THE MICHIGAN DAILY

Wednesday, October 20, 1971


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University organ conference ...
. ..Amass of music

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raduate students in the department of journalism, each week simulate a 20-minute news program which is shown on the department's
osed circuit'television channel. The programs are part of a workshop in radio and television.

lendrix: saving the best for

last

By HERB BOWIE
NBOW BRIDGE - Jimi Hen-
ix (Reprise MS 2040)
tainbo'w Bridge is enough to
ke you cry. Not while you're
ening to it, but after the last'
ains of "Hey Baby" have
led out and the only noise left
the sound of your record
anger clicking off and you
,lize that-- that's it. You
1 never be able to hear ano-
r new Hendrix album again,
ause Jimi has shut himself
for good.
prom the very first "Exper-
ce" records it was clear that
ndrix was a whiz at making
-k albums. His songs, gener-
y consisting of only t h r e e
truments with a minimum of
r-dubs, were deceptively sim-
only the superfluous had
n eliminated. What was left
s Noe Reding's solid bis s,
tch Mitchell's rapid-fire
mming and most of all, Hen-
x's concise yet brilliantly in-
vative guitar work.
endrix's early work was far
m perfect, however; there
s a sort of tortured psyche-
ia that marred his virtuous
formances" His problems were
st obvious in his' lyrics. It
sn't that he couldn't write -
abilities more than met the
mpy demands of hard rock-
just that his songs were al-
ys highly egotistical a n d
nded crazy as well. He seem-
to alternate betweenimpu-
~t lines like "If the sun re-
e to shine/ I don't mind, I
n't mind"and lyrics like
astles made of sand, fall in
sea, eventually" that some-
es revealed his fears a n d
aknesses so frankly that you
re embarrassed to listen. His
livery of these lines c o m-
unded his troubles: even
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though he was only barely com-
petent as a singer, he often en-
gaged in such wild improvisa-
tional flights as "Aw, shucks."
After the Experience disband-
ed. Jimi's sound mellowed a lit-
tle and grew more complex, but
it lost the urgency that h a d
characterized his previous work.
His Band of Gypsys LP seem-
ed to be more of an elaborate
exercise than a serious artistic
effort. The emotions that had
formerly made him hump and
burn his guitar were finally in
check, but he hadn't yet found
anything to replace them.
His next album was even
worse. Hendrix might have
though it was a cry of love, but
it sounded more like a bored
sigh tosbe. Even though it was
his most complex album, often
employing three guitar tracks,
it was also his most sterile. The
abundant guitar work all seem-
edr pretty aimless, generally
serving only to bury the v o c al
and conceal Jimi's mediocrity.
The result was that all the cuts
sounded pretty much alike.
After such a disappointing
track record, I wasn't really eag-
er to hear Rainbow Bridge. I
knew Hendrix could make great
records:- his treatment of Dy-
lan's "All Along the Watchtow-
er," for example, is an absolute
masterpiece, surely one of the
best cuts ever recorded by a rock
artist. On the other hand, I
twas beginning to doubt whe-
ther he ever would make a re-
cord commensurate with his tal-
ents. He finally has. Rainbow
Bridge is a knock-out from be-
ginning' to end.
At last there is an entire re-
cord on which Hendrix per-

forms, not as a rambling psy-
chotic or a mere guitar virtuoso,
but as an auteur in full com-
mand of his art. Hendrix plays
here with a looseness and con-
fidence he has never shown be-
fore. On his earlier stuff he
either hurried through a song,
only using his guitar to fill in
the obvious cracks, or used the
song as a mere framework to
improvise on. On Rainbow
Bridge he lingers over each song.
carefully adding guitar tracks
until the song is completely ful-
filled.
The one exception to this
good taste is "Hear My Train A
Comin'," a nine minute live cut
that showcases Hendrix's tal-
ents. It's too bad that Ji m i
couldn't have pared the s o n g
down in the studio and added
another cut to the album, but
it's far from filler as it is. All
of the guitar is relevant to the
song; it's just that much of it
is redundant. He could h a v e
shaved off four minutes with-
out reducing its intensity at all.
Hendrix's lyrics, as well as his
playing, have changed for t h e
better. He explains the change
best himself in "Room Full of
Mirrors:"
I used to live in a room full
of mirrors.
All I could see was me.
I took my spirit and crashed
the mirrors.
Nowrthe whole world is here
for me to see.
And I'm searching for my love
to be.
The words to some of the songs
approach banality, but they at
least steer far away from insan-
ity. Anyway, even when Jimi's

lyrics are poor it's almost ir-
relevant because he speaks so
eloquently with his guitar.
The best song on the LP,
"Pali Gap," is just what I've
been waiting for allthese years
-a stunningly beautiful instru-
mental by Hendrix. It is, with-
out a doubt, the best rock in-
strumental ever recorded. It is
not a formless jam, not a battle
between instrumentalists, nor is
it a mere demonstration of Hen-
drix's virtuosity: it is a song
without words. Instead of a
vocal there are notes pouring
from Jimi's fingers in shimmer-
ing cascades. Without uttering a
single syllable, Hendrix clearly
evokes the beauty of a lost word
that the insanity of modern civ-
ilization has missed.
Rainbow Bridge finally estab-
lishes for Hendrix the reputation
that he so richly deserves: that
of a musical giant who has
transcended the strictures of the
idiom he started in to make, not
merely great rock music, but
great music by any standards.
It is Hendrix's first mature
work; it just doesn't seem fair
that it should also be his last.
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 Street, Ann Arbor,
Michigan 48104. Published daily Tues-
day through Sunday morning Univer-
sity year. Subscription rates: $10 by
carrier, $11 by mail.
Summer Session published Tuesday
through Saturday morning. Subscrip-
tion rates: $5 by carrier, $6 by mail.

