Tuesday, September 11, 1973 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Five Blue Good By ROY CHERNUS Ann Arbor has been well known for some time now due to its ex- ports ranging from models of political-social progressiveness to Ann Arbor Film Festivals. The Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Fes- tival is the latest exponent in this local tradition, but its road of good intentions this year led unfortunately to failure. Countercultural bastion J o h n Sinclair has played a leading role in the city's 'export" business, primarily in the political-social realm. He gradually assumed mes- sianic leadership on the aesthetic end with the production of an- nual Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festivals, free concerts, coordin- ation and direction of recordings of these events, and promotion of local artists. All this is now handled by his Rainbow Multi- Media organization. Rainbow has produced an ad- mirable cultural precedent with the festivals, particularly . this year's. This is the first occasion in which a music festival has been broadcast live, and over 33 states. The mere sustenance of an annual community festival , hovering around the 20,000 mark (as opposed to the usual one-shot extravaganzas) is itself a formid- able undertaking. Sinclair's aesthetic motives un- derlying most of the five con- certs' programming were s i n- cere: to provide premiere ex- posure of young unknowns and rediscovery of old forgotten ar- tists with opportunities for re- cording and radio promotion in the process. and Jazz Festival: intentions go A R T A special segment of the fes- tival was laudably devoted to re- gional pride in indigenous De- troit-area artists. This comple- mented the recent Detroit Belle Isle Blues Festival in promoting community cultural activity and appreciation which the common commercial concerts can't pos- sibly do. But all in all, it didn't work. The wonderful idealism was mar- red by many things, not t h e least of which was the indis- criminate programming in pure- ly musical terms. The "Blues and Jazz" billing of the festival was misleading, for the amount of jazz presented was pitifully small. The blues medium demands in- strumental and vocal emotional eloquence to breathe life and im- mediacy into its simple chord structures. But the eloquence was lacking as I often found it near- ly imposible to sit through inter- minably long and boring blues sets. Incompetence would run for 20 minutes at a time with contriw ed vocal haranguing - trite ef- forts that never got the message across. Especially deplorable were the futile eforts of Jimmy Reed's band to do a set without him. Yet they fared no better when he finally arrived. ' It was Walter Horton whom I heard alone speak honestly for the blues with some stunningly virtuoso harmonica playing and sympathetic accompaniment. Those I was most excited to hear, Ray Charles and contem- porary composer-musicians Char- les Mingus and Ornette Coleman, turned out performances which ranged from mild to bitterly dis- appointing. At fault was the terrible sound system adjustments which caused Charles to stop more than a few times during his set. Still, he came out the least scathed by the poor acoustic environment with his superb array of big band mu- sicians in a set consistently pol- ished yet upbeat. Mingus' group, to be properly savored, should never be heard to begin with in any place hold- ing more than 50 people. He al- most single-handedly revolution- -ized the function of bass in jazz from plodding, static rhythms like a huge metronome restricted to the "proper" roots of conven- tional chord progressions to a dynamic percussive-melodic func- tion in new forms of composi- tion. Alas the poor amplification of his bass produced none of the requisite clarity or balance for full appreciation of Mingus' com- positions and ensemble. In Coleman's case, the let- down was more of his own f hult. Even with a sextet of some of the most prominent avant - garde jazz players in this country, his set didn't click like his albums have done. The best moments were his and Dewey Redman's raucous, soaring sax solos of angular nusi- 4:00 4 Movie "Drive Hard, Drive Fast" (1969) 9 Dews 56 Nine Symphonies By Whom? 9:30 2 Movie "Coffee, Tea or Me?" (1972)_ 9 it's a Musical World 10:00 7 Marcus Welby, M.D. 9 Ascent of Man 50 Perry Mason 56 Detroit Black Journal 10:30 56 Jerry 11:00 2 4 7 News 9 CBC News 50 One Step Beyond 11:30 2 Movie "The Capetown Affair." (1966) 4 Johnny Carson 7 James Garner at the - California 500 9 News 50 Movie "British Intelligence" (1940) 12:00 9 Movie "Virgin Island" (English 1958) 1:00 4 7 News 1:30 2 Movie "Mambo" (Italian; 1954) 30 Newsspr wcbn 7 Morning Show 9 Rock 12 Progressive 3 Folk/Rock/Progressive 6 News/Sports 6:30 Talkback with Lee Gill--phone In 7:30 Jazz/Blues 11 Progressive cal lines backed up by Jines Ulmer's