ARTS The Michigan Daily Saturday, February 5, 1983 Page 5 Jumpin'jazz jamtonight By Jerry Brabenec NE OF THE MOST highly praised and creative musicians in con- temporary jazz, saxophonist Anthony Braxton will perform at the University Club tonight in a duet concert with pianist Marilyn Crispell. Making one of his main tenets the dictum that "there's nothing that happens that doesn't swing," the chess playing, professorial Braxton has devoted his distinguished composing, performing, and teaching career to constantly expanding the boundaries of jazz. Born in Chicago in 1945, Braxton began playing clarinet in high school and developed a taste for some of the more intellectual, cool jazzers of the late 50's. Lee Konitz, Warne Marsh, PaulrDesmond, and Miles Davis were all developing more complex har- monies and arrangements, playing with an understated sophistication that ran against the earlier stripped down simplicity and uninhibited soloing of bepoo. After a tour with the army band in Korea, Braxton returned to Chicagl and soon befriended fellow saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell, began to work with the Chicago based Association for the Ad- vancement of Creative Music. This group was organized, as Braxton says, "to study and advance the music that was solidifying during that period, namely the music of John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, and Sun Ra. One of the many wonderful things about the AACM was the cooperative spirit found there. The emphasis was always on the collective rather than the individual." Other members of the AACM to achieve great prominence during the ensuing years have included Muhal Richard Abrams, Lester Bowie, and the other members of the Art Ensemble of Chicago. By the end of the '60s, Braxton had already made jazz history by recording the first album devoted entirely to solo saxophone music. The album, For Alto, received the Japanese Gold Disc Award and a five star (top rated) review in Downbeat Magazine. The early '70s found Braxton in Europe, playing with pianist Chick Corea, bassist Dave Holland, and drummer Barry Altschul in the group Circle. Composed of four famous jazz vir- tuosi, Circle created dense, complex textures that developed sonic territory totally outside traditional jazz harmony rhythm, having much more in common with avant garde classical composers like John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen. By this time Braxton and developed his technique of titling his compositions with small mathematic/geometric diagrams that represented a sort of schematic of each piece. During his early days in Europe, Braxton was living in a rather hand-to- mouth fashion, making money during the day as a chess hustler and playing his music at night. . The music that resulted from this period cemented Braxton's reputation particularly the 2 record live set en- titled, Circle: the Paris Concerts, released on the German label ECM. Another important release from this period was Conference of the Birds, with saxophonist Sam Rivers, in music that ran the gamut from abstract free textures to the folksong-like simplicity of the title tune.' In 1972, Braxton performed a solo alto concert in New York's Carnegie Hall, and during the next few years he worked in an amazing variety of con- texts. His music for four orchestras was performed and recorded at Oberlin University, where he taught and served as artist in residence. He substituted for tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon on a straight ahead jazz date, astonishing everyone by performing the bebop standard "Donna Lee" on the elephan- tine contrabass clarinet. He composed the score for a French film entitled Paris Streets, wrote ballet music for Merce Cunningham's dance company, and experimented with electronic music. Some of his compositions, such as the music for 5 shovels, or the music for 100 tubas, seems to have been written largely just to demonstrate that dictum that "there's nothing that happens that doesn't swing". The Creative Or- chestra Music 1976albumfeatured reworkings of classic American march forms, and Braxton and Holland recor- ded Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag," extending the concept of creative im- provised music to embrace the entire history of what Lester Bowie calls "Great Black Music." Braxton shows no signs of slowing down as he moves into the '80s. His recent collaboration with drummer Max Roach, Birth and Rebirth, was awarded the Italian Jazz Society's Album of the Year honors, and he has also received a Guggenheim fellowship