The Michigan Daily - Weekend etc. - Thursday, April 6, 1995 - 3 MelRose Place Morphine delivers sax, drugs and rock 'n' rol like a shot By Jennifer Buckley Daily Arts Writer Anyone in rock music can play guitar. But not everyone wants to. For Morphine, you see, rock 'n' roll is all about sax. Sax and sex. Seedy, smoky nightclubs. Red lights and cheap hotels. Cigarettes and alco- hol. Slippery, sleazy sliding on singer Impersonal ads Even before the wildly popular "Win a Date with MelRose" contest, * I had a foray into the personal ads. I know, I know, you can't believe that I would go there. "Don't go there, girlfriend," you're saying. Well, I went, and I survived, and I'm here to tell about it. The idea to place an ad came from my dear friend and former Weekend editor/columnist Darcy Lockman. She suggested trying it strictly for column *purposes. Hey, I could make fun of "the losers who respond, and I might even meet someone. So in November and December I ran an ad in the Metro Times Ro- mance Connection. It read: Bright, attractive SWF, college student, seeks intelligent, goal-ori- ented male for friendship and pos- sible romance. Must know how to laugh and how to cry. My interests include the arts (theater, film), litera- ture, gourmet cooking and exercise. Only letters, please; photos a plus. From that ad I received around 90 responses, some 30 letters and 60 phone replies. Immediately I ruled out everyone on the phone, because - hello? - it read "only letters." Lit- eracy is a must for me. I was tempted, however, for the briefest moment by a guy named Phil, who said that on our first date he would take me to Cancun. A tempting offer in late November, but I was deterred by Phil's offer to buy me some "nice summer clothes," and his 5-foot 5-inch height, even though he offered to wear boots. (My residents were rooting for Phil, but I suspect that's because they wanted to get rid of me for a few days.) So here is a sampling of the letters: 'The Mozart I am listening to as I Write this is moving me to tears." That's the first line of Dan's five- ge, hand-written on looseleaf pa- per in fountain pen letter. This letter, as I read further, was proof that I can attract gay men anywhere and any- time - even under the heading "women seeking men." "I read as far as your add, and read nofurther.Idon'toften write letters"- and it shows, believe me - "but I hope this is al least adiquit." This is from Jed (real name, I'm not kidding), who lives in western Southfield on a "buetifull three-acer plot." Inbred UJed also in- cluded a picture of him and his white trash roommates holding beers. Just a tip: If you're going to send a picture, make sure your friends aren't better looking than you. Then there was Trevin, hospital worker by day, techno musician by night, who described himself as "usu- 4aly 'nice."' Trevin sent me three pho- tqs: his BAD high school senior pic- tgre, a photo of his cat Lucy, and a photo of him and his best friend, who is "currently incarcerated." Just a little more information than I needed to know. The cat wasn't bad, though. "How bright are you?" wrote David. "Are you a 50-watt halogen lamp in a world full of night lights?" David works for UPS, though he wants to be a pro-golfer. (This golf motif is becoming a trend with my men, and it's starting to worry me.) He also enjoys the outdoors - "Mother Na- ture. God, I love that bitch." - and cooking toast on the tailpipe of his car. David appealed to the shopper in me, offering free dinner and 30 per- cent off my next purchase if I re- sponded to him. I'm waiting for him to go on clearance. "I'm safe, sane, and not some wierded out scummy guy in this sys- tem." This is coming from a guy who decorated his letter with rubber-stamp representations of his face. "Sometimes I forget what it was like to be a child. A child just happy to be with his friends riding his bike or catching frogs. A child with no anxi- ety and only curiousity." This guy cl nj'npd a onirlfrenci - he ne.'Ck Mark Sandman's rumbling two-string bass. Backbeat courtesy of Billy Conway's bare-bones (snare, bass, high hat) drum kit, and holding it all down, the saxophones of Dana Colley. "The saxophone is a pretty scary instrument," said Colley, "because, I think, it's really close to the human voice. It can stir something inside, because it's registered much like our own voices." But if Colley's saxes could talk, what would they say? Perhaps such things are better left unsaid. What better way to insinuate than to release a brilliant third album seductively entitled "Yes?" There aren't many. "Yes" shows Colley and colleagues vastly improv- ing on the laid-back jazz-rock of their two previous efforts "Good" and "Cure for Pain," offering a filler-free album of 12 smoldering, heavily swinging rock songs with titles like "Free Love," "Super Sex" and "Whis- per". While Sandman's bass lines pre- viously anchored Morphine's "low- rock" sound, Colley and his saxo- phones step into the spotlight on "Yes." The richness of his booming baritone more than compensates for Morphine's