ARTS The Michigan Daily Tuesday, November 10, 1987 Page 5 Canadian. Celtic tradition By V.J. Beauchamp Rare Air, the Canadian Celtic fusion experience, return to the Ark tonight for one 8 p.m. show. You may well remember Rare Air as the unpronouncable Na Cabarfeidh. The name change represents a very interesting and unusual phenomenon. As you may also be aware, the Canadian governmental policy discourages rather than encourages the "melting pot" homogenization that we see here in the States. Whole neighborhoods are often comprised of one ethnic group. Because of their interest in holding one's ancestors' traditions sacred, Canadians have many ethnic societies to practice their skills or crafts. One such skill is the music and dancing of the Highland region. Three of the four members of Rare Air are Scottish Canadians who began playing Highland bagpipes and snare drums at an early age. In 1973, these three all found themselves in the Cabarfeidh/City of Toronto Pipe Band. The Cabarfeidh became the first "Foreign Top Class" band to win a first prize in Scotland. Toronto is a pretty small town when you play Celtic traditional music. Grier Coppins and Patrick O'Gorman, the pipers, and Trevor Ferrier, the drummer, knew everyone in the city who played. One of Coppins' ex-schoolmates, Richard Murai, shared their interests in creating an intense, vibrant music based loosely on Celtic-Gaelic sources. The Japanese Canadian's guitars and percussion provided the perfect foil for the roaring wall of bagpipes and bombardes. They called themselves Na Cabarfeidh. And so it all began in 1978. Before their performance at the 1984 Ann Arbor Folk Festival, they changed their name to the simpler, less- Gaelic sounding Rare Air. The name, Na Cabarfeidh, means "top of the stag," a title bestowed in ancient Scotland to the chief of the Mackenzie clan. It tripped up even the most confident radio announcers and well- meaning record store clerks. The name also can give the impression of a bunch of ultra-serious, pretentious, more-Gaelic-than-thou traditionalists. This is not actually the case. In an interview in May 1987 with Daryl Yung for Toronto's NOW magazine, Coppins explained: "We didn't really consider ourselves to be much of a part of the British Isles thing. I think our music is closer to Sun Ra than it is to the Bothy Band. We just realized we had this big, long Gaelic name that didn't mean very much to us and made us sound like we were from the Isle of Skye. We're actually just urban kids who grew up playing Celtic music." It is true that the roots are Celtic. Yes. Bretonic, Scottish, Irish. But also African, and Indian, and components from jazz, funk, rock, and blues. The music is loud. And the guys are all moving about. Their music is very intense, powerful, and high-energy, both in concert and on their four albums. Their latest, Hard to Beat, -was recently released by Green Linnet, along with their new video/single, "Tribal Rites." Rare Air will be performing tonight at the Ark, 637 1/2 S. Main, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $7.50, $6.50 for members and students. Rare Air are (left to right) Richard Mural, Grier Coppins, Trevor Ferrier, and Patrick O'Gorman. They will be performing their rare blend of Celtic flavored sounds to the Ark tonight. Glas By Avra Kouffman This past Saturday, the Michigan Theater presented two showings of Koyaanisquatsi live to packed houses. The event featured the screening of the film Koyaanisquatsi and a live accompaniment by Philip Glass and his Ensemble. Glass wrote the film's score, and is currently on tour performing it around t he country. The Philip Glass Ensemble consists of Glass and five other musicians/singers, as well as Kurt Munkacsi, the group's audio engineer. With the help of their production staff and guest musicians, the Glass Ensemble offered a powerful performance alongside an a reflec equally powerful film. The afternoon of the performance, Philip Glass appeared at SKR Classical to autograph copies of his various albums. He chatted with fans and seemed candid and unaffected. The Daily spoke to him about his upcoming projects. Daily: What's your schedule for the upcoming year? Glass: Koyaanisquatsi takes us to Europe until December; we tour Belgium, Italy, France and Germany. This winter I'm finishing The Fall of the House of Usher. It opens at the American Repertory Theater in Boston on May 14. I'm working on the music for The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 by Doris Lessing, who wrote the book and the libretto. That opens July 7 in Houston. I'm also writing The ts on career Visitors for an ensemble and one actor, Bill Raymond. It's about an encounter with aliens. It