Wednesday, February 14, 1973 THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Three
Opens Tomorrow!
The University Players
PRESENT
*David Rabe's
THE
BASIC
TRAINING
OF
PAYLO
HUMMEL
Trueblood Aud.
Feb. 15-17
TIME:8:00 PM
TICKETS: $1.00
(Sat. $1.50)
All Seats Unreserved
Box Office: 12:30-5:00
Box Office Phone:
764-5387
DEPT. OF SPEECH,
COMMUNICATIONS
AND THEATER
Miles Das..
awesome to watch'
By HANK HOLOSZYC
Miles Davis walked on stage
at Eastern Michigan's Pease Au-
ditorium last Saturday to the
roaring approval of the sell-out
crowd of 1,700. He motioned to
his eight - piece band and the
music began, and it didn't stop
for an hour and forty minutes. At
that point the audience was float-
ing a few feet off the ground.
In a word, the music was in-
credible-almost a perfect cross
between the driving inten-
sity of Music for Jack Johnson
and the complex rhythm changes
and variations that characterize
his latest album On the Corner.
Playing music that was probably
80 per cent improvisation Miles
was awesome to watch as he
kept the band together, and be-
lieve me, they were tight. Mi-
chael Henderson (bass), James
Mtume (congas and assorted
percussion) and Babal Roy (tab-
las) remain from the musicians
who played on On the Corner and
Miles has added Dave Liebman
on Soprano sax, Reggie Lucas on
drums, Cedric Lawson on key-
boards, Al Foster on guitar and
Bala Krishna on electric sitar.
The band was uniformly ex-
cellent with Liebman the most
notable both on his own solos and
on his duets with Miles on trum-
pet. Mtume put together a po-
tent conga solo near the end of
the performancenandtLawson
added some extremely choice
riffs on the organ. Miles sounded
fine on his horn, as well.
Describing Miles' music pre-
sents some obvious problems. I
mean really, how do you relate
an incredible rhythm change
that leaves you with your mouth
hanging open, or a riff that builds
to a peak and then flows on
gently removing your mind from
your body? Quite simply, the
printed word is not the best of
mediums for such an explanation
-you have to hear it.
Visually, there's Miles (flam-
boyantly attired, as usual) alter-
nating between solos, duets with
Liebman, and moving around
the stage keep the sounds to-
gether; its a big gig, but there's
no one better at it than Miles.
He demands perfection and he
comes pretty damn close. Every
once in a while the music would
become just a bit disjointed,
such as on a Liebman solo I re-
call which almost degenerated to
random noise. Quickly Miles ges-
tures to Liebman, then to Mtume
and Lucas and suddenly the riff
has been simplified, the rhythm
consolidates and the band is to-
gether again - just unbeliev-
able.
The entire concert consisted of
one "composition" and consider-
ing the fact that it lasted for
over an hour and a half its co-
herence was particularly note-
worthy. Basically the band is
one monster rhythm section
with only Liebman and Miles as
soloists. Others would occasion-
ally take short solos but rhythm
was by far the dominant force,
and the changes they produced
were thoroughly mindboggling.
Often the sound would be so
smooth that it was exceedingly
difficult to isolate some of the
individual instruments. When the
performance ended I estimated
that they had been playing for
maybe 45 minutes, but then I
looked at my watch.
After the concert someone told
Miles that he sounded better
than he had in a couple of years.
Miles replied: "You don't have
to tell me I sounded good, man
I know I sounded good."
The man knows.
Percussion ensemble. shows
extraordinary musicianship
By DONALD SOSIN
BLACKEARTH PERCUSSION
GROUP; Christopher B r a u n,
Garry Kvistad, Richard Kvis-
tad, Allen Otte in the Contem-
porary Direction Series, spon-
sored by the Composition De-
partment. Sat., Feb. 10, 8 p.m.
Rackham Auditorium.
Quartet Variations - Edward
Miller; Les Moutons de Pan-
urge-Frederick Rzewski; Four
Feathers - Barney Childs;
Godfather gets 11
Oscar nominations
"One of the best movies
in years! A rare gem!"
-Aaron Schindler
-
Max von Sydow
ACADEMY AWARD
NOMINEE
"Best Actress"-"Best Picture"
Liv Lmam
The Eig t
Today at 1 :00-3:30-6:05-8:45
HOLLYWOOD (UPI) - The
Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences showed respect.
The Godfather, already the big-
gest moneymaker in the history
of the movies, was an offer that
could not be refused at Oscar-
nomination time. It got 11.
The runnerup was Cabaret,
which occupied 10 spaces on the
list of nominations announced
Monday for the 45th annual Aca-
demy Awards.
The Oscars will be presented,
with the traditional pomp a n d
ceremony, Mar. 27.
The Godfather was nominated
for best picture. Marlon Brando,
playing the patriarch of one mob-
ster's family in it, was nominat-
ed as best actor for the sixth
time in his career.
