Page 8-Friday, November 20, 1981-The Michigan Doily !' WE NOW DELIVER i *~*668-841 1 1140 S. University and Church I -, I" By James Clinton ACTIVIST, SONGWRITER, and Uniiversity Law School graduate, Fred Small returns to Ann Arbor tonight to perform a benefit concert for the Arbor Alliance at East Quad's Halfway Inn. Small has recently released his first LP, Love's Gonna Carry Us, on Aquifer Records. Among the concerns voiced in his songs are nuclear power, racism, sexism, and worker's rights. In these songs both his love for the music and a sense of urgency concerning the issues emerge. Songwriting for Fred Small "is an in- credibly effective means of com- munication, less threatening than a speech or editorial," he says. His songs are reminiscent of Phil Ochs and Tom Paxton, leaders in the protest song genre that gained considerable popularity in the '60s. "I grew up with the topical song ex- plosion of the mid '60s and know first hand the power and persuasiveness of songs that deal with vital issues," Small explains. Small is a curiosity in the music business. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Yale, undergraduate, and received a law degree and a degree from the School of Natural Resources at the University of Michigan. He recently left his job at the Conservation Law Foundation of New England, where he practiced environmental law, to pursue music full time. While a law student in Ann Arbor, he wrote his first song on the morning of his first law school examination. "My writing songs arose from my sense of vacuum," he explains. Small also claims that he learned much about songwriting in Peter San- dman's class, "Mass media and En- vironment," at the School of Natural, Resources. "Essentially, I learned about persuasion theory, the importan- ce of simplicity, positive imagery, and making people feel good." Small has incorporated what he lear- ned very effectively in his songs, which are powerful and often reach the listener through a humourous story line. One of the difficulties in singing topical songs is veiling the fine line between getting the message across and preaching. In Small's best work, he tells a story and in the course of the narrative a message emerges. In "A Modest Proposal," Small suggests that "the energy source that's best is of course thermal underwear." The song is humorous, yet the political and environmental content is evident. "I think that humor is an effective device in getting the message across without being threatening or didactic. Humor is disarming," he says. Not all the songs are humorous, however. "Three Mile Island" is a scathing denunciation of the event in Small communicates with music Mangione spop jazz satisfies the .crowd Pennsylvania and the imminent threat of nuclear power. "I wrote it about ten days after the incident at Three Mile Island. One of the reasons why I sing the song is to preserve the story nationally and not let it die." In this regard, the same could be said of his recently-released "No More Viet- nams" on the flip side of "For El Salvador." .0 (Continued from Page 7) genre of jazz-like popular instrumental music, including later bands like Spiro Gyra and Auracle, also comprised largely of Eastman alumni. The Chuck Mangione Quintet filedon- to the stage without fanfare Wednesday, with Mangione leading, instantly recognizable with his long brown hair and beard, clad in the velour shirt and the wide-brimmed hat that have become his trademark. This getup is a crucial factor in the childlike, an- drogynous persona he projects on stage. The opening tune "Hill Where the Lord Hides," is one of Mangione's oldest, with a form that practically plays itself-all the soloist need do is play the right changes, and a nicely paced solo emerges. Mangione led off with a fairly brief solo. He has good technical fluency, but he tends to play rather sloppily in the horn's upper range, relying too much on the flexibility of his chops, and not enough on firm breath support. Saxophonist Chris Vadal followed on soprano, displaying pretty much the same vir- tues and faults. Mangione's tunes are all very similar, and can be divided into two categories. Tunes like "Hill Where the Lord Hides," including "Give It All You've Got" and "Feels So Good," form one category. The second number, "Land of Make Believe," is a good example of the second category. These tunes, including "Chase the Clouds Away" and "Bellavia," feature longer phrases over a single chord, a con- trasting bridge, and very simple, ostinato bass figures. The rhythm sec- tion, incidentally, was rather hampered by this quality of Mangione's charts, and tended to sound rather bland and homogenous. "Chase the Clouds" followed 'Make Believe," and it must be pointed out that the electric piano and piccolo scoring in this tune are ab- solutely gorgeous, beautifully utilizing the tone qualities of both instruments. Mangione is a very skillful arranger for all his simplicity, and tunes like this of- ten simply state the melody three or four times and close, using changes in instrumentation to great effect. The fourth tune of the first half was Emmy winner "Give It All You've Got," commissioned by ABC TV Sports for the Lake Placid winter olympics. This tune rocks, and Vacal played a fairly gutsy tenor sax solo. Guitarist Grant Greisman followed on acoustic guitar with a very busy, technical solo that roused the audience more than anything on the first half. Closing the first half was a number from Mangione's most recent album, Fun and Games, entitled "Pina Colada." This proved to be the most in- teresting number of the night, from the humorous, scat-sung melody to the very high tempoed, Latin tinged solos and an effective bridge section that up- sets the momentum temporarily with syncopated horn figures and sudden rests. Electric bassist Dave Pilch got off the night's most adventurous solo, playing at a high velocity in a style and sound borrowed from Weather Report's Jaco Pastorius. The second half of the concert was basically more of the same, with the highlight being the obligatory reading of "Feels So Good." The crowd was good natured and enthusiastic, and well satisfied at show's end, but seemed rather dull and conservative for Ann Arbor. There was a conspicuous absen- ce of pot smoking in the lobby during in- termission, and the WCBN/Eclipse crowd was nowhere to be seen. Chuck Mangione really communicates, though, and there's plenty of room in the music scene for his brand of innocent, good feeling pop. 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