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 SIGN UP NOW-UNION LANES --OPEN- 11 a.m. thru 12 midnite Mon. thru Thurs. 11 a.m. thru 1 a.m. Fri. and Sat. 1 p.m. thru 12 midnite Sundays i .w/ Zen, Yoga. Tarot, Alcemy Atroog .,Theosophy; Magic. Parapsychology Macrobiotics and Health Food Books 215 S. STATE... .2nd Floor 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 Join The Daily CIRCULATION DEPT. Come in any afternoon 420 Maynard Artist Loudon Wainwright III '%b '4. ... "like a lonely rock and roller ... Rare musical integrity .. . one of our major artists." -Rolling Stone ... "he was weird, but he was great and the audience loved him." -Mich. Daily AMw - V& J' GSF PRESENTS A HENRY L. HOFFMAN PRODUCTION PARADES Featuring RUSS THACKER RRAn 8 1I I I I\IA K I I IAlc I 'TA rI "n-lI r A I -iv n /i I n " /f"r c/"TUV rf'u A/'t" Fri. 7:10, 9:00, 10:50 WELCOME .icw c..riir -tcnee T' ','j i I E- - I I I I m