Page two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Thursday, October 22, 1970 I~age rwo THE MICHIGAN DAILY Thursday, October 22, 1970 music letters hMiller Blues: Smooth --committed Rehashing Doc Ross By FARGO BERMAN , and DANIEL ZWERDLING Talking for 45 minutes with the members of a top blues band which zips across the country three times in two weeks and makes at least $7500 a gig is like talking for 45 min- utes with anyone else who's human and has to avoid the draft and has to make a living. Here's the catch: Steve Miller paid $25,000 last year in federal income tax, which is to say he's a 27 year old who's rolling in big rock money; the other three nieibers of the Steve Miller's Blues Band are in their early twenties and are also making a bundle of money; and their job, making music, happens to be just not an vocation but a whole life style.. They're normal just like you and us, except they're not. We don't run out a few times each week 'onto a gigantic stage in a flood of spotlights with a mass of 10.000 high-paying demand- ing people scrutinizing us and. ready to either idolize us with applause and screams or turn off their love lights and sit re- senting us; cold. But Steve Mil- ler and his group don't play themselves as superstars; they're four guys who live committed to their music, are lucky to have made the bigtime; and now have adjusted their lifestyles to fit the big concert circuit medium of making music. Miller has made five popular records in the past several years, but he's been playing only since August with tonight's group: Bob Winkelman, rhythm guitar, Ross Valory, bass, and Jack King, drums -they all sing - Miller himself takes lead guitar and vocals. Last week the group hit San Antonio, Texas, before that Nashville, New York, Mass- achusetts and San Francisco. Four months out of every year on the road: strings of Holiday Inn plastic wonderlands, vari- able quality burgers, living for the two or three nights when they can let loose and blast a basketball arena (or the Fill- more East and West?) with their unique blend of blues. Miller's blues isn't the blues you'd expect, not like Paul But- terfield, not black urban or delta by any means. Miller travels with tapes of the Beatles, the Cream, James Brown, Can- nonball Adderly and Herbert von Karajan, but the group writes most of its own music. It emphasizes a close blend of voices and instruments, a tight sound that never lets loose with one guitar or one voice driving on its own musical orgasms. Steve Miller Blues strives for a smooth afterglow effect: brings you up, floats on an even plateau, but doesn't shoot you up, then wrench you down, play with your moods. That's t h e Miller Blues Band on records; Miller himself says the group has a long way to go in the studio. "We let loose at the concerts," he says. "In the studio wa try to make the re- cords as perfect.. as possible. They're so smooth because we're working on a whole lot of things at the same time, each instru- ment, every amp, the h ° a d- phones. In a concert we step out a lot more, take more chances -the music is there and then it's gone, so it's a lot more spon- tanaous," Miller's band works out about two and a half hours before every concert. It takes that long for them to feel settled elec- tronically, and absorb t h e m- selves totally in the music. "On the road we're always rehear- sing, composing, working over songs," says Miller. Just before the interview the band wrote two new songs. We're always changing," Miller says. "Otherwise, I'd go insane." To the Daily: We would like to register our outrage with Bert Stratton's review of the Doctor Ross Con- cert. We find Stratton's use of the phrase "corny, hick black-' man" to describe Doctor R o s s particularly o f f e n s i v e and smacking of the ugliest kind of elitism. We can't understand why anyone, after h e a r i n g' Doc's killer set and his incred- ibly sophisticated harp playing, could refer to him as a "corny, hick blackman." Doctor Ross, along with such other "corny, hick blackmen" like Howling Wolf, Muddy Wat- ers, Willie Dixon, and Son House (to mention but a few) have been supplying white bands with material for years. Doc's own tune "Cat Squirrel" w a s ripped off by the Cream with- out even crediting him for it, much' less sending some cash his way. Because of economic consider- ations Doctor Ross was forced to quit playing and work in the Chevrolet Metal Fabrication plant in Flint. We've been to his home in the center of Flint's ghetto and he doesn't even own a record player (much less a tape deck) to listen to his new album. Beneath that "corny, hick" exterior is a man who has paid some pretty incredible duis. Perhaps the term "hick" w a s not meant in a derogatory sense. Perhaps the reviewer is just used to the music of more "sophisticated" blackmen. (Doc, by the way, taught Ike Turner how to play the guitar). Whatever, Doctor Ross was overjoyed with being able to play in front of a college aud- ience and claimed he had "the best time since I was in Europe." We just hope he never sees Stratton's review. -Karl Pohrt Dick Pohrt Marian Krzyzowski DIAL 8-6416 KEN RUSSELL'S film of D. H.LARENCE'S IN LOVE" COLOR by DeuXe Uintd Artists and THE ACADEMY AWAND WINNER! "BEST PICTURE"I --COMING - - BERGMAN'S "PASSION OF ANNA" BOOK SALE EVERYTHING IN STORE REDUCED 20% OFF LIST ON NEW 50% OFF LIST ON USED Come in and browse. Get required books for the rest of the term Sale lasts untI October 23 STUDENT £OOK SR/VCG 1215 S. UNIVERSITY National General Theatres MON.-FRI. Shown7 FO5-VILL05, VI~c~riSAT. -SUN. 375No. MAPLE RD.