Muddy Waters performs
The Michigan Daily-Sunday, November 13, 1977-Page 5
Dutch orchestra lyrical
1 b t I
blues u ea
By KEITH TOSOLT
T O GET A SCOPE of that particular musical form
known as the Blues, one can divide it into its two
major styles. There is a traditional Mississippi Delta
style, emphasizing the acoustic slide guitar, and the elec-
tric Urban/Chicago style which originated as the blues-
men moved North. One man who epitomizes both of these
styles is McKinley Morganfield, more popularly known as,
Muddy Waters, who appeared in a midnight concert
Friday at the Michigan Theatre.
"The Father of the Blues" is a modest label to put on
the blues legend Muddy Waters. He, along with Robert
Johnson, defined the slide guitar by laying down the licks
which are still quoted by blues guitarists. Waters has in-
fluenced the guitar technique of many rock musicians,
such as Johnny Winter and Duane Allman, who have their
musical roots in the blues.
It was Muddy's collaboration with Johnny Winter on.
his comeback recording Hard Again which caused a surge
of renewed popularity and interest in the music of Muddy
Waters. Unfortunately, Winter is not backing Muddy up
on his current tour. Muddy had his own band to supply the
rhythm Friday night and he let their R&B and boogie solo
comprise most of the show.
The band played three instrumentals around boogie
patterns, featuring some nice lead work from guitarist
Bob Margolin, before the old man of the blues was brought
on stage. Muddy picked up his vintage Telecaster and
ives too ,Soon
began with "Goin' Down Slow," the first of several tunes
songs about love gone wrong.
Muddy Waters was in fine form, though he mainly
concentrated on singing and playing rhythm. He did, how-
ever, step out a few times to play some leads and a truly
frenzied slide.
He played "Baby Please Don't Go," which was made
into somewhat of a rock classic by Ted Nugent and The
Amboy Dukes, and the Lieber/Stroller tune "Kansas
City," on which pianist "Pine Top" Perkins shared the
vocals.
"Got My Mojo Working" was the last selection Muddy
Waters did, which pleased one blues fanatic in the audien-
ce who had shouted for the song throughout the night. It
also pleased everyone else since Muddy really got himself
and the band worked up.
The whole show that evening was only one and a half
hours long, which was probably good since the blues tends
to sound repetitious if it is played a long time. As a re-
sult, the show remained fresh.
I would have liked to have seen Muddy play some
more of his well-known tunes like "Mannish Boy" or
"Trouble No More." But considering his age (Muddy is
well into his sixties), one can't expect Muddy Waters to
play half the night. As the announcer said, "It's not every
day that you get to see the Muddy Waters' Band." So in
that respect, the evening of the blues with Muddy Waters
was quite satisfactory.
By KERRY THOMPSON
THE REPUTATION of excellence
among Dutch musical ensembles
was upheld with style Friday night at
the performance of the Rotterdam
Philharmonic Orchestra. The orches-
tra's brilliance of harmony and unity
rates with those of the Concertgebouw
RotterdamPhilharmonic Orchestra
Hill Auditorium
November 11, 1977
Program :
Diepenbrock ...........Excerpts from Marsyas
Dvorak .............. ......... Te Deum, Opus 103
Mahler ................. Symphony No. 1 in D major
With the Festival Chorus
Donald Bryant, Conductor
Sheri Greenawald, soprano
Raeder Anderson, baritone'
and the Danzi Quartet.
From the opening woodwind
passages of the Diepenbrock piece, into
nation and precision were peerless. As
the work progressed, Maestro Edo De
Waart revealed a rare talent for bring-
ing out a wide range of dynamics from
the orchestra ranging from a superb
piannissimo to a thundering fortissimo.
The orchestra's balance was likewise
near perfect. The piece sounded grace-
ful and effortless, though it is difficult
to execute well.
The problem with the Diepenbrock,
then, lies not with the performance but
with the piece itself. While it contains
some graceful woodwind passages and
some very delicate impressionistic
moments, it lacks an essential sense of
unity.
THE DVORAK, on the other hand,
seemed to lack little or nothing. From
the festive atmosphere of the opening of
the glorious "Hallelujah's" of the end-
ing; it is one of the most pleasing
choral-orchestral pieces written.
Greenwald's rich lyrical soprano solos
were a pleasure to hear and Anderson's
full-bodied baritone seemed to fill the
hall, balancing nicely even with the
brasses. The only awkwardness.oc-
curred in the duet section. Otherwise,
the Festival Chorus and soloists gave
an outstanding$ performance of this far-
from-easy piece. The only minor com-
plaint about the chorus is that they
sometimes failed to maintain balance
with the orchestra. However this is un-
derstandable because of the limited re-
hearsal time between a tutoring orches-
tra and a resident chorus.
The Mahler symphony was perfor
med nearly flawlessly. The lyrical, al1
most dancelike segments, strident
woodwinds and brooding larghos were
brought out with nicety. The horns split
a few notes, a couple of the more diffi
cult transitions could have been more
gracefully played; but they were mor4
than made up for by the exquisite basg
solo, the sensitive tuba sections and
many other details of the concert whicl
added up to make it a most refined anq
elegant orchestral event.
HORSE COSMETICS
NEW YORK (AP)-Cosmetics for
horses is a thriving business, reports
Chemical Week magazine, which
estimates that money spent annually orb
"horse cosmetics" and other horse
care products totals about $10 million.
Today, the publication says
"chemical specialty products not only
clean the horse, but shine his coat;"
polish his hooves, cure his dandruff and
untangle his tail."
