Tuesday, November 13, 1973
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Five
Tuesday, November 13, 1973 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Five
Hedy
4Y
approach
By BILL IRVINE Noticeable inr
Returning to the Ark after is the influenc
nearly a year, folksinger Hedy sic which shes
West gave splendid - and amaz- counterpoint w
ingly eclectic - performances many. She sp
this weekend in her own unique ently and cor
style. sounds of the
Author of the well-known "Five to the soundso
Hundred Miles," West retains a A native of
slight British accent, a souvenir blue-eyed, dar
from a seven-year stay in Eng- phasizes tradit
land. Soft-spoken, West fills her her repertoire,
vocals with subtle inflections, ballads in the
capturing all the shades of emo- versions. She
tion in a song. renditions oft
est takes eclectic
toward
folksong
her singing style
ce of cabaret mu-
studied along with
hile living in Ger-
eaks German flu-
mpares the sharp
German language
of her banjo.
northern Georgia,
k-haired West em-
donal folk music in
especially British
[eir Americanized
delivers powerful
the Child ballads
concerning incest and murder-
"Matty Groves," for instance, a
fine bloody tale of adultery.
In her performance Friday
night, West also sang several
broadsides - songs which first
appeared on popular penny
sheets in the last century. A
member of a folksinging family,
she learned much of her mater-
ial from her grandmother, who
in turn learned them from West's
great - grandmother.
In addition, West picked up
songs from the American labor
movement, now performing some
poirwied songs of coal mining, for
instance. As she gives anecdotes
for these pieces, we learn that
her own father was jailed once
for labor organizing.
West's first big break for a
foiksinging career came when
she had the opportunity to ap-
pear in concert with Pete Seeger
in New York. She received so
little money for singing that See-
ger took pity upon her and gave
her part of his own salary. West
describes Seeger as an import-
ant influence on her music.
In the early '60's, West left the
U. S. for England, where she
studied British folk music and
formal music theory. Seven years
after she returned to the U. S.
to enroll in the music depart-
ment at Berkeley, continuing her
study of music theory.
Having written several songs,
West is currently putting her
knowledge of music theory and
composition to work by writing
-of all things -- chamber mu-
sic. She hopes to soon finish a
piece for a string quartet and
wind trio. Eclectic is certainly
the word for her music.
CULTURE_.AL ENDAR
FILM-Cinema Guild features Bunuel's Viridana in Arch.
Aud. at 7 and 9:05; AA Film Co-op presents Nichol's
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf in Aud. A at 7 and 9:30;
New World Film Co-op shows de Broca's Cartouche in
Aud. 3, MLB at 7:30 and 9:45; Women's Studies Films
presents Joyce at 34 and Bette Tells Her Story in UGLI
Multipurpose Rm. at 7:30.
POETRY-Undergrads read their poetry in Aud. 4, MLB at
4:10.
MUSIC SCHOOL-Maynard Klein conducts the University
Choirs in Hill Aud. at 8.
ART-Residential College Art Faculty Show at the Union
Gallery opens tonight from 8 to 10. Artists include Rita
Messenger-Dibert and Barbara Brodsky.
\\
'
--s
Daily Photo by KAREN KASMAUSKI
A.heavenly experience
The Little Angels, Korea's national folk ballet, perform the Fan Dance 'Sunday afternoon in Power
Center. In a colorful array of costumes the troupe of 30 dancers, age eight to 15, displayed bea!tiful
grace and control as they executed Hye Ta Chang's marvelous choreography.
New Riders, Azteca albums:
'Nothing new under the sun'
By BOB SCHETTER
A listening to two new albums,
The Adventures of Panama Red
by New Riders of the Purple
Sage (Col. KC 32450) and Pyra-
mid of the Moon by Azteca (Col.
32451), may well convince you
that there is nothing new under
the sun. In fact, if these record-
ings are any indication, it may
be that most of the material un-
der the sun is pretty banal.
The New Riders album will be
the most sought after of the two.
A long association with the Grate-
ful Dead and a distinctive, oft-
times tongue-in-cheek, country-
western sound have made the
in' out and hangin' on) the mu-
sic becomes bland and finally
evolves into tedium.
Worse still are the lyrics. Here
the group tries to appeal to the
good life - good dope, kinko sex,
heavy truckin', etc . . . Surely
there are people who can iden-
tify with this kind of life style,
but one always has the suspician
that such identification is Camp.
