Tuesday, November 20, 1973 I fit MIC:HIUAN DAILY rage revel Tuesday, November 20, 1973 it-1t MI(JHIUAN VAILY ; i Willie By BOB SCHETTER1 The heavy wood door to the l Primo Showbar stares you in the v face, backoning you to open it and unlock the secrets behind. You can sense the energy and movement as music streams past this formidable barrier, quicken- ing the heart, altering the body ] rhythms, luring and enticing you toward the magic inside. Some- thing is happening here and you a don't know what it is . . . . Totally straight-forward, Wil- lie Dixon and his All-Stars build Dixon: A the iitensity, not by frenzied out- pouring of emotions a la Janis Joplin, but rather by capitaliz- ing on the basic rhythms of the music and by presenting it in a mellow, cohesive style. Playing Primo last week, Dix- on and his band created this mel- low cohesiveness with a delicate balance between instruments. Dixon himself is a composer and performer of such blues stand- ards as "Spoonf!l" (recorded by the Cream) and "Wang-wang Doodle" (Howling Wolf). None of the performers,i cluding Dixon, is outstandin but all are nevertheless goo Guitarist Buster Benton ist pical of the Chicago school, co centrating on the technic sounds rather than on emotior Where Benton kept back, he monica player Carey Belll loose, mixing fine control wi an inner quality which was ez ily conveyed to the audience. The final three members, L fayette Leake (piano), Clift James (drums), and Dixon hi: longtim in- self formed the rhythmic a n d Displa g, chordal foil to the more 'melodic music al )d. members, and filled in nicely countena ty- with their own runs and riffs ly and g n- when necessary. self and al The All-Stars played through out thatI ns. an amazing variety of songs. The ed in th ar- high intensity "Don't Want No for Chuc let Woman," highlighted Benton's ed on to ith voice and guitar mastery, while It was as- "Trouble Seems to Follow Me name C Around," constitutes the "heavy" into bein .a- end of the spectra. In between es wasr on these were the standards "Spoon- with Bol m- ful" and "Wang-Wang Doodle;" ist and h a little B.B. King and s o m e added in light jazz. Dixonc 'Figaro' fine pei By C. ALTON PARKS job as F The School of Music's pro- swaggeri duction ofhThe Marriage of Fig- singing aro at Mendelssohn Theater Sun- he hadi day night was simply delightful. ject as w Mozart's classic comic opera was brought off with style and class by a talented and enthus- iastic cast. Mozart, at its best, is pure unadulterated fun - a sublime swirl of color, music, romance and nonsense. The music school's production caught this mood well and provided a thoroughly enjoy- able four hours of escape from an increasingly un-fun, un-ro- mantic world. ""~" The action o f Figaro takes place in the castle of C oun t The b Almaviva in 18th century Spain. was turr Its improbable and marvelously stein in h silly plot goes something I i k e schemin this: Figaro, servant to t h e sold the Count and amateur matchmaker rendering wants to marry Susanna - a moveme chamber maid of the Countess- ous oldv but is thwarted by the Count's Ashley amorous designs on her. cent Che Matters are further compli- as theoC cated when the elderly Marcel- as Antog ina brings a lawsuit against Fig- sang aro to force him to marry her (a gambit in which she is tacit- y supported by the Count). What follows is an i n s a n e tangle of S intrigues in which the Count, S Marcellina and her henchmen--- - vie with Figaro, Susanne and the betrayed Countess. AR she Unbelievable problems are fol- it lowed by equally unbelievable re- "Wh in solutions (Figaro doesn't have to ut marry Marcellina when he dis- to M ut. covers she is his mother) until, nd in the end, all is straightened "The' rnout and everybody gets married "h rn and lives happily ever after. la y y- In the meantime, the audience P on is treatened to some of the fin- iag est examples of Mozart's light, its romantic style - syrupy roman- AR' re- tic ballads and waggish comic ely duets. " Z. Edmond Tolliver did a fine te in ying the character of his 1 over his plump, jovial nce, Dixon talked free- ood-naturedly about him- the band. He pointed the pianist and he start- e early Fifties, playing .k Berry and then mov- .writing and studio work. in the Sixties that the hicago All-Stars came g. Drummer Clifton Jam- recruited from his years Diddeley and tne guitar- harmonica player w e r e the last year or two. dug all the attention giv- m ixes rform igaro, capturing well :he ng comic part. H i s was quite good, althogh a tendency not to pro- vell in the lower register. blues en to him by Ann Arbor's "beau- tiful people" as he described them. Laughing, signing auto- graphs, he went on to say that he has been treated extremely well by all the college towns. Future plans call for a few" days of recording in Chicago and moving qn to Omaha. The night ended in a blissful booze state. Listening to a 'star," the bar-goers had grooved to the blues, seduced by the sights and sounds of the night: Ann Ar- bor's fantasy life. The succinct word for the evening was "intoxi- cating." fun, inces ler had a very entertaining bit part as Don Curzio. Under the direction of