complex chordal chops in fascinating counter-rhythm on guitar. But the percussion was mostly anoying with no deviation from fast and furious banging A'r extended periods of time. The muddy reproduction of Charlie Haden's astonishing teca- nical bass work, an integral rhy- thmic and harmonic keystone of the ensemble's music, didn't help the sound either. wrong From what I heard on the ra- dio, the broadcast sound was far superior to the live product. Be-j sides, there were interesting air- ed interviews and commentaries by musicians and festival work- ers. I would encourage everyone seriously interested in blues and jazz, and not just in having "a real good time" as advertised, to stay home next year. IA Fall Term U of M STUDENTS! Buy USED TEXTBOOKS COME AND MEET US ANN ARBOR CIVIC THEATRE MASS MEETINGS-SEPT. 10-14 201 MULHOLLAND (off WI Washington' SEPT. 10 7:30-10:00 P.M.-PUBLICITY, BOX C FICE, USHERS, MEMBERSHIP AND NC SHOW ACTIVITIES SEPT. 11 7:30-10:00 P.M.-SET CONSTRUCTIO PAINTING AND DESIGN, LIGHTS A SOUND SEPT. 12 7:30-DOORS OPEN 8:00-ACTING 8:30-DIRECTING 9:00-WORKSHOPS AND ONE ACT PRODUCTIONS 9:30--STAGE MANAGEMENT SEPT. 13 7:30-DOORS OPEN 8:00-PROPS 8:30-COSTUMES AND MAKE-UP SEPT. 14 7:30-9:00 P.M.-OPEN HOUSE SAVE UP TO 33'/3 0 /0 AT SOLLETT'S State Street at North U. Check our new book prices, too! J If you were unable to come earlier in the week please come tonight. Members will be on hand to answer all your questions about community theatre. I NEW WORLD FILM COOP-Presents- | |'||| | || || | | OF- )N- ON, * IN KURT VONNEGUT'S * SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE Winner 1972 Cannes Film Festival-Jury prize and award. "One of the most daring, original, and tota11y fascinating pictures ever made." -Rex Reed SHORT: Lenny Bruce in THANK YOU MASK MAN, the erotic, animated adventures of the Lone. Ranger and his close, close friend Tonto, TUES., WED., & THURS. ONLY Sept. 1 1, 12, & 13 7:30 and 9:45 P.M. (Tues.-Natural Science Aud., Wed. & Thurs.-Modprn Lanquaqes Aud. 3) This bizarre rendition of the Lewis Carroll classic, patterned after the Tenniel drawings, features such intriguing casting as Gary Cooper as The White Knight,' Cary Grant as the Mock Turtle, Edward Everett Horton as the Mad Hatter, and Jack Oakie and Rosco Karns as Tweedle- dum and Tweedledee. W.C. Fields plays Humpty-Dumpty, and delivers superb in-character readings of author's nonsense verse. WED. & THURS. ONLY, Sept. 12 & 13 7:30 and 9:45 P.M. (Wed.-Natural ScienceAud., Thurs.-Modern Languages Aud.) ALICE can be seen as a double-feature with SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE at the usual 50c discount. ALICE IN WONDERLAND NEXT WEEK DON'T MISS SATYRICON & BILLY JACK Dclv Photo by KEN FINK Luther Allison at festival Dial 662- 6264 231 S. State IF NOW SHOWING! Open 12:45 Ali ATE, Shows at 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 P.M. Feature 15 minutes later "Will make you The DictorsComp.nypr*c*s n feel good ollover" --ShouitNBC-TV GPM"' 111.3t. Please make these corrections on your New World Schedule-Billy Jack formist replaces Strawberry Statement.-thank you. replaces the Conformist, Play It As It Lays replaces Billy Jack, The Con- _-_ _ ____ _ ___--_ ;1 _____ - - , _________ *--------------~-- -* - ~ ------_______ -----*-*-----* -*-------~--*------- _____________________________ mIT DR S te' { 1 A PROGRAM OF JEWISH STUDIES FALL '73 COURSE SCHEDULE Two Mike Nichols Hits Together for the first time tonight 6:00 24 7 News 9 Andy Griffith 56 Zoom 50 Gilligan's Island 6:30 2 CBS News 4 NBC News 7 ABC News 9 1 Dream of Jeannie 50 Hogan's Heroes 56 How Do Your Children Grow? 7:00 2 Truth or Consequences 4 News 7 To Tell the Truth 9 Beverly Hillbillies 50 Mission Impossible 56 French Chef 7:30 2 What's My Line? 4 Bo Schembechler Debut 7 New Price Is Right 9 Bewitched 56 Investing in Stock Market 8:00 2 Maude 4 America 7 Furst Family of Washington 9 Telescope 56 Evening at Pops 50 Night Gallery 8:30 2 Hawaii Five-O 7 Movie "Deliver Us From Evil" 9 Woods and Wheels 50 Merv Griffin 1- I I Jo LA JosephELevine presents a Mike Nihols Fim CarnalKnowledge Panavision-Technicolor* An Ave* Embassy Pcture OSEPH E. LEViNE A p usecsa / MIKE NICHOLS AWRENCE TURMAN 4A ' A+ i' TECHNICOLOR PANAV SION An Avco Embassy Release.A ACADEMY AWARD WINNER BEST DIRECTOR MIKE NICH4OLS Ali L- - NOW SHOWING SOON: CLOCKWORK ORANGE 1214 S. University Dial 668-6416 For Show Times Hebrew for Beginners Intermediate Hebrew Hebrew Speaking Club Basic Judiasm I Basic Judiasm II1 Prophets Hassidism Modern Jewish Philosophy Modern Jewish History The Holocaust- ght Visions Yiddish Literature Kafka and the Fall of Man Famous Jewish Trials The Role of Women III II the zaney MARX BRTR ROOM SERVICE in Judiasm Groucho as a Broadway tries to get out of paying bill TO"JIGHT: 7 S°30 producer, his hotel Politics and Government in Modern Israel 5' 10:00 i ill