-769130 i 5:20-7:15-9:00 "A SHOCKED1." FASCINATING!" New York Daily News THI IS1 THE DAWNING OF THE AGE OF THE FORBI PROJECT" GP A UNIVERSAL PICTURE' IECHNCOLOR PANAVISION* Thurs.-Fri., Oct. 22-23 LOWER DEPTHS dir. AKIRA KUROSAWA U(952) Kurosawa's masterful treatment of Gorki's novel. From the tenement dregs of life comes some humor, some hope. Starring Toshiro Mifune. SAT.-SUN.: Fellini's White Sheik 7 & 9:05 ARCH ITECTURE 662-8871 AUDITORIUM \ i A choral fantasia By J. P. MILLER Thursday and Saturday nights, the ninety singers who make up the Small Chorus of the Choral Union spread University fame in a performance of the Beethoven Choral Fantasy with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. In an excellent program consisting of a pianist--Evelyne Crochet, and the first chair violist of the Symphony. Nathan Gordon, as soloists, the Small Chorus gave light to one of Beethoven's little known works. The Fantasia for piano, chorus, and orchestra is hardly ever performed-it necessitates the engagement of a pianist for a smaller than average part, and of a chorus for a scant five minutes of a twenty-five minute piece. Never-the-less, the group, under the direction of Dr. Donald Bryant, performed well-managing to fill Ford Aud., a concert hall having a reputation of being similar to a barn. Gordon gave an exceptional performance of the Concerto in B minor for Viola and Orchestra, a work attributed to Handel. Both the technique and feeling he employed in the work supported the reputation he has established. Notably in the Andante movement, he made full use of'the viola as the most melancholy instrument of a modern orchestra. Crochet, new as a soloist to both this country and the Detroit Symphony, gave a technically brilliant, although sloppy perform- ance of this Fantasy in the form of a Concerto. Combining the typically Beethoven-ish showy parts, with an interesting theme similar to that in his 9th Symphony, Crochet did very well in keep- ing up the difficult tempo of a fairly demanding work. In many parts her exceptonally clear and precise playing was evident. It was in her many arpeggios, however, that she fell short of the desired accuracy. In the extremely long thrills which are often evident in the piece, she concentrated on clarity to the point of losing emotion. If a fault were to be found with her fervor, it would be in the sacrifice of shading to achieve it. Two other works were performed on the program-the Over- tureto Semiramide by Rossini, and the Symphony in Three Move- ments by Stravinsky. Putting aside the faults normally found in the Symphony's violin section, the Stravinsky was performed well. Sixten *hrling, principal conductor, seems to display contem-, porary themes as his forte. In the haphazard timing found in this work, and many others of Stravinsky, the orchestra was quite precise. In the conflicts resolving into provocative themes which typify the work, the orchestra's melding, achieved through Ehrling's dramatic baton, proved to have an exciting effect. 0. i 't i A The Michigan Daily, edited and man-, agec, by students at the Universitv of Micnigan. News phone: 764-0552. Second Class postage paid at Ann Arbor, Mic- igan, 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor. Michigan 48104. Published daily Tues- day through Sunday morning Univer- sity year. Subscription rates: $10 by carrier, $10 by mai Summer Session published Tuesday through Saturday morning. Subscrip- tion rates: $5. by carrier, $5 bymall. UNDER MILK WOOD (a play for voices) By DYLAN THOMAS BENEFIT FOR OZONE HOUSE Fri. & Sat. Oct. 23 - 24 8:30 $1 :00 Read and Use Daily Classifieds TOMORROW NIGHT ONCE ONLY AT 9:05 P.M. gr r..4 3"I { tis ..iw w. j . A VERY SPECIAL PREVIEW OF A VERY SPECIAL FEATURE IN COLOR PLUS OUR REGULAR FEATURE LATE! i AT THE STATE THEATRE DON'T MISS IT 111I dxl- i :'"i I :": 4 G h : i TONIGHT AT 8:00! FRESH, TRUE-LYRICAL-A GEM -DET. NEWS "t.N 4,' fRI., OCT. 23 PEP RALLY 7:30 P.M. Beta Theta Pi House Old Time Movies 9:00 SAT., OCT. 24 Tug of War-9:00 Mud Bowl-10:00 Diag Dash-11:00 Register in Room 3-A Union by Oct. 22 I STARTS TODAY! ...::.::::. .......... i - - DIAL 662-6264 At State & Liberty Sts. "A staggeringly magnificent film. powerful Must be _______________________________________ i I HOMECOMING 1970 I THE RESTAURANT under new management, is pleased to announce AFTER THEATRE HOURS WE SPECIALIZE IN Charcoal Broiled Steaks and Hamburgers, Fried Chicken, Shish- Kebab, Homemade Soups and Pies, Delicious Rice Pudding. Also try our specialty PIZZA and HOME MADE STONE GROUND BREAD., numbered among the most significant, brutal, liberat- ing and hqnes t American films ever made." ---N.Y. TIMES I OPEN 12:45 Shows at 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 P.M. Feature 20 min. later I "full of 'off-the-pigs' wisecracks" " like notes from an SOS meeting"' "her carefully disintegrating gingham dress flashing a make-love-not-war signal that would melt the ramrod in any soldier's spine . .." .. I DIAL 5-6290 Starting Friday 0 U I IS, QUITE SIMPLY, THE BEST AMERICAN FILM I'VE SEEN TllS YEAR! NY. "IT'S ONE HELL OF A FILM! A COLD, SAVAGE AND CHILLING COMEDY!"-Bruce W'iliemsosn.PLAYBOY CATCH.22' says many things that need to be said again and again! Alan Arkin's perform. ance as Yossarian is great!" -Joseph Morgensterm, NWSWUE AMKENICHOLSFILM ALANARKIN - OPEN 7.30 A.M. to 10 P.M. 338 S. STATE CALL N03-4636 i' . I OPENS TUESDAY ! "an Indian massacre that makes the Cossacks look like a bunch of brownies gathering buttercups. --NEWSWEEK THE MOST SAVAGE FILM IN "Fantastically Funny!" --N.Y. 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