ARTS
The Michigan Daily Tuesday, March 19, 1985 Page7
Floydian drama unfolds at Joe Louis
,y David Yount
ROGER WATERS, chief writer,
composer, and bass player for
Pink Floyd, is touring a second time
around, in an effort to play cities that
were not included on his premiere solo
tour. While Floyd fans await some sort
of final decision on the status of the
-band, Roger Waters and David Gilmour
are letting them get a chance to hear
them on their own, complete with tours.
Waters has a reputation for putting
on a "good" show. This means, of cour-
,, not only lights, but imagery,
theatrics, and lavish desplays of
technological art, not to mention vir-
tuoso musicianship. This is an exten-
ston of the Pink Floyd-type stage show,
which can be simply described as
elaborately but tastefully extravagant.
Waters is expected to incorporate older
"music (including Floyd material dating
back to their second album, Saucerful
of.Secrets) and to entertain the audien-
ce with a dramatic presentation of his
solo album, The Pros and Cons of Hitch
Hiking. The same team who put
together The Wall tour are handling
these shows, including Gerald Scarfe,
Mark Fisher, and Johnathon Park.
Roger is not your average rock star;
in fact, he may be an antisuperstar: he
doesn't hang out at the 'fashionable'
haunts, he shys away from the
limelight, and he has a strong in-
dividualistic attitude that often sets
him against the grain. Yet, he is well-
respected among leading musicians:
Eric Clapton accompanied Roger on his
first tour.
His album seems more like a work of
art than that of many of the MTV-
weaned bands of today. His lyrics are
profound yet artful, and the style of the
music (with sound effects like Mack
trucks stopping and passing by and in-
credibly realistic thunder roars) make
the album an intense mix of the
mediums, words and music.
His two most personal (and notably
classic) albums, Dark Side of the Moon
and The Wall have sold nearly 30
million copies, and as of May 1984, the
former had already spent 520 weeks on
the Billboard LP chart, a fact that most
Floydians enjoy noting. All of Pink
Floyd's albums, under the leadership of
Waters, have sold over 55 million
copies.
So, while Floyd fans deliberate on the
reforming (?) or breakup (?) of their
group, we can still have the chance to
delight in the solo effort(s) by Waters
(and Gilmour) whose individualistic
approaches to music have already
made rock history, and will undoub-
tedly continue to refuse conformity.
The music Waters makes will con-
tinue to question established ideas,
break new ground, and statisfy a
musical audience with serious concern:
Floyd fans or no, tonight's concert
promises to be one of the year's most
entertaining.
Lets talk about jazz...
By arwulf arwulf
TAZZ NEEDS to be talked about.
tJ Many of us are curious as to
where it's been and what's hap-
pening to it right now, but the media
is so very heavily pop & rock orien-
ted that jazz gets shelved and
sometimes forgotten.
z
which has not been exclusively
covered in previous lecture series
and should be interesting as well as
helpful to anyone who's curious and
wants advice on the best written
material pertaining to jazz. I'll be
discussing at least thirty titles,
covering some 80 years of american
music.
The lectures will continue through
late April, with the following
contributors:
Friday, March 22nd, at the W.M.
Trotter House, South African
Pianists and bandleader Abdullah
Ibrahim will conduct a workshop,
preparatory to his concert that
evening at Lydia Mendelssohn
Theater.
Tuesday, April 2nd, in the Crofoot
room of the Michigan Union, WC-
BN's Marc Taras will present Jazz
Poetry. Mr. Taras has taught
literary courses at the University,
and has been involved in Jazz and
Poetry for the better part of his life.
Wednesday, April 3rd, in the
Wolverine Room of the Michigan
Union, a special presentation of Jazz
Poetry and Live Music, with the
honorable John Sinclair presiding.
Jazz videos will also be shown. Don't
miss out on this one!
Tuesday, April 9th, hip cab driver
Greg Dahlberg, one of the leading
collectors of Jazz recordings in the
area, will outline the history of the
Bluenote Record Label.
Tuesday, April 16th, WEMU's own
Michael Jewett will discuss the
Harlem Renaissance. I'm looking
forward to two hours of Michael;
he's quite a guy.
Finally, on Tuesday, April 23rd, also
from WEMU, Michael G. Nastos will
share his perspective of the
Association For the Advancement of
Creative Musicians, and new music
in general.
These last three will take place in
the aforementioned Crofoot Room of
the Michigan Union.
It's not too late to register for this
exciting and informative series.
Registration is 25 dollars, and this
gains you free admission to the
Abdullah Ibrahim concert on
Friday, March 22nd. For more in-
formation call Eclipse at 763-0046.
Hope to hear from you.
Roger Waters' stage show recalls the elaborateness of a Pink Floyd concert. Tonight, he brings his band to Joe Louis
for another grandiose performance.
White charges up ,the Ark
Eclipse Jazz is offering a series of
lectures dealing with the many dif-
ferent sides of the music and the
recording industry.
Tonight's presentation, with myself
as speaker, will deal with the
Literature of Jazz. This is an area
s
Records
.Count Basie - Kansas City
Style (RCA)
RCA has thankfully reissued these
priceless recordings from the thirties
with the additional tag, "Young Bill
j~sie." Basie, who died just last year,
aws a true giant among bandleaders
but these sessions might have actually
been more appropriately subtitled
"Late Bennie Moten". This was the
group that Basie would take over and
. make over into his own orchestra. The
B-side of this LP features some early
scat vocals from Basie and a blues
he1ping from Jimmy Rushing, Mr. Five
y Five, but the highlights of this disc
are the tunes culled from an excep-
taonally hungry 1932 session.
Iere was a hot band struggling for a
luck. With Oran 'Hot Lips' Page on
r tnmpet and Ben Webster on tenor they
certainly were not struggling for talent.