to work on his "Composition 102 for Or- chestra and Puppet Theatre." Appearing with Braxton at the U Club tonight will be pianist Marilyn Crispell. A '68 graduate of the New England Con- servatory, Crispell worked in the realm of dance and classical music before enrolling at the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, New York in 1977. There, she met Braxton, and performed in some of his large ensembles. Asked about her style in an interview in the New York Times, Crispell said, "I say I play free music, but there's still a feeling of a strong energy pulse going through it, so it's not just some dissipated, intellectual mish-mash." Braxton will hold a free lecture workshop at theWilliam Monroe Trot- ter House today at 4. Karen Carpenter dead at age 32 From Wire Service Reports N O MORE rainy days or Mondays for Karen Carpenter. The 32- year old singer, who with her brother Richard brought soft rock to the top of the charts with such songs as "Top of the World" and "Close to You," died of cardiac arrest Friday at a hospital. Carpenter was rushed to the Downey Community Hospital early yesterday morning after becoming ill at her parent's home, according to her agent, Paul Bloch. CPR efforts and stimulative drugs failed to revive the unconscious celebrity. The fresh-faced Grammy Award- winning Carpenters sold 60 million albums worldwide following their first big hit, "We've Only Just Begun," in the early 1970s. In their early recording days, Carpenter, an anorexic brunette, surprised audiences by playing the drums, although she later moved behind a microphone for good. Many of their biggest hits were tunes by fluff songwriter Burt Bacharach. "This was a wonderful fresh voice that came out of this really fresh, won- derful girl," Bacharach said. "She had a sound in her voice that was very unique, that I haven't heard before and haven't heard since." In 1975 the Carpenters were forced to cancel a 38-month concert tour of Europe because Karen was suffering from a severe case of physical and ner- vous exhaustion. Carpenter was bedridden for six weeks at that time. Married in 1980 to industrial real estate developer Thomas J. Burris of Newport Beach, Carpenter was in the process of a divorce, according to Bloch. Her last album, Made in America, was released in 1981 and she was about to record a new one with her brother, he said. Carpenter ... top of the world Shakespeare at mid-day By Julie Bernstein SHAKESPEARE in the park? No, Shakespeare at the Union. Every Thursday afternoon, the School of Music's "Music at Mid-day" program provides free entertainment from 12:10 to 1 p.m. Usually, music students are scheduled to do recitals; this past Thursday, however, the faithful weekly attendants saw something a little dif- ferent as students from Oberlin College in Ohio performed a musical and dramatic interpretation of various scenes from Shakespearean plays. "Hot Ice and Wondrous Strange Snow..." was first produced by professional actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company. Six out of the original 12 actors cast were chosen to tour with the show, which was cut down to an hour. Since the beginning of January the troupe has appeared at high schools throughout Cleveland, Cincinatti, Columbus, Pittsburgh, and Ann Arbor. Their last stop here at the- University was a well-deserved finale for these weary travelers. The ex- perience of performing as many as three shows a day at differenthigh schools and conducting workshops in Shakespeare, music, and juggling can be tiring. Such activities count as the one term extra-curricular project that every Oberliner must complete for graduation. Thursday's program included 11 scenes from As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet, Taming of the Shrew, The Win- ter's Tale, and The Tempest, in ad- dition to sonnets and Shakespearean love songs. The central theme tying the scenes together was nothing but old Bill's favorite literary topic, love and its many stages. The first movement exposed love's irrationality and outbur- sts of passion and giddiness; the second described the pain and problems of lovers', and the final one covered the trust and understanding that is developed with time. In general, the acting was overdone and the interpretations were trite. This may have been intentional since "Hot Ice..." was designed for younger audiences with limited exposure to the Bard. The smooth, effective transitions between scenes were cleverly staged by the use of a simple prop or costume ac- cessory to establish a new character or Shakespearean idea. Also, the selec- tion of scenes served as a thorough representation of Shakespeare's most famous love scenes. Brian Dean, graduate student in violin performance, accompanied the scenes with beautiful folk melodies on old medieval and mountain instrumen- ts. His harmonious tunes evoked all the romance and enchantment Shakespeare himself would have direc- ted. The performances seemed to lack energy but after a month of high school kids and tiresome bus trips, "can'st thou blame them?" "Music at Mid- day" is an excellent release for working students and staff. If you have the hour free, take a break and relax. Anthony Braxton jazzes up the U-Club tonight at 8and 10:30 p.m. 