(Not to mention pretentious.)
It's cool, man, to get into anti-
establishment, best friend's wo-
man fucking, good dope smoking
heroes, but how many honestly
feel or act that way? And coup-
led with the fact that no attempt
this is not to sav that the msic
is up to par with these artists.
The major drawbacks are a defi-
nite monotony of r h y t h m
throughout the first side and
an ability on the part of the
groups vast number of musi-
cians, including brass and wood-
winds, to -blow good "break"
spots.
Essentially the music lacks
drive, except in areas where the
group's Latin background shines
through.
TV
highlights
8 56 Canadian actor Donald Har-
ron stars as "Reddiek," s
young minister whose faith
is tested by a tough gang.
8:30 7 Movie: "The Cowboys." John
Wayne as a rancher drives
cattle across the Southwest
with only raw teenage re-
cruits to help.
9 4 Bob ,Hope special. Spoof of
TV private eyes with Don
Rickles, Redd Foxx, and the
Carpenters.
9:30 56 Men Who Made the Movies.
Documentary on director
Frank Capra.
10 4 "The Blue Knight." In this
spec ialI Willi amnHliden por'-
=rays a tough cop.
11:30 2 Movie: "Heaven with a Gun"
Glenn Ford as a preacher in
this range-war yarn filmed
in Arizona.
7 Invitation to the Royal Wed-
ding. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
previews the wedding of
princess Anne and Mark
Phillips.
50 Movie: "The Amazing Dr.
C'litterhouse." D o c t o r
(Edward G. Robinson) joins
a gang of crooks to study
psysiological effects of crime.
12 9 M o v i e: "Dinosaurus!" A
thriller (:) on prehistoric
monsters.
1:30 2 Movie: "Ritual of Evil." In-
vestigating a wealthy pa-
tient's death, a psychiatrist
(Louis Jordan) encounters
the supernatural.
___
GRADUATE STUDENTS WELCOME
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We Don't Just Cut it!
appointments available _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Dascola Barbers
Arborland-971-9975 TONIGHT -- AUD. A., ANGELL HALL - 7 and 9:30 -$1
Maple Village-761 -2733
East Liberty-668-9329
East University-662-4354
ART S
Ms
GRAD
COFFEE
HOUR
WEDNESDAY
8-10 p.m.
West Conference
Room, 4th Floor
RACKHAM
group popular among certain au-
diences - the "druggies" to be
sure.
But the closest association with
the Dead on Panama Red is a
poor song by Dead writer Robert,
Hunter, which is an attempt to
capture the Dead's nack of tak-
ing simple rhythms and artis-
tically improvising on them.
Additionally, once one tries go-
ing past the group's very well
produced sound, the music falls
apart. This is as if one had peal-
ed back the skin of a bean pod
and had all the beans scatter
onto the floor. For, falling back
on stock pop traditions, such as
the "hard driving beat to wail-
ing lyrics" tradition or the "nas-
ally sung, rhythmically slow 'I've
got troubles"' tradition, (I'm just
a lonesome L. A. cowboy hang-
is made to blend the lyrics with
the music, not bothering to re-
place a certain word because it
sounds "flat" in its musical con-
text, the end result is trite.
Pyramid of the Moon is also
marred by poor lyrics. But it is
obvious that this Latin-jazz ori-
ented group is at least trying to
create something good. A new
group, Azteca has tried emulat-
ing Stevie Wonder in spirit, if not
musically, (The album is dedi-
cated to him.) and the lyrics
shov a true concern for the
world around them. But unfor-
tunately the words lack original-
ity and fall short of supporting
the feelings of the composers.
Musically, Azteca's sound has
the Latin brilliance of Santana
and the night-clubish sophistica-
tion of Sergio Mendes. However,
"A THEATRICAL MIRACLE!
-Life Magazine
PRESENTED BY
Office of Student Life
EASTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
Jazz for the Generation Gap
Swinging right over the generation gap is the MODERN JAZZ QUARTET, now
moving into its third decade of entertaining classical and jazz buffs of all ages. JOHN
LEWIS, piano, MILT JACKSON, vibraharp, PERCY HEATH, bass, and CONNIE
KAY, drums, come to Ann Arbor with compositions of their own,
plus transcriptions of music by Rodrigo, Bach, Gershwin, and others.
pill trascritioi by odrl Bnc
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