The Michigan Daily - Friday, October 21, 1994 - 9

*Kubrick transforms King's 'Shining'

By JOSHUA RICH
Originally released in 1980, "The
Shining"is a startling tale of horror and
confusion set in the stark winter of a
haunted mountain lodge. Known for
his baroque, refined photography, bril-
liant sound and revolutionary special
: effects, Stanley Kubrick is easily con-

B

The Shining
Directed by
Stanley Kubrick
with Jack
Nicholson and
Shelley Duvall

really work. Thus, this movie is gener-
ally confusing and absurd, making it a
far cry from the true horror of King's
book: that the terrors seen here could
easily happen to anyone.
Jack Nicholson, in oneof his weaker
roles, plays Jack Torrance, a retired
schoolteacher and alcoholic who is at-
tempting to make a living as a writer.
Seeking solitude and quiet to write, he
accepts the job of winter caretaker at
the mysterious Overlook Hotel in the
Colorado mountains. Jack, his wife
and son, move into the hotel in October
with no intention of leaving until May.
But the isolation and loneliness of their
situation quickly causes the family to
suffer from "cabin fever."
The situation turns violent when
ghosts and hallucinations of the hotel's
past-which includes some gruesome
murders that took place ten years ear-
lier - provoke Jack's homicidal in-
stincts.
This movie is undoubtedly fright-
ening. Yet, despite a deeply psycho-
logical and artistic presentation, it falls
short of any true intellectual insight.
Unlike Kubrick's previous films, such
as "2001: A Space Odyssey" or "Dr.
Strangelove," there is no original or
revelatory nature in this plot. The char-
acters' fast course to madness is too
bizarre to be believable. Images seen in
the hotel are too graphic and sickening

to truly interest the audience. A pain-
fully slow pace makes the viewer an-
noyed by the strange, confusing inci-
dents on screen.
With the exception of Danny Lloyd
as the Torrances' precocious and psy-
chic son Danny-"Redrum! Redrum!"
- and Philip Stone ("A Clockwork
Orange") as the ghost of a former care-
taker, the acting is quite ordinary.
Nicholson does nothing new in this
portrayal. As in most of his other films,
he appears good, but is a truly evil
character. Shelley Duvall ("Popeye")
is too hysterical in her performance as
Jack's wife, Wendy, to make her char-
acter sympathetic.
Nevertheless, what brings audi-
ences back to this film is its superb
composition. While Kubrick fails to
present a true depiction of King's novel,
he still creates a fascinating piece of
cinema. As always, Kubrick's cinema-
tography is breathtaking; images on
screen are both intimate and shocking.
The soundtrack, consisting of Berlioz
and Bartok funeral music - supple-
mented by human screams - makes
the movie truly horrifying. This is a
creative production that may fail to
keep its audience involved in the story,
yet succeeds in providing us with sub-
lime images of horror and art.

sidered to be one of the greatest film
directors ever. Despite his small body
of films - ranging from 1955's
"Killer's Kiss" to 1987's "Full Metal
Jacket"-andan annoyingly reclusive
personality, Kubrick always manages
to create cinematic masterpieces. This
film is the exception,
Adapted from the classic horror
Rory by Stephen King, "The Shining"
is clearly the most mainstream of
Kubrick's films. In attempting to cre-
ate a masterpiece, however, Kubrick
basically ruins one of the most fright-
ening tales of all time. He presents a
plot, albeit very scary, that does not

THE SHINING is playing tonight'
and Saturday at State.


Japanese jazzman jams at Michigan

The Uptown String Quartet brings their classical training to classic jazz and blues. Plus, they're snappy dresser
Uptown Quartet swings hard

By BRIAN WISE
It's a strange irony that jazz has
never quite received the widespread
appreciation as a serious art form in its
country of origins as much as it has
overseas. This universal embrace can
nonetheless be a valuable asset. In par-
ticular, Japan has emerged in recent
years as the most active and distinct
untry for jazz anywhere outside the
United States. Alto saxophonist and
composer, Sadao Watanabe has be-
come Japan's most important jazz
musician, and has come to embody the
idiom's international language.
For over 40 years, he has created a
sound that has brought togetherrhythms
and textures from Africa, Brazil, and
Europe, as well has his own Japanese
background. Like nearly all alto saxo-
Oonists, Watanabe began by emulat-
RECORDS
The Cranberries
No Need to Argue
Island
The Cranberries return hot off the
heels of the platinum smash "Everyone
Doing It, So Why Can't We?"in fine
id surprisingly listenable form. "No
Need to Argue" strips away much of
the excessive sheen of "Everyone" for
a more subtle, folky sound that suits
Dolores O' Riordan and the rest of the
'Berries' songs, mostofwhichare about
lost love and impending maturity. Yes,
these are cliched topics, but since the
Cranberries are a young band (O'
Riordan is a mere 22 years of age) these
issues of utmost relevance.
And they are treated as such. "Ode
to My Family," "Twenty One" and
"No Need to Argue" along with the rest
of the album are so genuine and heart-
felt that it doesn't really matter if the
topics are dated or the lyrics somewhat
common. This is not damning with
faint praise; the album is quite good
within its specific (adult-alternatiVe
sh folk-pop) genre. Most of the al-
um conforms to the successful for-
mula of "Eveyone," which is a fine
thing, especially for fans expecting
more of what made them fans in the
first place.
The main attraction here is, of
course, 0' Riordan's voice, which is
the focal point of "No Need to Argue."
She wails, croons and whispers in her
thick brogue, sounding at once ethereal
d down to earth.
Then there's that single "Zombie."
Bound to be the next overplayed sensa-
tion on the radio, catch it now while the
pseudo-grungy guitars and O'
Riordan's guttural growling are still

