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THE MICHIGAN DAILY SUNDAY MAGAZINE

February 27, 1977

razz Is

(Continued from Page 7)
idividuality was maiitained in-
ide the organized expression of
re group.
With the advent of the Sixties
more complex and frenzied
motional music set in, oigi-
ated by neonle like John
.oltra fe (a Davis nrtge), Or-
ette Coleman and ('e' Tay-
)r. With Coltrane's death a
urge void was left. but this
ovement is still onaoing, led
i part by musicians like An-
itny Braxton and the Art En-
emble of Chicago.
Hentoff supplements his mu-
ical history with a serial his-
vry that speaks of the -bitter
rustration and sadness that has
ngulfed the world of numerous
azz musicians. Jazz is primar-

ily a black art formf, and in
America its musicians hhve ex-
periencedl tremendous racism
and oppression over the years.
The author writes with a
strong understanding of the
harshness of life that has bur-
den~ed so many players. He tells
of Miles Davis putting Charlie
Parker to bed with a needle in
his arm, traces the tragic fall of
Billie Holiday, and recalls a jazz
sidesman's remark on Louis
Armstrong: "If he had been
grinning on the inside all those
years, how would he have been
able to play the blues the way
he does."
Hentoff articulates well his
own anger over the lack of re-
spect that this country has be-
stowed upon jazz, and in turn

jazz musicians. Jazz is the only
true American art form (ob-
viously with African roots, but
created by black Americans).
Hentoff argues that anyone in-
volved in, American history, so-
ciology, and the study of music
is culturally deprived without
substantive knowledge of jazz.
Yet he wonders, "How many
fac1ity members-in secondary
schools and up-could even pass
a simple quiz on the cultural
history of jazz?" Lincoln Center
is built as a monument to clas-
sical music, in schools children
are taught to appreciate the
music of dead Europeans, and
in the middle Sixties jazz com-
poser Charles Mingus is evicted
from his apartment, his musi-
cal scores ground to bits by a
city sanitation truck.
J,1INGUS HIMSELF once apt-
lv reflected on the state of
the relationship between the
jazz musician. and his audience.
Hentoff recalls that: "One night
in the late 1950's Mingus was
trying out a new piece in a
night club, a work of collective
improvisation-an explosion of

cries, instrumental and vocal,
of shifting undulating rhythms,
of wide ranging dynamics, from
piercing highs to fierce whis-
pers. But the a~idience is other-
wise distracted, talking, drink-
ing, laughing at their own
jokes. Mingus cuts the music
dead and says, "If you think
what we're doing is wierd, just
take a look at yourselves."
As there is pain, there is
much beauty in jazz. Hentoff
offers numerous anecdotes on
the jazzman's love for his pro-
fession. Duke Ellington is quoted
as , saying "Music is my mis-
tress." Along the same lines
there is t o u i s Armstrong:
"When I pick up that horn,
that's all. The world's, behind
me and I don't concentrate on
nothing but that horn. I mean
you got to live with that horn.
That's why I was married four
times. The chicks didn't live
with that horn."
The stories that Hentoff offers
of relationships and outrageous
incidents within the jazz world
are endless. He has captured
the joy, the sorrow, and the
essence.

Hentoff is not a musicologist,
but rather a long time observer
whose sophistication allows him
to offer an acute analysis of
jazz style and contribution:
from Miles Davis dramtic use
of space to his terming John
Coltrane the sophist of jazz.
His personal contact with mu-
'sicians is certainly equal to any
living writer, and Jazz Is re-
flects his considerable knowl-
edge. Additionally, Hentoff is a
well-traveled journalist who has
written extensively on politics
and civil liberties. His experi-
ence adds weight to his criti-
cisms of society's treatment of
black musicians.
Jazz has been defined by cri-
tic Marshall Sterns as "a semi-
improvisational American music
distinguished by the immediacy
of communication, an expres-
siveness characteristic of the
free use of the human voice,
and a complex flowing rhythm."
But as Nat Hentoff well under-
stands, jazz is a great deal
more, encompassing a spirit and
feeling that is unique in the
history of music.


