ARTS The Michigan Daily Saturday, December 1, 1984 Page 5 Marsalis oozes oodles of creativity By Eric Mattson a NO PRESSURE no hype, just good -old-fashioned American jazz. Lights? Lasers? Dancing? Nope, this isn't a Spyro Gyra nightmare, it's Wynton Marsalis: trumpet zeus. Marsalis, appearing at the Michigan Theatre Thursday night, proved once and for eternity that you go to concrts not to listen to music, but to experience it. The 23-year-old phenomenon dazzled the crowd with an unpretentious com- bination of understatement and raucous belching (of tthe musical variety, of course). From the first untitled piece, Mar- salis and crew blew away their opening act, Fast Tracks. Don't get me wrong. It's not that Fast Tracks was utterly abysmal, it's that Wynton and his brother Branford overwhelm you with the sheer goodness of their playing. Even President Reagan acknowledged this when he said, "Wynton and his group are hip cats. They are the focus of good in the jazz world." With Larry manning the ivories, Charnett Moffett on bass, and Jeff Wat- ts on drums, the whole shebang was almost too cool for thishumble reporter to put into words. Well, not quite. One of the most refreshing parts of the concert was Moffett's straight- ahead rhythm on bass - a real stand- up bass, not one of those portable jobs those rock groups play. During "Black Nile," Moffett was out of control during his five-minute solo, bobbing his head and setting the stage on fire. The dude was hot. You had to feel kind of sorry for Willis, Moffett, and Watts. (You don't really have to pity them; it's sort of a free country.) Wynton and Branford got to walk off stage during their comrades' solos while the other three had to sweat it out on stage. Ah, well. That's life in the medium-sized city. Wynton, the New Orleans-born master of jazz and classical music, was overwhelming with his under- statement, and sly with his splats, shakes, glissandos et al. The do-be-do- WOT (pregnant pause) be-do-be do- wot of one piece had the audience shoutin' and stompin'. The '50s-style suits epitomized coolness, and Wyn- ton's farewell ("Y'all be cool") was cool as the morning grass in a tampon commercial. There were three disappointments: the encore number was anticlimactic, the wine the theatre served tasted like fetid scum (not that I've tasted fetid scum), and Branford's sax playing wasn't quite up to par. Sure, he was pretty good, but he didn't stand out as much as the other dudes did. The opening act was surprisingly good, but was nevertheless discom- bobulated by the Marsalis brothers. They didn't have the glitz of Spyro Gyra or the down-to earth-stuff that Mar- salis' group practically oozes. New member and saxophonist Tim Reis, who used to be part of Maynard Ferguson's band, played well, but like* Branford, that intangible edge of mind- boggling creativity was missing. Wyn- ton sure had it. ..E...E.EE.E.. *COM INGSOON ! tM- UAC/ MUSKET V\inter '85 will present: *Pippin PRODUCTION STAFF POSITIONS AVAILABLE NOW PICK UP AN APPLICATION AT THE UAC OFFICE rLes more lie at info UAC 763 Kathy or -1107 m.. Subscribe to The Daily Phone 764-0558 Daily Photo by DAN HABIB Wynton Mursalis kicks some brass at the Michigan Theatre Thursday night. Ellington 's Ladies visit the Michigan By Dennis Harvey THE LONG-RUNNING Broadway musical Sophisticated Ladies, based on the work of Duke Ellington, will travel to the Michigan Theatre for performances on this Monday and Tuesday, December 3 and 4, at 8:00. Ladies was one of the first in what has turned out to be a long recent line of musicals drawing on the works of a particular composer (often, as here, a black composer) and fitting them into a loose format somewhere between cabaret and convention book-show. The pleasures of these shows are mostly in the thrill of re-discovery - in finding out just how much depth and range we'd forgotten about in the work of the particular composer Duke Ellington is, however, hardly a forgotten name in music. In fact, the last few years have seen him gain, perhaps alone among black music- makers in any genre, a widespread respectability as a 'serious' American composer - like George Gershwin, this judgement has been a rather long time in coming because of the "non-serious" connotations of jazz and show music. By NOW Ellington is more or less routinely held alongside Copland, et al as a true 20th Century American great. Yet there's been a small disadvantage in this too - we're now so accustomed to hearing Ellington pieces instrumen- tally that few remember how many familiar tunes originally had lyrics. Sophisticated Ladies presents many Ellington favorites like "Mood Indigo" with