Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Saturday, September 9, 1972
Page Two
THE MICHIGAN GAILY
Saturday,, September 9, 1972
Blues and jazz at its best
FALL TERM BOWLING
LEAGUES FORMING
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10 A.M.-6:00 P.M. 769-1583
c o- scc.1vI-oc.-Uc< ~c t -u>U
By HARRY HAMMITT.
The Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz
Festival '72, opening last night
at the Otis Spann Memorial
Field, is off to an impressive
start and things look good for the
other four concerts.
The promoters have prepared
an impressive site with a com-
plete stage well-protected from
hostile fans. Besides this, the en-
tire site was surrounded by a
high wooden fence. The pro-
moters offered plentiful and well-
organized parking facilities; the
only difficulty they had was
dealing with the large crowd
trying to get in the entrance to
the festival area.
The people there were general-
ly enthusiastic, but restrained.
There were plenty of booths
around the site, some selling
commodities such as food and
drink, but a large number of
booths were run by the Rainbow
People who dominated the scene.
As for the bands themselves,
theatre
T revived
By RICK PARKS
The Ann Arbor Junior Light
Opera turned in a controlled, well-
balanced pro'duction of the popular
American musical The Fantasticks
last night at the Lydia Mendelssohn
Theatre in a revival of a summer
production of the play.
The cast, while not marked by
any particularly outstanding per-
formances, gave a good basic read-
ing of the difficult, multi-leveled
script. The players were at their
best when the script called for the
expression of simple, direct emo-
tion and action.
The play is so much more than
just a simple love story, yet it
takes an extremely talented and
aware group to direct the audience
away from the romance and into
the more subtle aspects . of the
script.
When read carefully, the script
contains many levels of social cri-
ticism,, criticism of, the traditional
forms of drama, criticism of the
fantasies we live by and, finally,
criticism of the play itself. These
aspects are difficult to bring to
the audience's attention while
people are singing, dancing and
cavorting about on stage in the
traditional context of the musical
form.
The music written for the play
is outstanding, particularly if ones
enjoys "modern" music with its
minor keys and seemingly atonal
chord progressions. The numbers
are very difficult to perform, par-
ticularly for singers, since the
melodic progression often does not
"feel" natural.
Of the cast, only Lorel Janisow-
ski (the female lead, Luisa) pos-
sesses a really strong voice. The,
others have pleasant voices, but
do not project well at all times.
The five-piece pit orchestra has
production but tends to overshadow
total command of their part of the
the singers at times. The electric
bass is particularly loud on cer-
tain numbers.
In final analysis, the cast and
crew give a very enjoyable and
moving presentation of a difficult,
excellent play. The Fantasticks
opened on Broadway in 1959, and
many of the innovative and revo-
lutionary stage devices employed
by the writers were far ahead of
their tirite and are still considereU
"avant-garde" even today.
Sandra Beals demonstrates fine
discipline and stage presence as
the Mute. George Tourtellotte is
sufficiently threatening as El Gallo.
Dana Gross and Dale Weston act
with fine depth and display good
insight into their roles as the
Players.
Siegel-Schwall started off the
evening with the most energetic
set of the night. Corky Siegel on
piano, harmonica and vocals, and
Jim Schwall on guitar, and vo-
cals have played together for
many years and it would be hard
to find a more exciting and tal-
ented combination. Siegel in par-
ticular blows the harmonica with
the expressive and dynamic fer-
vor of Butterfield at his best. The
band was rounded out by bass
and drums, and the bass-player
only distracted from the band
with his attempts to be hip.
Following, was the Contempo-
rary Jpzz Quintet who have not
yet found their own style. Their
playing w a s middle-of-the-road
avant-garde which was not bur-
densome, but not energetic.
junior Walker and the All-Stars
were next and they presented a
pleasant contrast with their tra-
ditional rhythm and blues which
culminated in "Shotgun," their
big hit of several years ago. The
concert began to peak during
Howlin' Wolf's set which follow-
ed. His band warmed up the
audience which awaited Wolf
with anticipation. Wolf has been
in poor health, having recently
recovered from several heart at-
tacks, but he appeared quite
SATURDAY & SUNDAY
THE GREAT
WHITE HOPE
JAMES EARL JONES
and JANE ALEXANDER
Story of Jack Johnson,
first black heavyweight
champion. Johnson lived
in scorn of Puritan con-
ventions --and paid bit-
terly.
MONDAY
MR. HULOT'S
HOLIDAY
Jacques Tati's chaotic
comedy of a mild-man-
nered man taking a mild-
mannered vacation.
1 & 9:05 p.m.-75c
A&D AUDITORIUM
ton Monroe between
Haven andTappan)
Forest fires br
more than trees
lively - playing harmonica and
gyrating across the stage - al-
though he did sit during most
of his performance. He really
brought the crowd around with
"Evil," his last .number. He re-
ceived an enthusiastic reception
as he always does when he plays
in Ann Arbor.
It seemed as if the concert
could only go downhill from
there, since Sun Ra was the last
scheduled performer and he has
long been known for his very
avant-garde jazz which seemed
to stand little chance of approv-
al at this late hour. Sun Ra's
troupe came on stage loaded
down with instruments and
sporting sequins, gold lame and
assorted outrageous apparel,
looking reminiscent of James
Brown. Instead of coming on
with avant-garde jazz, he play-
very rhythmically - oriented mu-
sic, which was a melting pot of
Broadway, soul, African, and of
course, Jazz. Sun Ra really put
on a powerful set both visually
and audially.
- -b
JOBS
The PILOT PROGRAM is seeking a
woman graduate student for a resi-
dent .fellow position. We need a cre-
ative person who can teach a course
and wants to participate in an excit-
'Il
$2.00
I"
MIDWEST
Daily Photo by TERRY McCARTHY
Contemporary Jazz Quintet member
GAGEMENT' 41
_ _ _ __. ..
PREIER
ing experimental educational
pro-
FRI. & SAT.
Columbia
Recording
gram. Contact
immediately Danny
Willbach, coordinator Pilot Program,
Alice Lloyd Hall, 764-7521
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'4.
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Rare musical
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