Page Two
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Sunday} November 22, 1970
1
Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Sunday, November 22, 1 97Q4
music
i
'Directions
of the moment
TONITE-ONE NIGHT ONLY!
ACADEMY AWARD
By JOE PEHRSON
The second concerti of the
Contemporary Directions series
was presented last night in
Rackham Aud. The program,
for the most part, was quite
good although temperatures ex-
ceeding the melting threshold
seemed to dampen the enthusi-
asm of the audience.
Upon entering the auditorium
one was greeted by piano rags
which issued from a player
piano behind which William Al-
bright, the ghost for this me-
chanism, was seated.
Note for aspiring creators-
a friend of mine has suggested
that a player piano be arranged
so that each key, when depress-
ed, will illuminate. This on a
darkened stage would produce a
respect for the mechanical pro-
cess that was missing in this
performance. One has to be able
to see the keys in motion-a
definite part of the interest.
The first piece on the pro-
gram was "From the Steeple and
the Mountains" by Charles
Ives. C h i m e s were placed
throughout the audience, pro-
ducing an ethereal effect. To
contrast toethis, Ives has de-
signed brass parts which rise
over this general mist of sound.
(Reminiscent, in some ways, of
"The Unanswered Question.")
Unfortunately, some of the en-
trances were imprecise - the
brass performers were certainly
not as together as they might
have been. The piece, despite
this performance flaw, was still
quite beautiful.
I finally understand "Animus
I-for Trombone and Electronic
Tape" by Jacob Drickman. The
attitude of this piece may be
summed up in one gesture of
the performer on stage: At one
point in the piece, the trom-
bonist disrespectfully throws
one of the mutes he is using to
the floor and leaves.
This probably should be the
attitude of an intelligent mein-
ber of the audience. At any rate,
this piece successfully evokes a
total "camp" or "off the cuff"
(something like that) lack of
interest. For this consistence,
the piece should receive some
accolade.
Some moments in the tape
were worth mentioning - par-
ticularly the relationship be-
tween various electronic wave-
forms - particularly one saw-
tooth phrase-and mutes avail-
able to the performer. So much
for this piece.
"Remembrances", by J oh n
Hawkins, is not really too co-
herent. Russell Peck's perform-
ancs greatly outweighed the in-
terest any of the other per-
formers had in what they were
doing.
Most of this piece was cliche:
One instance of this was t he
mass migration of the perform-
ers to the piano at wh i c h
tor at least at the sounding
board of which) sounds were di-
rected. The piano, then, was
left free to resonate. Someone
said this reminded him of a
young boy doing something in
a pond - but I can't quite re-
member what.
Some really great sounds,
though, were produced by harp
glissando. It's too bad some-
one doesn't write a piece for two
hours of this!
Karleinz Stockhausen's "R e -
frain" is an excellent piece. The
performance was fantastic, but
then again with both Russell
Peck and Kurt Carpenter on ce-
leste and piano keyboards, re-
spectively, this was to be expect-
ed. '(Ong of the most precise
and fantastically together p e r-
formances I have heard in a
long time).
Daily Official Bulletin
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22
Day Calendar
Degree Recital: Walter Schwede, vio-
lin, Sch. of Music Recital Hall, 2:30
Degree Recital: Robert Armstrong,
baritone, Sch. of Music Recital Hall,I
4:30 p.m.
Degree Recital: Ronald Green, clari-
net, Sch. of Music Recital Hall, 8 p.m.
(Continued on Page 8)
This is really late Stockhau-
sen. In fact, only a few sections
near the end remind one of his
piano pieces or the particular
Germanic "klang" or "Momen-
te"
In this piece, Stockhausen fo-
cuses attention on the sounds
themselves and while the attack
is similar to the attack he em-
ploys in some of his earlier
works, the sounds have been giv-
en plenty of space in which they
may be heard. Fantastically ab-
stract Stockhausen - separate
sounds punctuated by occasional
enthusiastic grunts from the
performers.
