunday's paper, there will be a
review.
carrigle and Dawvson:
Dispellting the. stereot/ype

Lightin'
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-Daily-Sara Krulwich

Unquestionably Joe
Henderson:* Superb
By DENNIS DAVIS
Joe Henderson, former Detroiter and one of the key innova-
tors of progressive tenor saxaphone, returned to Detroit with a
very creative unit including Kiani Zalwaldi-trombone, Pete Yel-
lin-bass clarinet, Carl Schroeder-piano, Leon Chancellor "En-
dugu"-drums, and Stan Clark-bass.
I was fortunate enough to catch Joe's set which was unques-
tionably Joe Henderson, meaning superb. The creativity of the
unit was highly commendable, set off by dynamic themes and cap-
ped off with multi-directional free form. After a few numbers, I
was given the opportuniity to interview Joe's wife Anita, who could
be the reason that Joe plays as he does!
Joe Henderson is a very "NOW" musician who believes in
"music", and feels that things like critic's reviews to denote ratings
are quite irrelevant. Joe plays exactly what he feels, and he
creates -for the people, and not the critics.
When asked the notorious question of whether jazz was dead
or not he replied: "Jaz is dead to those who define it within a defi-
nite realm, and some how if what is within this realm progresses,
degresses, or becomes infiltrated, then their definition of jass is
dead. This may account for why the term "music" remains fore-
most in Joe's mind.
His wife told me about a date they did in San Francisco in
late August of this year with Carlos Santana. New derivitives in
sound possibly? The Joe Henderson group is due back at Strata in
December. Incidentally Strata is one of the few places in Detroit
which offers real progressive jazz. Real music lovers everywhere
should plan to attend the Strata Concert, not only when Hender-
son comes back in December, but often!

By ABBY MILLER
If there was a person who went
to the Ark last night with stereo-
typic ideas of what folk or tra-
ditional music is, that person had
any such notions quickly dis-
pelled. Kate McGarrigle and
Smoke Dawson offered a smor-
gasbord of Peoples' music from
around the world.
George "Smoke" D a w s o n
comes from San Francisco and
likes to think of himself as a
street singer in the old tradition
of a wandering minstrel. Orig-
inally mostly a fiddle player, he
has now learned to play the
pipes, as well as a variety of
other instruments. Last night he
played both the Portugese pipes
and Scottish warpipes. Kate
comes from Montreal. Her in-
fluences h a v e been l a r g e l'y
French Canadian traditional mu-
sic and cabaret.
They began the evening with
a dramatic entrance down the
large staircase playing the high-
land pipes and fiddle, with Kate
on the fiddle. A good part of the
first set was devoted to fiddle
music-from Irish fiddle tunes to
the marching song of the Peo-
ples' Socialist Party of Italy,
from almost doleful tunes to
rousing, foot stomping ones.
Kate and Smoke performed as
a team and separately. During
the first set, Kate took to the
piano, at which she seems more
comfortable than with the fid-
dle, to accompany herself to her
own songs. Her voice is perhaps
best described by Smoke-"like
crushed diamonds." It has a
strange quality that combines
both control and unrestraint. Her
songs are very rhythmic, with a
moving beat and lyrics that tiow
with the rhythm. Her new song
about the "Old State of New
York" is a beautiful statement
of going on the road and what

the places left behind and passed
through mean.
Smoke is very direct, willing to
expound at length on the subject
of music and street singing-or
about anything, for that matter.
At one point he began to de-
scribe the fiddle bow in "meta-
physical terms"-wood from two
trees on the opposite ends of the
world, a part of a clam, hair
from a horse, rosin from the sap
of a tree, silver, a part from a
whale or elephant. Kate is more
evasive. She's not shy, but iaint-
ly mysterious as is her quick,
charming smile.
Aside from bagpipes, fiddle
(especially fine on Smoke's part)
and Kate's piano, they play a
variety of other instruments.
Smoke plays American country
music on the banjo. On penny-
whistles, recorder and English
button accordian they play evaay-
thing from French Canadian to
Irish and Italian music.
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through Saturday morning. Subscrip-
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With the variety of music, it
was difficult to establish a mood
for the evening. But if there was
one mood, it was one of interest
and enjoyment. There wasn't any
audience participation, but there
was a subtle interplay between
the performers and the audi-
ence who had come because of
their interest in the music.
M 1-% A~
DIAL 8-6416
MEET GINGER
Her weapon is<
her body... She
can cut you, kill
you or cure you!
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TIME MAGAZINE-."AUG.
SHOW BUSINESS
DireCtor in a Caftan
A BBC current affairs show flickers onto
British TV screens. The moderator intro-
duces Ken Russell, director of The Devils,
and Alexander Walker, film critic of the
London Evening Standard. Crikey! another
of those urbanely boring panel discussions.
But wait. Russell and Walkerare turning
red in the face, shouting at each other.
Walker attack.s The Devils for "monstrous
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rolls up a copy of the newspaper contain-
ing Walker's review and swats him on the
head with it.
A rather excessive way for a director to
reply to his critics? Perhaps. But then every-
thing about Ken Russell is excessive, from
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Especially not when he makes his movies.
In 1970 there was D.H. Lawrence's Women

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ARBORLAND-U.S. 23

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Simhat Torah Hakafot

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