Al Pacino, James Caan and Ro-
bert Duvall were nominated for
best supporting actor. Oscars
for playing the godfather's sons,
ed son and counselor, Tom.
Michael and Sonny, and his adop-
Francis Ford Coppola w a s
nominated as best director, and
with Mario Puzo - who wrote
the best seller that was the basis
for the movie - for best screen-
play using material from anoth-
er medium.
The Godfather was also nom-
inated in the costume design,
film editing, dramatic s c o r e
and sound categories.
Other nominees for b'est pic-
ture were Cabaret, Sounder, The
Emigrants and Deliverance.
Liza Minnelli, star of Cabaret
a musical set in Berlin as the
Nazis were coming into power,
was nominated for best actress.
Joel Grey, who played the cab-
aret's master of ceremonies, was
nominated for best supporting ac-
tor and Bob Fosse was nominat-
ed for his direction.
Imagind Quarter - Sydney
Hodkinson; Amores - J o h n
Cage; Take That -W i11 i a m
Albright.
The Blackearth Percussion
Group are four young, ambitious
musicians who have given up
good symphony jobs to devote
themselves to playing new mus-
ic. In residence at Northern Il-
linois University in Dekalb, they
have the rare opportunity to
teach while being permitted,
even encouraged, to tour as
much as they can. This may not
be the greatest set-up for their
students, but it is wonderful for
everyone else, especially t h e
audiences who will be hearing
fabulous concerts such as Satur-
day's in Rackham.
What was perhaps most sur-
prising about the evening w a s
the combined surorise of hear-
ing six works for percussion
that were far from monoton-
ous, and that were all outstand-
ing pieces of music. What was
more remarkable was the ex-
traordinary high level of music-
ianship and taste these four men
exhibited, and a tightness of en-
semble that one would suppose
came from years of group ef-
fort. Yet they have only been
together for five months.
Casually dressed, they made no
formal entrance either, but leap-
ed onstage from the audience
and moved quickly among the
vast array of every conceivable
type of percussion instrument
which overflowed the stage. The
score for the Miller piece was
then projected on a screen, so
that both performers and aud-
ience could read along. In a
simple graphic notation the shape
of the piece was outlined, with
small wavy lines which became
slide whistle glissandi, big black
dots that were transformed into
bass drum booms or tam-tam
crashes.
Decisions of pitch, timbre and
to a lesser extent, duration, were
left up to the musicians, and it
was here that their imagination
could best be appreciated, as a
remarkable diversity of instru-
ments were juxtaposed: these
included water gongs, all kinds
of drums, keyboard instruments,
gongs, wood blocks and bells.
The result was a beautiful col-
lage of sound colors, with the
form always clearly perceptible.
Played twice through without a
break, parts were exchanged the
second time, and so the effect
was like putting apples or plums
into a blueberry cake recipe: the
form is the same but the ingred-
ients, and thus the flavors,
change.
Frederick Rzewski's Les Mou-
tons de Panurge bore a super-
ficial resemblance to the pop-
ular In C by Terry Riley, but
was far more interesting. An
exercise in technical and mne-
monic virtuosity, the piece is a
1:30 2 Movie
"Road to Bali" (1952)
3:00 2 It's Your Bet
3:30 2 News
wcbn
listings
9-12 The Morning After
12-4 Progressive Rock
4-7 Folk
7-8 Talk Back
8-11 Rhythm and Blues
11-3 Progressive Rock
65-note melody which is perform-
ed by playing the first note, then
the first two, then three, and so
on until all 65 are reached, then
by subtracting one ,by one, until
only the last notes remain. The
four players began in unison on
piano, vibes, marimba and xylo-
phone, but soon drifted apart (on
purpose) and the Riley-esque
blur began. Unlike many pieces
of this kind, the work held inter-
est consistently, mainly due to
the carefhl shading of dynamic
levels, the occasional switch in
timbres (from piano to toy piano,
for instance, or shifting registers
on one instrument), and the
shifting accentuation of differ-
ent parts. The overall harmonic
frame moved from F minor to F
major; as the transition grew
the music seemed to glow until
the end, where, three players
having finished and vamping on
a C, the fourth approached the
end with increasing tension as
the phrases grew shorter with
each repetition. The moment of
arrival was stunning and the ap-
plause a testimony to the genius
of the idea and the virtuosity of
the musicians.
Barney Childs' piece was pre-
ceded by a brief introduction of
the group during which one sud-
denly became aware that t h e
piece had actually started, as
biographical information turned
into a discourse on drumming
and was rapidly drowned out by
noise from a tape, followed by a
mad dash for instruments, then
assorted zaniness from all four.