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OVER THE RAINBOW

Ernie


(Continued from Page 5)
Ernie is very proud of this
act and hands visitors a copy
if Yip's latest work, At This
'oint in Rhyme, like a proud
ather passes out cigars. Even
hough the book was published
ast year, 'when Yip was just
round the corner from octo-
rearian status, the picture on
he back cover does not betray
nore than half of those years.
3ut there's no mistaking that
he work inside came from the
nan E r n i e' s been bragging
ibout:f
THEY CAN'T BE ALL BAD
A world without the Reds.
Would be so doloros.
No spies beneath our beds
No headlines furioso.
No news, no hues, no cries
To hypo the consumers.
No stocks to fall and rise
Depending on peace rumors.
No fun for FBI
No wherewithal for science,
No orders to supply
Our big industrial giants.
No arms, no subs, no fleet,
No anti-Commie comics,

No boom, no deals in wheat,
In fact, no economics.
So orchids for Ivan!
And roses for Natasha!
Let luxury roll on!
Thank God for Godless
Russia.
Ernie says that his father has
no intention of retiring; in fact,
he wouldn't mind putting an-
other show together if, accord-
ing to the younger Harburg, Yip
could "find the right combina-
tion of elements. It's not ust a
good idea. You need a producer,
a theatre, a director a choreog-
rapher, actors and actresses-
it's a kind of a team situation
in which you have to have a
right fit for everyone to the
material and to each other."
But in the meantime, he'll keep
writing because there's appar-
ently no limits for Yip Harburg.
The following anecdote makes
that clear:
An acquaintance of Y i p' s
learned several years ago that
Harburg had written the time-
worn "April in Paris," having
never visited that city of ro-
mance. "I just can't, believe,"
the man protested, "that you
hadn't been to Paris."
"Well," Yip retorted, "I was
never over the rainbow, either."

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Featured In The M-G-M Picture "The Wizard Of Oz"

Lyric IC l
F.J. Harburg

N~ ~ILIL

Mu,4dc b
Harold Arle'n

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Bly

Moderately (XuI' fast)

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Fml BBbl

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(Continued from Page 5)
"But I did have a table next
to Neruda's in a restaurant
once," the doctor " reportedly
said. "He was with two wo-
men."
"Were you close enough to
hear anything?" Bly asked. The
doctor nodded, and Bly asked,
"What did he say?"
"He said," the doctor explain-
ed, 'Bring some more lob-
sters! Bring some more butter!
Bring some more rolls!'"
Bly finally finished his Neruda
selections: "I enjoyed that Ne-
ruda so much, I just may quit
right now. But the publicity
poster said I was going to read
Lorcas," he said, dutifully pick-
ing up and thumbing through a
worn volume of Garcia Lorcas.'
1N PEKSUN, Robert 1y is con-
siderably more subdued, his


gestures and behavior less flam-
bouoyant. But he is still im-
pressively vital, especially when
he discusses one of his pet con-
cerns, like the American Day-
dream, a theme he elaborated
on both during the reading and
in a personal interview later.
"You never see a face as
fatigued as an American's," he
said, and attributed this to the
daydream: "A d a y d r e am is
something that passes through
the unconsciops . . . Those im-
ages draw emotional power.
"Daydreams drain energy ,it
leads directly to suicide; look
at Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton,
John Berryman.
"Daydreaming resembles a
work of art, brit it is actually
the opposite. What is the oppo-
site of a daydream? An intense
concentration on something 'out
there.' When Durer painted a
rabbit or lobster, he ended his
daydream the minute he began
painting.
"It (daydreaming. has an ele-
ment of self-pity in it," he
m'ised. "There's no self-pity in
'Ba ch."
The interview was brief and
dwelt ma i n ly on the Great
Mother Conference which would
be Bly's next stop.
Bly cites extensive archeolog-
ical evidence to show that
patriarchal cultures have only
been in existencersince 4,000
B.C. They were preceded, he
said, by 500,000 years of matri-
axchies.
"Thesend of the nateriarchies
was probably destructive to both
men and women. The patriar-
chies are out of tone with the
earth - they may destroy the
earth entirely.
"Women, in ancient times,
had a closer link with the un-
conscious. Men tried to gain
this-sometimes by castratiop,

