8 The Michigan Daily - Thursday, January 29, 1997 Verve Jazz Fest swings into the Michigan Y } in one form or another, all Jazz musicians give their nods to a mas- sive and dominating tradition. To even the most revolutionary and avant-garde performer, the history of the music that has come before him is always in the room. The Verve Jazz Festival will be swinging into the Michigan Theater tomorrow and bringing with it a roll of holy thunder not heard since Count Basie sat on the throne of Kansas City. The show features trumpeter Nicholas Payton, guitarist Mark Whitfield and bassist Christian McBride with the Kansas City All- Stars (as seen in the Robert Altman film "Kansas City") as well Te Kansas City gang (top) and Joe as the Charlie Hayden Quartet and Henderson (above) are appearing the Joe Henderson Trio. The show tonorrow at the Verve Jazz Fest at begins at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are the lichigan Theater. $20-$25. toC and plaY Cp -." Jamison reads about depression tonight* By Dean Bakopoulos Daily Arts Writer Imagine a scholar, a world authority on a mental ill- ness that affects millions. She stands atop her field, at the forefront of medical research about the disease. She teaches at UCLA and Johns Hopkins University. She spends time as an Oxford fellow, with innovative research into the links between manic depression and creativity. And then, after nearly 30 years* P9 U r, i of suffering, she comes out and says that she is one of the millions affected by the disease. Meet Kay Jamison, manic depression schol- ar and sufferer. Jamison went public with her struggle with depres- sion in 1995, with the book "An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness." Though Jamison had published scholarly works on manic depression before, this marked the first time she published a book that delved deep into her personal struggle with the condition. . Jamison will read from that book at Borders tomor- row night to promote the Vintage Books edition of "An Unquiet Mind." Jamison's memoir has been a smashing success, t1 K soaring onto and up best-seller lists, perhaps a testa- ment to the widespread effects of depression on people in all stages and corners of society. Other books in 1995, like the sleekly marketed and hyped "Prozac Nation" by Elizabeth Wurtzel, called attention to "Generation X's" widespread depression plague. But Jamison's book was particularly powerful in its magni- tude. This was a tremendously honest and straightforward E V I E W account of depression, and it came from one of the world's foremost (ay Jamison authorities on the subject. Thursday at 7:30 p.m. The honesty of "An Unquiet Borders, Free Mind" is what makes the book so stirring. True, Jamison gives accounts of a life she almost ended with her own hand, a life that saw the ruin of her finances as well as her first marriage. She does not glamorize depression (as some critics will accuse her and other "manic depres- sion memoir" authors of doing). But she is honest. She notes that there were some manic phases, huge "highs" as she calls them, in which she felt invincible. These manic phases fueled her with energy and an unbridled creativity; they fired her imagination and sharpened her senses. During these phases, she writes, "I could fly through star fields and slide along the rings of Saturn." In all, the horrors and hardships of her condition fr outweighed the brief and intense manic highs. In "An Unquiet Mind," Jamison admits that she had phases in which she did not want to take her medication. She didn't want to lose those highs. Today, Jamison takes her medication. She has a suc- cessful second marriage. She continues her work as professor and clinician at Johns Hopkins, and her lit remains relatively stable. With the help of a lithium prescription and regular psychotherapy (which she believes is essential to the treatment of depression), Jamison remains a respected researcher in the field of mental illness, but one who has been able to share her own painful and moving story. At the beginning of "An Unquiet Mind," a quote from the poet Byron serves as an epigraph: "I doubt sometimes whether a quiet and unagitated life would have suited me - yet I sometimes long for it." So goes the struggle for manic depressives. The il* ness becomes part of the personality, part of ones identity and it can be, strangely enough, hard to imag- ine one's life without it. And at the same time, life without seems like it would be wonderful. This is the struggle Jamison chronicles. And she does so wonderfully. Choral Union, DSO play captivating show Get off your keester and head for the nearest computer with Web access. Enter H&R Block's "H&R Rock" Sweepstakes at www.hrblock.'com/tax/college CD'SM DA from one of