ARTS The Michigan Daily F Morgan takes new outlook by Peter Shapiro riday, October 5, 1990 Page 5 Dreaming a little dream "Cinderella wasn't shit," is how Frank Morgan likes to describe his rebirth after 30 years in San Quentin for heroin use. After being tauted as e new Charlie Parker in the late '40s, then languishing in 30 years of exiled anonymity, he has been the subject of a rediscovery of sorts in the jazz community. In 1986, he ap- peared at the Village Vanguard in New York with a completely new outlook, new sound, new Frank Morgan. . Morgan hopes to spread his new- ound joy in the glory of life when e plays his alto sax. Abandoning the reliance on fecility around the keys that he learned from his classi- -_cal training, Morgan's alto playing 4-is very reminiscent of some of the great tenor players. His tone is Ben 'Websteresque in its incredible breath- iness which is what gives his play- ing its tenderness and compassion. His ballads are intended to "send the udience home so that they feel like issing their kids, bringing out their optimism in themagnificence of life," he says. S &His new attitude isn't the cheesy ,posturing of some charlatan hoping 4t capitalize on his new opportunity ,outside the penitentiary. Morgan's conception of jazz is similar to that 3 bf some ancient Taoist sage - "It bshould flow, don't think about it, ms's natural." It's the creator that ngives him his optimism as well as . his masterful improvisational abil- ' Ity. Like Charlie Parker and Johnny Hodges, the man he replaced in Duke jEllington's band, he is capable of singing endless variations of the :Iblues on his sax. "Jazz is not cere- ;touching solos perfectly. In a setting Fantasia Created by Walt Disney by Jen Bilik M any of you who saw Fanta- sia as a child will probably re- member the Mickey Mouse se- quence as the whole film. It's surprising that this comprises only about a tenth of the movie, and is somewhat disappointing as well. Fantasia's adult claim to fame is that it was the first film ever released with stereophonic sound. In recording Fantasia, Walt Disney pioneered stereo sound, calling it "Fantasound." It seems fairly obvious now that the film was a vehicle for the new technology because the emphasis lies most definitely on the audio portion of the film. Although Fantasia was innovative in its exploration of music as visual image, the advances in animation since its initial release make the visuals seem fairly crude. Fantasia premiered in 1940 and played in only 14 theaters be- cause stereo soundtrack necessi- tated special sound equipment. The film has undergone an exten- sive restoration process to clean and reassemble a master print. Al- though the film itself still im- presses in its ability to meld the visual with the audio, creating a sort of music for the sight, it's disappointingly difficult for the viewer of the '90s to appreciate because it falls short in compari- son to contemporary music videos and high-tech animation. Next to The Little Mermaid, Fantasia 's animation looks flat and dull. Disney collaborated with con- ductor Leopold Stokowski, and he's one of the main characters in what is essentially a non-narrative film without characters. A com- mentator explains that there are three kinds of music: story mu- sic, music for its own sake and absolute music. The orchestra and the image set out to demonstrate each one, progressively moving from image to story. The first sequence is absolute music. With Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, Fantasia pairs masses of colors and images, without the cute dancing mush- rooms or the stories of later se- quences. Silhouettes of the or- chestra appear, and each instru- ment lights up as it plays, as if the music had some visible life force. Further into the film, the pure visualization of music is in- troduced. "Meet the soundtrack," says the narrator. "Sound as pic- ture." The corresponding image is a line of sound, like the lines on hospital monitors that register vi- tal functions. This represents the purest form of visual sound, sound that can be scientifically registered for the eyes. In explic- itly introducing the viewer to sound, Fantasia's personification of its music is fitting - the mu- sic plays the starring role, both technologically and thematically. The film suffers because of its disjointed nature; it consists of animated, figurative skits that bear no relation to each other ei- ther narratively or thematically. Each sequence could be an indi- vidual cartoon. The sequences themselves, however, definitely point to Disney at his most cre- ative. Disney's mastery at creat- ing fantasy worlds in which ani- See FANTASIA, page 9. Frank Morgan and his sax express a long life of jazz. C bral music, it's heart music," he ex- plains, just as the blues is not sad music, it's music of profound joy and transcendence. This beautiful sense of awe and reverence soars out of his music like the angels that saved him from a life of addiction. He will be playing to- morrow night with pianist George Cables whose ethereal flights across the keyboards play off Morgan's as intimate and communal as the Ark, Frank Morgan will be able to spread the joy as easily as the most powerful gospel singer. THE FRANK MORGAN D U O plays at the Ark tomorrow at 8 p.m. and 10p.m. Tickets are $15, $12.50 for students. Morgan will also give a free workshop tomorrow in the Michigan Union Anderson Room at 4 p.m. HE DOESN'T WRITE FOR ARTS. You can. Call 763-0379. r M J e IN . 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