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 h 1 20.% OFF; ALL NEW CLOTHING .1.:.... 4. f - , * w ; Jr t .T, - .if',',Et y .. _. r . Na t. YEL ., _ ' , . ' ,1. .. ' xt :' . I. i AUDITIONSfo for 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 C a 99~5 (6REAVJ" da l 'U I. I 40a g ILLS 6,V V.- " r 4 4 I A N y t O l l l 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 , , i a