lack of guitar. Indeed, Colley utilizes the sax much like the electric guitarists he worshipped as a youth, turning "Yes" into a full- fledged rock album. "Growing up ... I listened to gui- tarists - Jimi Hendrix, Billy Gib- bons, Jeff Beck. They were my he- roes," admitted Colley. "The fact is that I didn't play guitar, I played saxo- phone. It was a constant desire of mine to be in a band, doing what the guitar players were doing in rock music, but to do it on a saxophone. And the baritone, because of its tonal- ity - the texture of its tone - simu- lates that better than any other instru- ment." Colley began experimenting with and exploiting this quality years ago. "When I first started playing, I used a wah-wah pedal and played through a guitar amp. It was mostly an attempt to compete with all my guitar-playing friends." He soon found a way not only to compete with, but to surpass them by extracting sounds resembling chords from his low b-flat baritone. Colley explained, "I'm able to simulate some of the guitar's sound by playing one note and by overblowing in a certain way, accessing amid-tone and a higher tone all at once. So it becomes chordal. It starts to take on a distorted sound." And to make things even more difficult, Colley occasionally picks up a tenor sax as well, and proceeds to play both instruments ... simulta- neously. Billed as "doublesax" in the liner notes for "Yes," this combina- tion of tones engulfs the listener in a rich, resonant swirl of sound. While certainly an eye-popping sight to alternative rock audiences, this neat little trick isn't easy. "It's more of a physical problem than any- thing else," Colley revealed. "First, you have to try to hold the (instru- ments) properly, finding the best angle (to work with). Secondly, you have to learn how to divide the air flow so that you can manipulate both mouth pieces simultaneously." "Other than that," he said cheer- fully, "it's just like surfing. You just get up on the wave and let it happen." The inspiration for Colley's doublesax feat came from "a great jazz master by the name of Rahsaan Roland Kirk, who played three at once. He created two instruments called a strich and a manzello. He constructed them from a dream that he had, with the help of a New York City saxo- phone repair man," related an awe- filled Colley. "He was blind, and he played three at once. A tenor, the strich and the manzello. He was the master." But while he credited a jazz musi- cian as an inspiration and acknowl- edged that his band will play jazz festivals in Montreaux, Copenhagen and Belgium this summer, Colley in- sisted that Morphine is "definitely a rock band. Although jazz is some- thing I listen to a lot, it was never something I played. I played rock, right from the start." Labeling Morphine as a jazz band is an understandable mistake. They look like a dressed-down jazz trio and in fact, most of Morphine's music does have a undeniably swinging, jazzy feel. "I like to take the idea of jazz - the process of thinking - and incor- porate it into the rock format" in Morphine's music, Colley said. Be- sides, he explained, "Jazz (created) the encyclopedia for the saxophone. That's where most of the inspiration for the instrument comes from." Sandman also seems to have found his vocal inspiration in jazz with "Yes." His lyrics range, as Colley puts it, "from narrative to tone-poem to free association." His phrasing, especially in songs like "Honey White," "Super Sex," "Sharks" and the title track, seems improvisational, giving the songs a spark woefully lacking on "Cure for Pain" and "Good." Indeed, his flat, bored vocal delivery on Morphine's previous ef- forts was the band's greatest liability. Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream. On "Yes," however, Sandman transforms that annoyingly detached demeanor into a sinister amorous- ness. "Don't worry/I'm not looking at you/gorgeous and dressed in blue/I know it drives you crazy when I pre- tend you don't exist/when I'd like to lean in close and run my hands against your lips ... so whisper me your num- ber/I'll call you up at home," he sings on "Whisper." All of this paints a darkly sensual streak through Morphine's music, giv- ing "Yes" a smoky, noirish atmo- sphere. Not exactly the easiest atmosphere to recreate in St. Andrew's Hall, but Morphine will surely accomplish this admirably on Thursday night as they set out on their first "real get-in-the- bus, on-the-road tour," Colley hopes. When asked if he had anything to add, Colley replied, "How about a D- chord?" and proceeded to strum one on ... an acoustic guitar? "See, I'm not just a sax player. I don't play the guitar live because I love it. But I figure I'll do all the guitar players in the world a favor and keep it under wraps." Good decision. Who needs a gui- tar when you've got great sax? This Is Morphine. Watch out for the needle, they're nearly as addicting as Arby's Beef and Cheddar. I U Young Judaea/ Hamagshimim Israel Opportunities Employment Program Presents: igh Tech/Computer Job Opportunities lip ~in Israel