'Potassium' earns its drama salt, COMPUTER.TERMINALS FOR RENT $60.00 per month TIPCO 455-8133 By David Kopel A NN ARBOR has never been known as a town one travels to to get a start in theater. So whenever a theater program dedicated to showcasing local talent comes along, it makes a major contribution to the vitality of theater here. Performance Network is a com- munity theater group founded last win- ter. Located on the far side of down- town (408 W. Washington), they have already established a reputation for in- novation and variety. One of their most interesting projects has been the "Works in Progress" series. Original works, usually one-acts, by local playwrights are given trial performan- ces, with minimal sets and staging. Af- terwards, the audience and the playwright discuss possible revisions for the script. The playwright revises, and, a few months later, the script receives a full production. This weekend, the term's first two full productions in the series will be 1 playing. The Atomic Weight of Potassium and Slow Monday opens tonight and continues on Monday at 8 p.m. The Atomic Weight of Potassium will also appear at the Michigan Union on March 22. Admission for these two plays is an unconscionable five dollars. If your idea of an evening of drama is Neil Simon at a dinner theater, The Atomic Weight of Potassium will annoy you. But if you enjoy multi-layered psychological conflicts, this play is just right. Dan, an unemployed high school civics teacher, is married to Samantha, a lady lawyer. A few weeks ago, Dan had a nervous breakdown; the play takes place the evening he leaves the institution for a dinner-date with Sam. Author Lyn Coffin's use of language is brilliant. As in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? the characters use their words as weapons in a sexual power struggle. No line of dialogue is wasted, as each word contributes several meanings. Timothy Grimm, a University grad student in theater, plays Daniel. Sen- sitive to the nuances of Coffin's script, he fills his role with dignified self-pity. He deftly directs his sarcasm at Samantha - and at himself, for he vac- cilates between thinking himself wret- ched and Christ-like. As Samantha, Sandy Storrer brings out Sam's conflict between her attrac- tion to Dan-as a mother-and her weariness with her indulgent and half- sane spouse. Sometimes, however, Storrer substitutes stridency for genuine anger. As the play progresses, the charac- ters play their roles more broadly. In the final two scenes, Dan's journey into his own world becomes especially in- teresting, as is the build-up to the final confrontation between Dan and Sam. Slow Monday takes place in an all- night diner. All the regulars-the diner owner, a waitress, and a gigolo - lead stale lives of inaction and numbness. Into the diner walks a crazed young man, afraid he has just killed someone. Roger Kerson plays Tom, the young man who dominates the action. His ob- sessive eyes, twitchy tension, and swagger earns him the undivided atten- tion of the diner's occupants, and of the audience. In a small role as the gigolo's client, Judith Ottmar is a delight. In a few minutes, she shows the audience a well- developed character, grasping at lies to ward off her advancing age. The rest of the cast works well together, although none has the conviction of Kerson and Ottmar. Performance Network has shown that very good playwriting- talent exists in Ann Arbor, and that talent to produce satisfying versions of original plays exists too. .d ------- r/7 GIFT CERTIFICAT 11 ' THE MOVIES AT BRIARWOOD S~n !h .Pn : tl Ds..m -V IS 200to .":l ES-NOW ON SALE SFox 769- Fy F0 X 313 375 N.\I/ LAG MAPLE VIL -LAIJ_5R7:00 -- -_-- EIGH ORS mum .9:30 10:00, 12:15, 2:30, 5:00, 7:30, 10:00 2-CETROX ILMS --- - --m- n-.rn- . - .-=- rn rn- - n The Man of the t RICHARD PRYOR Century. 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