the college c'rcut's stt new bands-Red Rouse Painters. "Penin'crta pof those } e Painters T-shirts with ' dra J ,. zu mrtov'e AWRD DAILY. as ythore adp enugh to have your name drawn asud e ad t i you'fl receive an all- airare, ael rio to eRd ouse Painters, ling front rowt tim ts and from the concer even throw ny' while wre in the gEvNg mod wel evn hoW some Spending dough. www.hrblock.com/tax/college Let's go. H&R Rock ends 3/10/97. Enter today! sAND By Jack Schillaci Daily Arts Writer What do you get when you mix 180 singers, 100 instrumentalists and two soloists with completely unpronounce- able names? You get last Sunday's University Musical Society Choral Union concert with the Detroit R Symphony R Orchestra. The music of Russian composers Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff filled Hill Auditorium as UMS presented a throng of guest per- formers as well as its own Choral Union. The performers did their job beautifully - capturing every nuance of the composers' works. The concert's only drawback was that the music was not interesting enough to grab the audi- ence's full attention. The DSO deserves many congratula- tions. Their performance was outstand- ing - not a single technical error throughout the rigorous and demanding productions. At the same time, they captured the spirit and energy of the composers' works. The concert opened with Tchaikovsky's "Overture from the Voyevode" from his first opera. The DSO stood out by filling Hill Auditorium with U f the accuracy and dexterity that the com- poser's work requires. Some especially complex string and woodwind sections made the work particularly trying, yet the group came through. The work, however, is formulaic Tchaikovsky: quick string runs, piccolos flitting above the E V I E W rest of the orchestra and an upbeat JMS Choral tempo. Following Union the formula has cre- HilI Auditorium ated an exciting, if Jan. 26, 1997 not uninspired, song. Vladimir Popov filled the cantata's tenor solo role well. He sang strongly over the sound of the orchestra, show- casing the strength and breadth of his voice. The cantata is at times somber and uplifting and at still others it sounds like the orchestral interludes from the movie "The Goonies." On the whole, it is a departure from the composer's estab- lished method and it reminded me of one of Mozart's quiet concertos rather than the fury-driven power of Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky wrote the piece in less than four months and was forced to bor- row heavily from some of his sym- phonies. This shows greatly in the lack of the music's depth - occasionally, the music is almost reduced to a four-part chorus with nearly no instruments play- Neeme Jarvi conducted the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at Sunday's performance. ing that don't just mimic a sung part. The final scheduled piece, "Conerto for Piano and Orchestra in D Minor" by Rachmaninoff, brought the audience the skill and musicality of pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. His performance was phenomenal - capturing the beauty of his instrument while balancing well with the orchestra. However, the choice of music is at question once again. The melody is beautiful, but at times the song turns into a mind-numbing repetition of arpeggios and broken chords on the piano. Rachmaninoff uses some clever tricks to connect the parts of the work, like changing one note in the main theme to lead the listener on. Unfortunately, that change is nears undetectable and it sounds like the same thing over and over. The dream-like quality of the music and Andsnes' playing made the music gorgeous but hard to listen to at a stretch And a stretch the song was - the thrio movements took more than 20 minutes. All in all, the performers were exc5I- lent. They captured and expanded on the composers' genius. The problem with this performance, however, w that the music selection left too much t be desired. A more captivating selection of music would have held the audi- ence's attention far better and made the performance quite a bit more memo- rable. Hughes Space and Communications Company There's A Wireless Revolution And We're Leading It. ust like our satellites, Hughes Space and Communications J Company ( HSC) is circling the globe to find the next generation of talented engineers to share in our future success. Our state-of-the-art facility in beautiful, sunny, Southern California is seeking BS, MS and PhD level candidates with majors in the following areas: Immerse yourself in our atmosphere! The Los Angeles Metropolitan area is famous for everything from its year-round beach weather to the scenic beauty of the Santa Monica and San Gabriel mountains. 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