their original, popular-song-form lyrics restored, and no doubt the touring Broadway company will have fine voices to punch them across. Leading the cast at the Michigan Theatre will be Detroiter Freda Payne, who had the hit pop record "Band of Gold" a few years ago and has ap- peared in New York in Lost in the Stars. Hanoi rocks Detroit Uchida to play with DSO Finland's Hanoi Rocks will be making an area appearance tonight at Detroit's Traxx,. marking the commencement of what their label hopes will be a major commercial onslaught in the U.S. after several years of popularity in Europe. Their new Coumbia LP Two Steps from the Move might just do the trick, with its hard-edged yet melodic tunes that make perfect sense for your AOR tastes out there. If anything's working against them (Beyond difficulties in getting across sentiments like "We're here ta rock ya Detroit!" etc. with Fin- nish accents), it may be their peculiar image. This sort of Duran Duran/Culture Club frilliness, defined by lead singer Mike' Monroe's (2nd from left above) pouty-lipped androgynous pret- tiness, seems a bit incongruous with the lightened-up heavy metal the band plays. Tickets are available at the usual outlets and at Traxx. - Dennis Harvey By Neil Galanter T HE MOST enjoyable thing about Thursday evening's Detroit Symphony Orchestra concert in Ford Auditorium was hearing a Mozart Piano Concerto played by Japanese pianist Mitsuko Uchida. It made driving all the way to Detroit entirely worthwhile in every sense. The 35-year-old Uchida is one of the leading Japanese musicians of her generation and she is increasingly being recognized throughout the world as a distinguished interpreter of the classical piano repertoire. After hearing her play Mozart, it is easy and facile enough why! Everything Uchida did in inter- preting the Mozart on Thursday was right on target every step of the way. She handles Mozart and the "Stein- way" with extreme ease, grace and shining personality. From the first bars of the piece with her opening statement in the E Flat K271 Concerto she simply, yet firmly stated what good Mozart playing is all about: Fresh, clean and pure music with no added or unnecessary dramatic frills or taxing luxuries at the expense of the music. Uchida has gleaming articulation at the keyboard which shone through super- bly in the concerto and her playing was always blooming thus producing a true "peaches and cream" complexion. She knows the true style of Mozart and it was evident throughout the performan- ce. Even in the more operatic and dramatic parts of the piece, such as in the extensive middle movement, she never got carried away with the possible opportunities to make noticeable overtly theatrical im- pressions as some pianists might do in similar cases. She knew the limits and she worked well within them, giving us viously the orchestra was still warming themselves up because this piece just did not flow evenly together at all. It was excessively detached and not very convincing musically as a "whole." Bloopers from the strings included their suffering from poor intonation resulting in sometimes being in tune and then sometimes not. The perfor- mance was not in the true style of Han- del, which was also a problem. That bold and striking, yet smoothly con- trolled playing that is necessary just was not there. After intermission, things were in better shape. The orchestra performed Czech composer Bohuslav Marinu's Symphony No. 1, and with a reasonable amount of success too. Guest conductor Jiri Belohlavek felt more at home here I think, which resulted in making this symphony a much stronger product. Belohlavek is the conductor and artistic director of the Prage Symphony Or- chestra in Czechoslovakia, and he is one of the country's leading conductors. It was evident that he knows his Czech- music quite well, and he led the or- chestra in a performance which was highly enjoyable and very easy to listen to and to digest. 0 0 DAILY FIRST MATINEE ONLY $2.00 0 o $ 00 THIS ENTIRE AD GOOD FOR 0 TWO TICKETS AT $3.00 EACH. **************se*** ***** OO@@ * @wwwwwwww;** "Almost Sizzles with From the Director of "Local Hero" *Erotic Tension"-N Y ol-l News and "Gregory's Girl" 0 r Alan Bird " ' is getting nothing he * wants this ! . ., t Chrstnas. * " ' FRI. 1:00, 7:20, 9:20, 11:15P.M. * SAT. 1:20, 3:20, 5:20, 7:20, 9:20,11:15 P.M. " ! FI.1 7,9, 1 PM. UN., 3 5,7,9SUN.120,3205207:20,9:20 ! SAT. 1, 3,5, 7,9, 11P MON. 1, 79 MON.1:00,7:20 920 0 rila".*.....**** .....**....*.*..i..*.*.. i " " " SoEN SU ~ _-te - n Ol a M01G FOY ~.\eoL 3ea og 0ed . " , r s_ \ N i f n 1 uv er g .,.oa' e N ri - -VXe at 308'/2 S4. STATE =28 m