By DONALD SOSIN
Marilyn Mason offered a pro-
gram of new music for organ,
instruments, voices and tapes
Monday night in Hill Auditorium,
as part of the Eleventh Annual
Conference on Organ Music.
Her interest in contemporary
music has led her not only to
perform new works, but to com-
mission them as well. Monday's
program offered two such pieces.
The first was Ernst Krenek's
Orga-Nastro. Krenek, long a
leading exponent of serial music,'
has turned to experimental de-
vices of late, and this work is
representative. He creates pulses
and distorts them, and alternates
sound blocks between the organ
and tape, sometimes very effec-
tively: at one point a tick-tock
rhythm was established on the
tape and then gradually accele-
rated, Mason having to keep up
with it, while playing on off-
beats. This idea came at just
the right moment, when a change
was needed; the work was con-
sistently interesting, and a tour
de force for Mason.
Even more demanding was
William Albright's Organ Book
1 s. Inthreermovements, the
composer literally pulled out all
the stops.
Night Procession was moody,
with, subtle color changes as
Mason alternated among three
manuals, first in single cotes,
then in descending chromatic
chords. The result was like
watching the shifting patterns
of one of Wilfred's lumia works.
There was so much to attend
to here, with both hands playing
chords and glissandi, and the feet
taking care of constantddynamic
RADICALESBIANS
ARE
REORGANIZING
MEETING WEDNESDAY, OCT. 20
8 P.M., MICHIGAN UNION,
ROOM 332
ALL WOMEN WELCOME-
GAY OR STRAIGHT
New Women Are Especially
Urged to Attend
Daily Classifieds
Bring Results
WEDNESDAY ONLY
CHARLIE
CHAPLIN'S
MODERN
TIMES
Dir. Charles Chaplin, 1936
CHARLIE filghts the es-
tablishment and g e t s
kicked around. A big

machine in his Factory
eats him up. But Charlie's
weapons against modern
times are madness, love
and laughter.

sen
black

coming . . . for HALLOWEEN
sationa3 spectac
k & white '_' "'COLD

Seyes of hell
"In the gruesome division, this one is really very
good."-L.A. TIMES

changes, that an assistant was
necessary to play the pedals and
hold down notes at times.
The Toccata Satanique was
not so much a continually driv-
ing piece as one in improvisatory
fashion, like the old toccatas of
Frescobaldi. In the concluding
movement, Last Rites, a brief
organ introduction was interrupt-
ed by an unearthly, unannounced
scream from a tape, which then
began a series of falling gestures
which gradually lessened in
volume. A soft middle section
then grew slowly into a huge
climax, exploding with a final
bang.
On the first half of the pro-
gram five other works were
heard-four of them for the first
time in Ann Arbor. The most
important was Maurice Durufle's
Messe "Cum Jubilo," for bari-

ular
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tone, men's choir and organ.
Durufle was guest organist and
composer at the conference, and
his organ works were played
Monday afternoon. The masswas
reminiscent of these in its colors.
tonally oriented but with much
chromatic freedom, as is- the
case with the religious works of
his predecessors, Faure, Satie
and Poulenc.
The choir was restricted to a
single-line chant, giving an air
of simplicity complemented by
the chromaticism of the organ
part. There was nothing very
fresh or unusual about the mass,
but it was expressive and satis-
fying to listen. to. The University
Men's Choir sang, under he di-
rection of Maynard Klein, and
Leslie Guinn was the capable
soloist.

DIAL 5-6290
HELD OVER
WARREN
BEAT TY
JULIE
CHRISTIE
McCABE &
MRS. MILLER
PANAV SION @TECHNICOLORS
Next
"DANCE OF DEATH"


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THE ALLEY CINEMA
PRESENTS
TONIGHT-WEDNESDAY, OCT. 20
DIARY OF A
COUNTRY PRIEST
dir. Robert Bresson, 1951.
* Winner of Grande Prix du Cinema Francaise
0 3 major awards at the Venice Film Festival
The films of Bresson are incredibly moving portraits
of gentle beings who quietly endure their intense
and rarely relieved sufferings. The world depicted
by Bresson is stark and seldom compassionate.
". . one of the most profound emotional experi-
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Taylor-Cinema Eye, Cinema Ear

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RESIDENTIAL COLLEGE and H ILLEL FOUNDATION present
DR. YEHUDA BAUER
CHAIRMAN, DEPARTMENT OF HOLOCAUST STUDIES
HEBREW UNIVERSITY, JERUSALEM
speaking on

SL.B N cKE . 0NNNeA
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This Sunday, Oct. 24th