ing the sound of Charlie Parker, and
subsequently modernizing and trans-
forming it into contemporary styles.
After learning clarinet in high
school, he switched to the saxophone
and began gigging in nearby Tokyo. In
1953 he joined pianist, Toshiko
Akiyoshi's quartet, who is now a fa-
mous big band leader, (and who inci-
dentally made a stop in Ann Arbor for
the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival
this year.)
In the early sixties Watanabe stud-
ied at the Berklee School in Boston,
which immediately broadened his mu-
sical horizons. He returned to Japan,
but his horizons have been expanding
ever since, with almost yearly travels
to America, Europe, Africa, and South
America that began in the early 70's.
These opportunities have enabled him

to pick-up sounds from every country
he visits, and adapt them to his own
personal style with a remarkable de-
gree of authenticity and ingenuity.
Sadao Wantanabe has also swung
with many of jazz's (other) legends,
including Miles Davis, Herbie
Hancock, Charles Mingus, Billy Tay-
lor, and Dizzy Gillespie, just to name a
few.
Tonight, his travels take Wantanabe
to the Michigan theater, where he'll be
joined by his Sextet to create some
universally powerful and resonant
music.
SADA O WANTAA ABE wiperform
tonight at the Michigan Theater at
8:00 PM. Tickets are $15, $20, and
$25 and are available at the Michi-
gan Union Box Office and all
TicketMaster Locations.

relatively fresh. As the anomaly and
standout of"No Need to Argue," it, and
the album, are worth listening to before
these berries go stale.
- Heather Phares
Sinead O'Connor
Universal Mother
.Chrysalis/EMI
Gone is the startling intensity of
"The Lion and the Cobra." Gone, too,
is the stark passion of "I Do Not Want
What I Have Not Got." What remains
on Sindad O'Connor's latest effort,
"Universal Mother" to identify it as
hers is the ultra-personal nature of her
lyrics and her voice. Sadly, her voice,
once an incredible instrument in its
own right, remains fairly restrained on
most of this album and her songs are
almost too personal, too introspective,
to mean anything to the rest of the
world. Though the opener, "Fire on
Babylon" promises excitement, "Uni-
versal Mother" quickly sinks into an
O'Connor therapy session. Her story is
occasionally moving but not very ef-
fective in a musical setting. Things do
sometimes come together for her, as on
"A Perfect Indian," "Scorn Not His
Simplicity" and "All Babies." Backed
only by a piano and, on "All Babies,"
sparse bass and drums, O'Connor is
able to work a bit of magic and lift the
album briefly from the maudlinstate of
babble into which it had sunk. Any
credibility established by these three
great songs, however, is quickly lost
with the pathetic "Famine," on which
O'Connor attempts to rap over a dull
backbeat. The inclusion of Nirvana's
incredible "All Apologies" is only the
last straw. Whereas Kurt Cobain sang
it with conviction and passion,

O'Connor breezes through the song as
if it were a jingle for orange juice.
-Dirk Schulze
The Wedding Present
Watusi
Island
The Wedding Present are a band of
many contradictions. They've referred
to themselves in the past as "The
World's Least Complex Pop Band,"
but at the same'time, their music is
consistently fascinating with its intri-
cacies. Their songs conjure up memo-
ries of bands from the past and present
at the drop of a hat, but their music as a
whole somehow manages to seem
unique.
"Watusi" finds the band exploring
some new musical structures, but their
tricks of the trade remain the same.
This is abundantly clear right from the
album's wonderful first track, "So
Long, Baby," in which a low-fi swing
beat gives way to a spastic punk rock
beat and back again so abruptly you'll
think there's a skip in the CD.
Of course, tricks like abrupt time
changes are nothing particularly revo-
lutionary, but the Wedding Present al-
ways seem to be taking these ideas to
their unnatural extremes. Another ex-
ample is the insanely-up tempo "Yeah
Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah," which
snatches its chord progression and
rhythm almost verbatim from
Tsunami's "In A Name." This silly
tune sets a new standard in schmaltzy
lyrics, with silly phrases like "My heart
says yeah /Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah!"
How this song manages to be so pro-
foundly enjoyable will remain one of
See RECORDS, Page 10