opens ir, Vienna on July 15 and comes to the U.S. in September for the American Theater Festival in. Philadelphia. Then, that will tour the States until December. Also Akhnaten is opening in Sao Paulo in July. D: Is thescore to Powaquatsi similar to Koyaanisquatsi or did you want to do something completely different? G: The music is very different. It incorporates instruments from South America, Africa, and India, the places where the film was shot. The two films are similar, the same type of film, but music is very different. D: Which compositions are you most proud of? G: Koyaanisquatsi and Satyaghara. D: You live in New York. Which upcoming New York City musicians should we watch out for? G: Pierce Turner - he has a record coming out on Beggar's Banquet. It's really terrific. I did the arrangements for it. D: The Dalai Lama was in New York recently. Were you involved with that? G: Not this time. I've done concerts for his coming in the past but I wasn't in New York this time. Phil Henley of the Dharma Bums was really involved. I've worked with him in the past... he's a real believer. D : What composers and musicians do you listen to in your spare time? G: Anything, really. Lately I've been listening to Powaquatsi a lot - we've just finished recording it. Anything from Sibelius to Bach. Also, a lot of Brazilian music. I was in Brazil recently and I got interested in that. D: Have you spent much time in Ann Arbor? How do you like it? G: This is my fourth time here. I've been coming here quite regularly; we do very well here. I do like Ann Arbor but I haven't been able to see much of it; every time I'm here I come to this store, sign a few records, and I leave! future projects 'Suspect raises ethical issues ROI sA: -U2 -The Cure *Led Zeppelin and hundreds more UK LEo By Mark Shaiman "This is a cross-examination of a witness, not an indictment of the criminal justice system" says the judge in Suspect . And while he is right about the court case, he is definitely not referring to the film. Suspect does examine the system. Kathleen Riley (Cher) is a public defender assigned to the case of Carl Wayne Anderson (Liam Neeson), a homeless Vietnam vet- eran accused of murder. Eddie Sanger (Dennis Quaid), a Washington milk lobbyist, is a member of the jury who takes on an added interest in the case and does some investigative work of his own. Problems arise when Sanger turns over his new found evidence to Riley, therefore violating the law prohibiting contact between attorney and juror outside of the courtroom. This places Riley in the difficult position of choosing between helping her client and possibly being disbarred. This brings up many ethical questions about the justice system: Should laws be broken to maintain justice? Who has the right to decide this? And just what is justice? Fortunately the film makes no pretenses about providing the answers. Of course, by the end of the film justice is dealt out to those who deserve to be punished or rewarded. But the film leaves you with something to think about which is rare and worthy of praise. Eric Roth's screenplay develops this theme well, especially in conjunction with the plot. The film is basically a thriller in which Riley and Sanger become too know- ledgeable and thus endangertheir lives. This provides suspense and allows Roth to create situations where the motives of the characters are pure even though the "system" may not think so. The major problem with the film is its weak ending. The true discovery of the real killer is no surprise to the audience; we've all seen this resolution before. But the strength of the theme makes up tor the ending. Adding to the film are the character portrayals by Cher and Quaid. She is the quick-thinking lawyer and he is the smooth-talking lobbyist which provides for some witty dialogue between the two. While she is brassy, he is charming with a sarcastic smile reminiscent of Cary Grant. Overall, Suspect is worth seeing, if not for what it does, then for what it attempts to do. *November 9-13 "10:00 am-5:00 pm eGround Floor Mall Sponsored by Arts and Programming Michigan Daily AIRTS 763-0379 Our New Weeknight Family Specials Will Be Good For Generations. ROSS UNIVERSITY Guaranteed student loans for both schools SCHOOL OF MEDICINE American Medical School Curriculum. High pass rate on ECFMG. Guaranteed clinical rotations. U.S. Medical Schools are accepting Ross students with advanced standing. Listed in WHO. SCHOOL OF VETERINARY MEDICINE American Veterinary School curriculum. Listed In AVMA Directory. Only foreign vet school doing clinical rotations in USA. Vet school accepting students with advance standing. 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