Add more vocals from Jimmy Rushing
and this band could tear it up. These
sessions have stood the test of time.
They sound neither worn nor worried;
just hungry. Here is alto soloist Eddie
Durham's memory of the session:
"'We didn't have any money...we had
(get to Camden to record, and along
ccves this little guy Archie with a
raggedy old bus, and he took us there.
Sgot us a rabbit and four loaves of
apd and we cooked rabbit stew right
a pool table. That kept us from star-
ving and we went and made the recor-
ds. Eddie Durham was doing most of
Bennie's writing then; I made "Toby"
Mat time. We just turned around and
made it back to Kansas City. We hung
By Doug Enders
B Y SINGING an array of songs about
peace, hope, and brotherly love,
Josh White Jr. literally showed us how
we all could come together if we only
tried. If you know anything about Josh
White Jr. you know that's exactly what
he wanted.
Ranging from pop to country; from
folk and blues to spiritual, White's
variety of sound touched all tastes. It
was in this way that the soft-voiced
singer built a warm relationship with
his audience.
In introducing the well known
"That's the Thing About Love", White,
with an evangelical tone, summoned
the audience to sing as "it was time for
us to lift our songs together". Once the
audience got started, they didn't stop
singing until the show's final song was
finished, almost two hours later.
In contrast to this theme of love, Josh
Jr. performed the folksong "Uncle Sam
Says," written by his father, Josh White.
The song is about the injustice of the
army's practice of segregation during
World War II. Calling for unity between
black and white, the song's chorus ex-
claimed "let's all get together and kill
Jim Crow today".
One of White's most inspirational
songs, 'Grandma's Hands" blended a
gospel and blues sound together in its
message of faith and hope. As the song
came to an emotional end, the audien-
ce's background harmonies (directed
by White) descended gracefully in an
Amen-like fashion. And in the silence
that followed, everyone in the whole
room marveled at the beautiful music
that they had made together. This, of
course, was shortly followed by a loud
March of Dimes
BIRTH DEFECTS FOUNDATION
SAVES BABIES
HELP FIGHT
BIRTH DEFECTS
round of cheers and self-applause.
Although his songs were often about
brotherly love, Josh White Jr. was not
playing the role of a preacher. By no
means was his performance a religious
sermon in which God and love were
shoved down the audience's throats.
His musical message was more subtle
and often funny as it inspired the
audience's own feelings of goodwill to
surface. To say the least, the tone of the
performance was not the slightest bit
serious.
Perhaps the only disappointment in
the show was that White played very lit-
tle of his own material. Too often he
relied on the songs of the likes of James
Taylor or Carol King to entertain the
audience. Unlike his own material,
such as "Grandma's Hands", which
Amazing sophistication of arrangemen-
ts is in evidence here with beautiful ex-
changes between Hot Lips Page and a
saxophone chorus. The outchorus of
"Blue Room" reveals what an ex-
citable bunch of guys was in this group.
"New Orleans" features the fluid con-
ceptions of Ben Webster (sounding
terribly modern - that is to say, wild!)
while "The Only Girl I Ever Loved" is a
piece of sophisticated rinky-dink with
really goofy vocals.
Basie himself is highlighted
throughout and demonstrates his
tremendous technique and understan-
ding of the styles of the day. "Prince of
Wales" is a textbook example of stride
piano, warm and exciting, and with Hot
Lips Page to boot! We recall Count
Basie with loving respect and ad-
miration. This glorious collection culled
from the Count's formative years
crackles with an energy that reminds
us of our affection as well. This is a real
treat.
- Marc S. Taras
was very fresh and exciting, these all-
too familiar songs added little energy to
his performance. In White's defense
however, his breezy rendition of
Stephen Still's "Change Partners" was
very refreshing and well received.
With his wide variety of music,
humor, and fun-loving personality,
Josh White Jr. proved not only to be a
wonderful entertainer, but an in-
spirational man as well.
As part of the audience, you unexpec-
tedly - found yourself singing
background harmonies for the main
performer. And let me tell you, the
audience was darn good in backing up
old Josh on vocals. In fact, I've never
seen a tighter performance by an
audience who's never sung together
before.
The University Activities Center
is now accepting applications
for positions for:
COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSONS
for all committees.
Applications aredue
available at the UAC
MARCH 22 and are
Offices - 2105 MI Union.
For more information, call UAC at
763-1107
Count Basie
... priceless reissues
around there for a while not doing
much of anything..."
Hungry I mean really hungry.
The aformentioned "Toby" is a brisk-
yessir! number that features the band's
key soloists, Page, Webster, and Eddie
Barefield. "Moten's Swing" is a classic
with Basie's early Fats Wailer and
James P. Johnson influences showing.
No one faces cancer alone.
~ Call us.
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY'
(Q
NO CVLIAN BAND
CAN MAKE YOU THIS OFFER.
If you're a musician who's serious
The Army has bands performing
RUN!
The 1985-1986 Michigan Student Assembly
ELECTIONS
Make your voice heard, and get
the experience of a lifetime.
RUN FOR AN MSA OFFICE
about performing, you should take a in Japan, Hawaii, Europe and all
serious look at the Army. across America.
Army bands offer you an average And Army bands offer you the
of 40 performances a month. In every- chance to play with good musicians. Just
thing from concerts to parades. to qualify, you have to be able to sight-
Army bands also offer you a read music you've never seen before and
chance to travel. demonstrate several other musical skills.
It's a genuine, right-now, imme-
diate opportunity.
Compare it to your civilian offers.
Then write: Army Opportunities, P.O.
Box 7715, Clifton, NJ 07015.
AMY BAND.
BE ALLYOU CAN BE.
II
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