The Michigan Daily
ARTS
Friday, December 2, 1983
Page 7
Polished jazz
By Bob King
C OOL JAZZ is in. Progressive step
back - this Saturday evening
belongs to the Heath Brothers. Stylish
virtuosos with jazz at their command,
Jimmy and Percy are bringing their
aural delights to Ann Arbor.
Unlike much contemporary jazz, the
music of the Heath Brothers excels on
subtlety. They temper their force with
expression polished by a lifelong love of
classical styles. Bop they can, but
they're more the masters of the
traditional twelve-bar blues.
Who are the Heath Brothers, you may
ask? Jimmy Heath is master of the
metal reeds and flute. Banded together
with John Coltrane and others back in
the Fifties, he has played with such
legends as Miles Davis and Dizzy
Gillespie. Percy is the bassist extraor-
dinaire, and rhythm of the Modern Jazz
Quartet for so many years.
The third brother is new, however:
Albert Heath will be on drums,
replacing former band member Akira
Tana. The third Heath pays for all, it's
said, but what this means is unclear;
nevertheless, his presence should be in-
teresting. Completing the quartet is
long-time Heath Brother cohort Stanley
Cowell pressing his omnipresent ivory.
Cowell brings a unique style to the
piano, open, airy, and capable of
creating an expanse and filling it with
music. Rumor is that his rhythms
provoke dance.
Classicism. Don't think their lack of
glare means any lack of flare: Percy
himself is a one-man inspiration. Heath
Brothers music is exciting in subtle
ways: precision is their trademark, not
volume.
Warning: this show is not just for jazz
lovers. With their sparkling, original
compositions and interpretations of
material by such greats as Duke
Ellington and Charlie Parker, the
Heath Brothers create a truly ac-
cessible show.
Two shows, 8 & 10 p.m. at the U-Club.
Tickets $7.50 at the Union Box Office
and at Schoolkid's.
The Heath Brothers bring experience and sophistication to the U-Club
Saturday, Dec. 3.
Records
Elvis Costello - 'Punch the
Clock'-(CBS)
No need to apologize for punching in
over three months after release date; a
Costello album should be able to
weather a change of seasons. "Pills and
oap" washed in last spring pointedly
in the wake of the Falklands skirmish..
You think your country needs you
but you know it never will; yet, even
with one war fading into another, the
sifigle hasn't aged badly at all.
The timing is fairly accurate on the
rest of the clock as well, as Costello's
second hand winds its way carefully
thfbugh a brassy bright time afforded
by the T.K.O. horns, while his first hand
ha, the famed McManus wit pinned
lown firmly.
No need, then, to make any more
plugs for "Let Them All Talk,"
"Everyday I Write the Book," or even
"The Invisible Man." They're all worth
the time, having taken a wrinkle from
past times and pastimes with a liberal
spraikling of soul cliches, a moderate
attention to current trends (from
Wha'n! to Culture Club, which may not
be very far, after all), and a neoconser-
vative drift into showiness. The singer
books
'Atlas'
By Glen Baxter
Knopf, $7.95 (hardcover)
Silly. Irrelevant. Ridiculous. Absurd.
If they don't make the world go 'round,
these adjectives certainly make its
trajectory more bearable. They are
also concepts Glen Baxter expertly
represents in Atlas.
Combining an old action-books-for-
boys drawing style with sentences
alnost ignorable out of context, Baxter
links ridiculously bland remarks to in-
tense and serious images.
"Phyllis realized almost instinctively
that it was just a piece of paper,"
creates shocked indignation in three
women - give them water and fans,
lease.
We see two men,dressed like charac-
ters from "Prince Valiant," fists clen-
ched, eyes filled with madness as one
speaks "fervently of his vision of a
I
A Solstice Celebration Tomorrow
ANDROGYNY NIGHT-Sat., Dec. 3
For men and women: who want to explore androgyny, the cele-
bration of the masculine and feminine within them " who want to
consider what sexuality might be without gay and straight labels
" who want to move beyond traditional male and female gender
roles " who want to experience the unity of themselves and the
universe.
7:30 p.m.-Open discussion "What is Androgyny?"
9:00 p.m.-Singing and Dancing, dress androynously
CANTERBURY LOFT
332 S. STATE ST., SECOND FLOOR
Elvis Costello
... keeping time
oesn't throw off his throwaway lines
ith the dash of Armed Forces or the
earnestness of Imperial Bedroom,
The inclusion of T.K.O.s - Costello's
tribute to Stax (or Dexys, who knows?),
opens with a blast but grows gradually
tinny. As Costello experiments go, I
prefer the Billy Sherrill exursion of the
less "successful" Almost Blue. Isn't
this the greatest thing? No, because
there is a cluttered appearance; a pop
parody. Not timeless, but timeful,
tuneful. -Ben Ticho
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213
S. STATE.
ANN
AReOF
chain of multi-level pancake houses in
every major city in the Netherlands.."
His characters are so serious in what
they do or discover, sober drawings
matching equally straight-faced
descriptions, that they resemble Monty
Python doing its firmest tongue-in-
cheek.
Silliness and absurdity do not always
a good joke make, and occasionally
Baxter slips into confusion: Why are
men sometimes referred to as women,
and vice versa? In a couple of cartoons,
the jokes stand on their own given the
right sex, but when a man is called
"Mrs." or a women "Uncle" I wonder if
something else is being communicated
that is beyond my :ken. Because the
other cartoons are so good, I ignore the
dubious ones with, "Well, Baxter's
British." Whether or not that means
anything, it is a handy American way to
account for Baxter's - and his car-
toon's -eccentricities. -Tom Bowden
The Hostage
By Brendan Behan
Directed By Mary Kelly
December 5th 7-10 p m
December 6th 5-7, 7:30-10 pm
TV Studio - Frieze Building 3541
Sign up list in the Frieze Building
For info, call PT P office 763-5213
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Stop by Ulrich's Tuesday, November 29 through
Friday, December 2 from 11:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
A Josten's representative will be there to tell
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