By MATT CARLSON
What does a marching band that
doesn't march, a love story set in
Bursley Hall and perhaps the most
unique string quartet in music history
all have in common? They are all parts
of the world of Eileen Folson, cellist
for the Uptown String Quartet.
Friday night will be a second home-
coming of sorts for Folson, a Univer-
sity School of Music alum, when she
and the other players in the Quartet -
violist Maxine Roach and violinists
Lesa Terry and Diane Monroe - re-
turn to Rackham Auditorium as part of
the University Musical Society's
Chamber Arts Series and Jazz Direc-
tions Series for the second consecutive
year.
The Uptown's ability to be com-
fortably placed in either a chamber arts
or jazz settings makes the concept of
the Quartet so original. And the strong
European classical training combined
with their upbringing with the African-
American based genres of jazz and
blues create the Quartet's brilliant
sound. They can swing hard like astrict
jazz ensemble, yet they can fluttersoftly
like beautiful strings.
Last year's UMS concert by the
Quartet was an overwhelming success,
as Folson returned to the city of her
college days as a member of one of
most heralded string quartets of the last
ten years.
"I felt like visiting royalty," Folson
said. "It's very different from being
there as a student." She added that it
was nice to actually have some money
to spend in Ann Arbor. "I'll have to
leave my credit cards at home this
year."
Folson's study in Ann Arbor began
after a lively musical interest as a child.
She learned the piano early on by using
a toddler-sized piano -- quite a differ-
entexperience from hearing her father's
grand style at home.
EMMAUS
FELLOWSHIP
10 minutes south of 1-94 and US-23

"One of my strongest memories,"
she related, "is of my father sitting at
the piano. He's an improviser and self-
taught. I learned a lot of internal rhyth-
mic things. So when I'm writing for the
String Quartet, I still draw on that abil-
ity to hear internal moving lines against
strong melody bass lines."
Folson also learned to play the trum-
pet when her younger brotherquit play:-
ing after a week of lessons. She never
had any formal lessons but played
throughout high school in funk and
R&B bands. Folson even played trum-
petin amarching bandthatdidn'tmarch
outside and would only play for the
school gymnastics finals every year.
Also during this period, Folson
chose to pursue studies with the cello.
She met Willis Patterson, professor of
voice and associate dean at the School
of Music. Patterson convinced her to
attend both Interlochen School of Per-
forming Arts in upstate Michigan and
the University.
"I resisted at first," Folson said,
"because I had my heart and mind set
on Indiana. I actually did my freshman
year at Indiana, and it was fine but it
was such a huge music school that I
kind of got swallowed up. Patterson
left the door open and said if I ever
changed my mind to give him acall. So
I came (to Michigan) and the second
month I was there I met my spouse,
with whom I'm still happily married.
We both lived in Bursley and started
going to the football games together."
After two years of playing in the
New York Philharmonic, Folson de-
cided to take another direction, little
expecting that direction would end up
as being a member of the Uptown.

Legendary jazz drummer Max Roach
formed the group with his daughter
Maxine, Uptown's violist. Roach the
senior wanted a string quartet to play
along side his own jazz ensemble. Up-
town soon released their first CD "Max
Roach Presents The Uptown String
Quartet" to critical raves.
The Uptown caught the classical
music audience by surprise, and with
their debut they showcased an amal-
gamate sound that attempted to break
down the wall thathas commonly sepa-
rated staunch European classical from
music of the African-American experi-
ence.
"Classical audiences need to diver-
sify," Fulson said. "They need to be
involved with more multicultural mu-
sic to broaden their audience base, be-
cause it is aging. The Quartet fits right
in there because we approach music-
making like a string quartet, yet the
music we play is African-American
based."
But it was the group's second CD;
"Just Wait a Minute," that began to
display the Quartet's ability to com-
pose 'some of their own music that
draws from both genres. More than
half of the material on that album was
written by members of the group. This
considerably opens .up new horizons
for the Uptown String Quartet.
"I think the future is wide open,"
said Folson. "Especially with the more
we write, I feel unstoppable."
THE UPTOWN STRING QARTT
will play at 8 tonight at Rackhan
Auditorium. Student rush tickets are
available at the Union and the North
Campus Commons. Call 764-2538
for info.

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