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INTERVIEW
Continued from Page 10
have come here from the love of
jazz, and we have to channel
that into what business skills we
have.
W: Do you see a resurgence of
traditional jazz occurring now and if
so, how does that effect what you
do here?
B: People are always speaking
about jazz revivals and every few
years there seems to be one. I'm
hoping for one now. Then again,
I'm always hoping for one. Every
now and then a song will slip into
the top forty like Kenny G. or
David Sanborn. But that's not
really traditional jazz. We've had
great attendance for shows like Art
Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.
Gil Scot-Heron looks like it's
going to be a sell-out. Miles Davis
had two sell-out shows. Flora
Purim and Airto sold out. So in a
sense there is. That really surprises
me. But for the most part it hasn't
happened.
W : So what exactly does
Eclipse do as an organization?
B: Eclipse promotes jazz in
southeastern Michigan and jazz as
an artform. We bring performers to
the area. We especially are
concerned with promoting live jazz.
So we have a concert series, about
four concerts per term. Plus we run
something called Java and Jazz
which is free concerts that are held
in the Tap Room. We also have a
lecture series and this year it's
going to focused on women and
jazz. And we have a lecture series
which is for education. We also
work with other community groups
such as the Greystone Museum,
Montreux Jazz Festival, the Detroit
Institute of Art in order to promote
jazz throughout the area.
W: What goes into the process
of bringing the bands to Ann
Arbor?
B: We get contacts from a lot of
performers who would like to play
in the area or sometimes we go out
and solicit performers. It depends.
This time we were really interested
in booking Gil Scot-Heron, so we
dealt with sleazy agents for about
five months before they would
finally listen to us. Unfortunately,
Gil Scot-Heron's agent also books
Luther Vandross and Anita Baker,
and he doesn't have time for his
jazz roster, so we really had to
convince him that we really wanted
to do the show and we would make
it worth while for him before he
sold us the package.
W: Do you find yourself having
to work with sleazy agents a lot?
B: It's the hard part, but it's
really rewarding in the end. It's,
worth putting up with the sleaze to
get the shows that we want.
Because we're really pleased with
the season. It was a lot of grief to
get these concerts together, but the
end result is going to be fabulous.
W: What's coming up besides
Gil Scot-Heron?
B: We have Gil Scot-Heron on
Friday, October 21st. After that,
November 4th, we have the first
Midwest appearance by Michelle
Rosewoman. We've already had one
show. We had Carla Bley and Steve
Swallow. The season culminates
with Courtney Pine who is the
young British saxophone sensation.
He is 23 years-old. He has the top-
selling jazz record in all of England.
Ever. It's .very rare for a British
performer to achieve such a success
in jazz because jazz has traditionally
been an American artwork. Usually
British performers, young British
players, will go into reggae or soul
or funk. And he has just started a
movement where a lot of these
young players are now going into
jazz.
W: Traditional jazz?
B: Traditional jazz. Very
straight-ahead, post-Bop, Hard Bop.
He sounds a lot like John Coltrane.
And he has inspired a lot of people.
He started this organization called
the Abibi Jazz Artists to promote
young Black musicians to go to
jazz. He has done a lot for jazz in
England. There are new clubs that
are opening. Instead of people
dancing to the traditional dance
music, people are now going out
and dancing to jazz. It's packing
See INTERVIEW, Page 15
r ee
'Bid' oe litl jutic t Pake's re
Fine
Fashion
at
Mary Dibble
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By Mark Shaiman
A bird in the hand may be worth
two in the bush, but when it comes
to this Bird, you have to remember
that money doesn't grow on trees.
Rather than spending one fiver on
this film, you're better off spending
two fivers on a Charlie Parker al-
bum.
Gandhi and Amadeus were both
important enough to have had 150
minute-plus films made about
:N
them, but apparently Parker wasn't
-or at least not according to his
depiction in this biography. The
significance of his contribution to
jazz cannot be questioned, but the
film never draws any conclusions
about the influence of Parker's per-
sonal life on his music. What we
are left with is the story of a drug
addict for whom we feel no sympa-
thy.
Clint Eastwood directed this at-
tempt at artistic creativity, but there
is a big difference between trying
and succeeding. Even parts of this
one-dimensional story get over-
shadowed by the filmatic techniques
Eastwood unnecessarily employs.
To begin with, Bird starts with a
failed suicide attempt late in
Parker's life, and thus, most of the
form
frame
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difficu
seems
the au
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across
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S. University
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Church
663-2311
Forrest Whitaker plays Charlie Parker in 'Bird.'
, . --
C . . ,
0e
events are shown in flashbacks.
Every time the story goes into re-
counting the past, the character who
is relating the tale appears on the
right side of the screen, and then
there is a dissolve to the past. After
awhile, this repeated effect wears on
the viewer's nerves.
What's worse is the way East-
wood exits from the flashbacks.
Early in his career Parker had a
chance to play a set with a re-
spectable band, but he was so bad
that the drummer threw his cymbal
across the stage with the intention
that its crash landing would startle
Bird and interrupt his performance.
Every time a flashback ends, this
same shot of the cymbal flying
across the stage and crashing is used
to bring us back to the present.
This not only interrupts the flash-
back, it also interrupts the film.
Eastwood uses this device to in-
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It's a good thing the makers of
The Accused spend a minimal
amount of time on the issue of the
Rapist in America because few
would contest the point: if you
commit rape in this country and if
somehow the cracks and loopholes
of the justice system are miracu-
lously sealed, you should go to jail.
Period.
No arguments, no need for a
movie.
Director Jonathan Kaplan (Project
X, Heart like a Wheel) goes fur-
ther, though, and tackles the much
larger Question Maik of criminal
solicitation: If you witness a rape
and encourage the rapist through,
cheers and applause, should you go
to jail too?
The issue is explored through the
case of Sarah Tobias (Jodie Foster),
a young woman who is gang raped
by three men in a bar in Your
I
Murphy (Kelly McGillis), wants
blood, and rightly so, but can't get
it. No one in the bar appears to
have witnessed the event, and
much, smokes pot, wears revealing
clothes, and loves to flirt (her li-
cence plate reads SXY SADI).
See ACCUSED, Page 6
NITEL
est reparatio n
Accused looks at important
issue, provokes little thought
Town, U.S.A. Sarah identifies the Sarah, unfortunately, is not the
By John Shea three men, and they're promptly ar- quintessential definition of
rested. Her attorney, Katheryn "character." She lies, drinks too
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PAGE 12 WEEKEND/OCTOBER 14,1988
WEEKEND/OCTOBER 14,1988