and by w e a r i n g women's
clothes." He cited the priest's
cassock as an example of this,
along with primitive rites that
imitate female functions.
THE TROUPE focuses on four
female roles: that of the
"Good Mother," s o m e t i m e s
symbolized by Demeter; the
"Death M o t h e r," which, in
IIindu cultures, is symbolized
by Kali; the "Teeth Mother,"
who finds representation in Me-
dusa, and symbolizes the de-
struction of the psyche; and the
"Ecstatic Mother," the Muse.
As Bly stuffed papers, note-
books, and clothes into a suit-
case, he waved a long hank of
poison-green hair - a prop for
the Death Mother-over his head
with a fake cry of horror. It,
too, was stuffed into a bag.
Another mask, with the face
of an older man, who bore an
uncanny resemblance to John
Mitchell, brought back to mind
the conclusion of Bly's poetry
reading.
"It's frightening," Bly had
said then, taking off the head-
piece -- nicknamed the "Water-
gate" mask. "I've got onekin-
side of me that looks just like
that."A
'Hey!" yelled the woman with
the videotape machine, "where
can I get a copy of Kabir?" -
"Right here," said Bly, toss-
ing her his own copy. "See howv
much'we learned from her?"
Bly grinned. "I'm glad that
whole videotape issue came up."
The crowd applauded for the
woman with the videotape ma-
chine.
But then, as Bly commented
at the beginning of the session,
"Nothing accidental happens at
a poetry reading."
Cynthia Hill is a former Daily
editor.

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ky-%.y, the res a rain-bow'i gh- ay'to befound,

When all the world is a hope-less jum-ble and the raindrops tun-ble all a - round,
- t- I I --
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All Rights Rc3 -d

KITCHEN PORT, C.
Help us celebrate the opening of our new
DEMONSTRATION KITCHEN
Monday, Feb. 28 thru Saturday, Mar. 5
FREE DEMONSTRATIONS DAILY -10 AM.-1 P.M.- 3:30 P.M.


0
0

Free gift for every customer
Drawing for $20 gift certificate
Balloons for the children
Loads of specials
GLASSWARE . FLATWARE . . COPPER BOWLS .-. . DINNERWARE
.ROMERTOPF CLAY BAKERS... FARBERWARE FOOD PROCESSOR . . .
LE CREUSET COOKWARE . . AND OTHERS.
AND, AS ALWAYS, HAVE A CUP OF COFFEE WITH US

I

- Yip' Marburg and his

DAY 10 A.M. 1 P.M. 3:30 P.M.
Mon. Feb. 28 Piroqi Quiche & omelet Aobleskiver
Tues. Mar. I Cheese fondue Bread & piz Dessert souffle
Wed. Mar. 2 Chocolate cups Wok cookery B ;oche ofl
Thurs. Mar. 3 Sugar molds Sos tzle
Fri. Mar. 4 Crepes Food processors Pasta
Sat. Mar. S Canard a Ia presse Espresso makers Food processors

IOBERT BLY:
The many masks
of a poet

LYRICAL WIZARD:
Ernie Harburg ta
abort his father,

415 N.I
in Kerrytown

P

Christine Y. C. Liu, Ann Arbor author,
will be autooraphinq her book, "Nutri-
tion and Diet with Chinese Cookinq"
Wednesday, Mar. 2 at 1 P.M. and will
also demonstrate wok cookery.

FIFTH AVE.
665-9188


Supplement to The Michigan Daily, Ann Arbor, Michigan