The orchestration also should
be mentioned. Stockhausen is
working in a range of sound
between vibraphone, piano, and
celeste - all percussive sounds,
but each with separate charac-
teristics. These relationships are
explored fully.
I don't feel like mentioning
much about the Hiller piece "An
Avalanche." This is a theatre
piece in which everything and
nothing is happening. It' uses
the cliche of cultural commen-
tatorm (in the guise of political
speaker) and various soprano
antics. Some of the spacial mo-
tions were nice, and the piece
was sort of fun to watch, but it
seemed like this had been seen
before.
Now to one of the most beau-
tiful pieces ever to be heard
anywhere. Beatific, I believe
Cage would call this type of
experience, and this was his
piece-"String Quartet in Four
Parts."
One of Cage's avocations is
mycology, the study of the
mushroom. Various mushrooms
were projected on a screen above
the performers, and Cage's par-
tially oriental sound set the_
atmosphere-an atmosphere of
calm and reflection, for the ob-
servation of these really beau-
tiful natural objects.
Cage understands the climax
of everything. When one sees
the world as all climax, there is
no climax.
Cage has no climax, but cre-
ates really beautiful music, and
the appreciation of a moment.
I can't speak for the rest of the
audience, but this music made
me really happy.
(And there seems to be little
of more Importance).
JOSEPH
MIKE NI(
LAWREN
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WINNER
BEST DIRECTOR-MIKE NICHOLS
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CJQ is good news'
By CLIFF SLOA NE
While I was selling tickets to
last night's Contemporary Jazz.
Quintet (CJQ) concert-which
was quite good-a couple of days
ago, someone approached me
and declared that jazz was dead,
y and the clubs as profit seeking
exploiters, have killed it. He
cited examples - Birdland and
the Gate in New York and many
clubs in his hometown of Bos-
ton.
This troubled me greatly, es-
pecially when I realized that not
only clubs but also record com-
panies are guilty of this im-
pending manslaughter. Witness
Blue Note and its disastrous
promotional campaign (lack of
it is more like it) of the CJQ's
two records. Even the musician's
unions are riddled with bossism
and prodigious greed, as Nat
Hentoff has observed in his ar-
ticles and books on jazz.
In retaliation to this, a group
of musicians, artists, and dj's
have organized and taken the
power out of the hands of the
agents, saloon owners and entre-
preneurs.
Led by Charles Moore, Kenny
Cox and their Contemporary
Jazz Quintet, the - Strata Cor-
poration has been formed-and
their reputation has spread like
wildfire throughout the music
world. Theirs is an organization
that gives the artist complete
freedom, unhampered by record-
ing deadlines or profit consider-
ations.
Herbie Hancock's sextet will
be appearing at their concert
gallery from Nov. 30 to Dec. 2,
showing that New York had
heard the "good news," so to
speak.)
We can only hope that such
cooperative ventures will ap-
pear elsewhere. Which brings to
mind another serious point.
As last night's concert proved
to an enthusiastic crowd of
about 600, good jazz is by no
means limited to New York.
Why then is all jazz pre-
judged as bad if it doesn't come
from New York? Why do so
many musicians flock there in
the first place? Strata is an im-
portant step towards decentral-
izing jazz. After all, jazz is being
victimized to barbarous extents,
so why stay there?
About the concert itself: They
were really great! Although the
sound was a bit muddy, it was
good enough to show the audi-
ence what their music was all
about.
Their feeling of ensemble
playing and the incredible co-
hesivness more than made up
for a slight deficiency in tech-
nical proficiency (after all, a
machine can play fast, too).
Characterizing their music re-
pudiates their individuality as
musicians, and denies the group
their identity. They all worked
quite well together-Drummer
Archie Taylor was a little slow
in picking up his cues, but this
is because he has only been with
the group a few months-yet
maintained the freedom that is
essential to modern jazz. All in
all, it was an extremely reward-
ing concert, both in terms of
their music and the fantastic
attendance.
At the end of the second set,
pianist Kenny Cox said, "We're
not Miles Davis, or Herbie Han-
cock," at which point, someone
yelled out, "You're great!"
Which sums it all up quite well
.
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