Grobming aids for horses include°
such products as shampoo coat shiners,
hoof blackeners, hair conditioners-.
even eye wash.,
There are now about 8.5 million hor-
ses in the United States with the figure
growing 10 per cent annually, thef
publication reports. f
. ,
Ronstadt
's
country charisma
charms Crisler Arena crowd
By TIM YAGLE
I INI)A RONSTADT really knows
hdw to charm an audience. She
and her superb back-up band came to
Crisler Arena Friday night and simply
put on a great show.
But first, Stephen Bishop provided a
good opening act with a smooth blend of
tunes from his Careless album.
"I was sitting on my back porch
thinking of Jamaica; girls and grass
skirts, and this is what I came up with,"
Bishop said. His big hit "On And On"
gently followed.
AFTER A SERIES of soft, easy,
songs, Bishop concluded with Save It
For A Rainy Day and a nice encore.
The anxious, near sellout crowd was
now ready for-the main attraction - the
queen of rock Linda Rons'adt.
Ronstadt began with an easy rocker
and then started her parade of hits with
"That'll Be The Day." She was very
loose and looked like a down home girl
having a good time. After each tune,
she would stand at the mike, hang her
head and smile like she was saying,
"aw shucks."
"BLUE BAYOU, ROLLIN'," a tune
she dedicated to her stage crew and
"Faithless Love," what she called a
"true love song of the '70s" were ab-
sorbed by the enraptured Ronstadt
lovers. It was one of those nights where
you could just sit back and enjoy music.
A good, hearty version of the big hit
from her new album Simply Dreams -
"Poor Poor Pitiful Me" - and the
popular Eagles song "Desperado" with
just Ronstadt and her pianist on stage
led to "Love Me Tender" which was a
tribute to Elvis.
An oldie, "Love Is A Rose" and
"Simple Dreams" seemed to set the
mood for some more powerful numbers
including "It's So Easy To Fall In
Love" and a thumpy "Tumblin' Dice"
which rolled right into an exuberant
"You're No Good."
THE CUTS RONSTADT sang from
Simple Dreams sounded just like they
do on the album (which isn't all too
common when arrangements are per-
formed live) but they had that extra
kick in them to really make them sound
livelier.
Ro *1
Labiche's Chapeau
a fanciful farce
By ANNE SHARP
TALIAN STRAW .HAT by French-
playwright Eugene Labiche, details
the merry mix-ups which occur when a
horse eats a lady's hat (offstage, of
course). Chapeau, a new musical ver-
sion If Labiche's 1851 farce which
opef'ed Friday night at Power Center,
goes the original one better; the horse
not only makes several appearances
but sings, dances, and provides a run-
ning commentary on the play's action.
Chapeau
Book and lyrics by Alfred Uhry
Music by Robert Waldman
Directed by Gerald Freedman
Power Center
Gerard... ... ................ Brooks Baldwin
Angelida&..,.......................... Leslie Geraci
'Hippolite .................... Tom Robbins
*Chapeau's tendency
towards
cuteness detracted from the broad
humor of its story line. Consequently,
the laughs were a bit strained,
especially in the opening scenes. At fir-
st, the audience seemed a bit em-
barrassed by the character of Hip-
polite, but despite the slightly in-
congruous hooves, tail and ears
protruding from a straw hat, Robbins
turned in a charmingly equine per-
formance.
The music isn't memorable;
Chapeau's score (prerecorded, since
this is a road company) provides little
more than a pleasant accompaniment
to the play's general zaniness. Frankly,
the cast couldn't sing, with the excep-
tion of Leslie Geraci who has a sweet
voice befitting her role as Gerard's
naive bride.
Most of the principal players seemed
a bit too uptight to play up Chapeau's
inherent slapstick and bawdy humor..
This might have been their reaction to
the disappointingly small first-night.
audience. But, set off with a few script
changes and the right audience-artiste
chemistry, Chapeau could be quite
tasty.
x.. . !r kf. #w n
Linda Ronstadt
The band left the stage to a standing
ovation and the cheering crowd wasn't
about to let Ronstadt leave for good. A
few moments later she returned and
mellowed her fans with a soft, touching
tune.
She left again only to be summoned
back again and let 'em have it with
"Heat Wave."
Linda Ronstadt poured on her coun-
try charm Friday night, complement-
ing it with a strong and beautiful voice.
No Waiting
4 HAIRCUTTERS
DASCOLA
STYLISTS
Liberty off State
E. Univ. at So. Univ.
Chapeau makes other departures
from the original. The scene is shifted
from Labiche's early Victorian France
to colonial Latin America. Hippolite
gets a married lady into hot water by
munching on her hat while she flirts
with a soldier. Hippolite's owner,
Geraru, a young fruit merchant in the
process of getting married, frantically
tries to save the lady's reputation by
locating a duplicate hat, meanwhile
trailing his fiancee and the entire wed-
ding party after him.
, Character actors carried the evening,
most notably Mary Lou Rosato and An-
derson Matthews. Rosato, apparently
patterning her character after the head
Blue Meanie in Yellow Submarine, was
fine as an eccentric noblewoman, as
was Anderson Matthews playing her
maniac-haired composer protege who
performs a song cycle entitled Pain.
/I
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THIRD PROGRAM
MUSIC AND DANCE
SAINT-SAENS Fantaisie for Violin and Harp
ptp
/,
TODAY ONLY!
2p.m. & 8 p.m.
N I f POWER CEN E R
; HE iPER ORMING ARTS
TAe
. Acf) >_
ROREM Four Dialogues for Two Voices and Two Pianos
j
iomppany
COPLAND
SCHOENBERG
c4A~ftte5 =Ckrfa stKirkCa t, , r~
Tracings ("Piano Varations")
514$Pa'Yt -Ta: rcrt.O ~, "
Cabaret Songs
Mo.7r.nR
COURGA