Page 8 - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, October 4, 1990
Folk, jazz, guitars, love,
chickens and dogs
Kottke
talks of
th
animals
by Lauren Turetsky
Leo Kottke is one of few people
with the ability to combine a six-
stringed instrument, a trombone and
frogs with a story about a smol-
dering dog.
What? Well, Leo Kottke is back
and ready to brave Ann Arbor with
these new sounds and ideas from his
latest album, That's What, tonight
at the Michigan Theater.
This arcane original, a resident of
Wayzata, Minnesota, blends his off-
beat humor with syncopated sounds
to create a magical performance.
Over the past 20 years he has won
several Grammy's and other distin-
guished awards for his work. These
awards, he told the L. A. Times "are
all nice, but the stuff that really
sticks with me is when Joe Pass
came backstage to a show I did in.
Australia and said, 'Boy, you got
some nice little things in there."
Kottke is not searching for fame
and fortune and does not create safe
sounds easily understood by the
masses. Instead, he makes music he
believes in and his enjoyment in his
art comes through with utmost sin-
cerity.
That's What is Kottke's fourth
album on the Private Music label
and can be described as his weirdest,
strangest and riskiest. He has said
Tuck and Patti let love rule
by Kristin Palm
Don't let the fact that Tuck and
Patti's albums are on the Windham
Hill label fool you. While their
"love will conquer all" message may
be New Agey, the music they play
is true jazz.
It is simple jazz, as well. Tuck
Andress and Patti Cathcart don't
front this band, they are this band.
A man who works wonders with an
acoustic guitar and a woman whose
voice rival's Sarah Vaughn's, An-
dress and Cathcart haven't added any-
thing that might imbalance this per-
fect equation. While the group's ap-
proach to music may be minimalist,
their repertoire is anything but. Tuck
and Patti first gained mention with
the release of the single "Time After
Time," a cover of the Cyndi Lauper
tune. Now, Ms. Lauper's version is
nice but by the time Tuck and Patti
were through with it, the song be-
came smashing.
The tradition of interesting covers
is continued on Tuck and Patti's
1989 album, Love Warriors, their
latest release. The Beatles' "Honey
Pie" and Jimi Hendrix's "Castles in
the Sand" and "Little Wing" are rein-
carnated - the first in bebop fash-
ion; the latter two in the smooth,
sultry manner Cathcart's vocal pre-
decessors made so famous.
The album's original tunes are
equally impressive, and are helping
to establish this groups as keepers of
the jazz flame. While the music
draws on the past, however, it is
tuned for the '90s. But, unlike other
artists classified under the New Age
It is fitting that Leo Kottke is smiling here. He can play guitar, he's won
awards and his jokes and stories are f
that his wife and manager hate it,
but that he loves it. On the album,
Kottke combines the voices of frogs,1
Bruce Paulson on the trombone and
the sounds of what he has called his
new love - a love with many
strings attached. No, his wife need
not worry; it's a six-string bass gui-
tar. The instrument sounds like a
normal guitar but resounds an octave
lower. Besides strumming franticly
away, Kottke manages to tell the
story of a smoldering dog in one
song, keeping with the tradition of
telling strange tales over his music.
r.. _. ..
Tuck Andress and Patti Cathcart take the roots of jazz and add
contemporary flair. The result is lovely music.
He has been known to talk about the
strange beating of chickens while
throwing objects into the audience
and he has interesting stories to tell
about various people in his life.
Kottke has 21 records to date and
performs regularly; it seems unlikely
that he will be slowing down any-
time soon. Whether things are to be-
come stranger as he progresses re-
mains to be seen.
title, Tuck and Patti's sound is down
to earth. And there is a reason for the
peace and amour undertones. The
couple, married in 198 1, are firm be-
lievers in the power of love. This
should make their listeners true be-
lievers in the power of music.
LEO KOTTKE plays at the Mic
gan Theater tonight at 8 p.m. Tic
ets are $16.50 available at the th
ater and at Ticketmaster (p.e.s.c.
hi-
ck-
he-
RECORDS
Continued from page 7.
Save the LPI
S Daily Arts
HE DOESN'T WRITE FOR
ARTS.
You can. Call 763-0379.
) is why he was such a brilliant
- painter. Unfortunately, Anthrax is
not blessed with the same talents.
They spew hackneyed guitar and bass
parts one after the other without
caring to advance the sound one iota
past what Motorhead's Ace of
Spades album achieved ten years
ago. Charlie Benante's drums are
mired in the same sludge that John
Bonham dredged up twenty years ago
without the egomania that caused
him to masturbate so violently with
his kit. And, continuing in the great
tradition of "God, I'm so fucked up,
I'm barely human anymore" teen
angst, the vocals are shrill, strident
wails without the humor of Dave
Mustaine taking himself seriously.
As if the music didn't bang you
over the head with their alienation
trip, the lyrics re-enforce this with
TUCK AND PA TTIopen for LEO
KOTTKE at the Michigan Theater
tonight. The show begins at 8 p.m.
Tickets are $16.50 available at the
Michigan Theater and Ticketmaso
ter (p.e.s.c.)
the intensity and earnestness of an
eighth grade poet who just finished
his/her life is like flowers parable.
Lines like, "A wave of hatred comes
like the flood/Brother on brother on,
brother,/ Brothers in blood/Hate is
so much easier to feel than love,"
and "I yell, when there's schism you
must rebel/I yell, so you'll hear/I*
yell, I refuse to live in your Hell,"
abound on this record.*Well, at least
it's not a concept album.
-Peter Shapiro
I o"m""
i
I
WRITE FOR ARTS!!! CALL 76370379!!!!
1
"AN EROTIC MASTERPIECE.
Philip Kaufman has done something remarkable.
He has made a genuinely erotic film that
celebrates a woman's sexual awakening
with unabashed enthusiasm.
Fred Ward has great
humor, Uma Thurman
is fascinating and
Maria de Medeiros
, ,, ._ . .
, :....... ..: -.: 1's'II1t l3i t t#i L' t1Ci C i13?' .