The University composers were
represented after intermission,
Sydney Hodkinson and William
Albright. Hodkinson's Imagind
Quarter explored different tim-
bral groups: wood, keyboard,
tambourine and gong sounds, in
conjunction with the group's pre-
recorded tape of the piece; it
wound up, like the Rzewski work,
on one repeated note. Albright's
Take That used 16 bass drums in
an imaginative fashion, as a
steady beat persisted under
drum rolls,-and syncopated rhy-
thms. It had, too, flashes of
Albright's characteristic humor
in one passage where a steady
fortissimo pounding abruptly
stopped as the players beat thin
air with 'their sticks before re-
turning to the drums.
This and other visual effects
played a large part in the suc-
cess of the aforementioned piec-
es, and make a good case for the
assured continuance of live per-
formance as opposed to record-
ings.
The most sublime work on the
known for his audacious theater
program, from a composer
known for his audacious theatre
pieces, contained no real visual
elements but only expertly 'chos-
en sounds: Amores, a 1943 work
by John Cage. Two solos for pre-
pared piano framed trios for
tom-toms and pod rattle, and
wood blocks. All required careful
listening, which was rewarded by
admission into a soft, fragile
sound world, with apparently
simple rules of rhythm but a
wide variety of results. Change
a molecule in a substance and
you have something utterly dif-
ferent. On Cage's reduced scale,
small variations made an im-
mense difference; the individual
sounds on the prepared piano
were so beautiful that one was
grateful for their frequent repe-
tition.
Daily Photo by DAVID MARGOLICK
Mr. Capra Goes to Class
Movie director Frank Capra makes his last Ann Arbor appearance
yesterday in Prof. Marvin Felheim's film class. The event
closed the week-long Capra Film Festival brought to campus by
The Daily's own critic, Richard Glatzer.
&i $2.00 a
to,
0
6:00 2 4 7 News
9Courtship of Eddie's Father
50 Flintstones
56 Operation Second Chance
6:30 2 CBS News
4 NBC News
7ABC News
9 I Dream of Jeannie
50 Gilligans Island
56 Making Things Grow
BUIL
WED.
THE BIGAMIST
dir. by IDA LUPINO,
who also stars. With
Joan Fontaine and
Edmund O'Brien. 1953
THURS.
VIGO
Zero for conduct
ARCHITECTURE
AUDITORIUM
7 & 9 P.M. $1.00
7:00 2 Truth or Consequences
4 News
7 To Tell the Truth
9 Beverly Hillbillies
50 I Love Lucy
56 Zoom
7:30 2 What's My Line?
4 Festival of Family Classics
7 Wild Kingdom
9 Irish Rovers
50 Hogan's Heroes
56 Consumer Game
8:00 2 Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour
4 Adam-12
50 Merv Griffin
9:00 2 Medical Center
9 News
56 Eye to Eye
9:30 9 Sloane Affair.
56 Ask the Lawyer
10:00 2 Cannon
4 Search
7 Owen Marshall
50 Perry Mason
56 Soul!
10:30 9 This Land
11:00 2 4 7 News
9 CBS News
50 One Step Beyond
11:20 9 News
11:30 2 Movie
"Doctor, You've Got to Be
Kidding!"
4 Johnny Carson
7 Screaming Skull
50 Movie
"Yellow Sky" (1948)
12:00 9 Movie
"Winchester .73" (1967)
1:00 4 7 News
X
ANN ARBOR
CIVIC THEATRE
AUDITIONS
Feb. 12, 13, 14
7:30-10:30
PRIME OF MISS
JEAN BRODIE
ROLES:
3 WOMEN, ages 30-50
4 GIRLS, ages 14-19
3 MEN, ages variable
Many non-speaking roles
for girls of all ages
201 Mulholland
(off W. Washington)
ARTS.
cULruRE CALENDWAR
FILM-AA Film Co-op shows DeBroca's The King of Hearts
at 7 and 9 tonight, Aud. A; Cinema Guild presents Lupi-
no's The Bigamist at 7 and 9:05, Arch. Aud.; New Morning
Films shows Nabokov's Laughter in the Dark at 7 and 9
in the MLB.
0 al I
Return of a Campus Cult Smash! Wil d, Raffish Satire! ALAN BATES in
THE KING F HEARTS
(FRENCH DIALOGUE-ENGLISH SUBTITLES)
Directed by Phillippe deBroca. A British private scouting discovers a town abandon-
ed by the Germans, who have left a time bomb in the town clock, except for the
inmates of the local asylum, who he lets loose, thinking they are the townspeople,
AND THE FUN BEGINS. The normalcy of insanity!
TONIGHT!-February 14th -ONLY!-35 mm color 7 & 9 p.m.
THURSDAY-FEB. 15
NEW WORLD FILM CO-OP
-presents--
(
If you like, instead of depositing the coupon at the Michigan Daily, you can
zip it over to WCBN (in the basement of the S.A.B.). There you can trade
/i'%''rdle
lpv* - ..\/
15-~ iN 91