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"Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control," the new documentary from Errol
Morris premieres at the Michigan Theater tonight. A film that
"resists the possibility of a one-line summary," "Fast" is a cinematic
collage of oddness from the creator of such acclaimed works as "The
Thin Blue Line" and "A Brief History of Time." At the Michigan
Theater. 7 and 9 p.m. $5 for students.

Friday
November 7, 1997

5


Panic attacks with
widespread funk

Hot salsa-queen Celia
cruises into A2 tonight

By Jewel Gopwani
For the Daily
Funk will find its way back to Ann
or on Sunday, when Widespread
ic returns to the Michigan Theater
in support of its latest album, "Bombs
and Butterflies.'
In a recent
phone interview,. PR
Widespread Panic :des
percussi ofni st
D o m i n g o **
"Sunny" Ortiz
talked about the
ntaneity of the
pup's concerts. "Our show is not only
a show; it is a happening. We don't
kaow what to expect ourselves until that
first note is played."
You'll probably need a release before
another tough week. Why not purge
your frustrations with the sound of live,
pure Panic funk rock?
On Sunday, get ready to be light on
your feet and dance the night away to
Widespread Panic's twangy, funk-dri-
~*sound. "We usually don't put on a
support act, because our show goes
about three hours," said Ortiz.
Widespread Panic not only knows

m
sp

how to rock Ann Arbor, but it also
understands that students are often
strapped for cash. The group will make
the show well worth seeing. For $20 a
pop, Ortiz said, "bands have to give
their fans their money's worth." While'
$20 may seem a
little steep, Panic
E V I E W knows how to
read Panic please.
Sunday night at 7:30 Maybe you
Michigan Theater have not heard of
$20 Widespread
Panic. When it
comes to MTV
and radio airplay, like many excellent
bands, Widespread Panic got the raw
end of the deal. But with its fifth
album, "Bombs and Butterflies," mid-
dle-of-the-road stations like The
River and WIQB have given "Bombs
and Butterflies"' first single "Aunt
Avis" a decent shot on the air.
MTV takes on an unfair attitude
toward the band. According - to
Sunny, "None of our videos get air-
play." Not even the post-Oscar Billy
Bob Thornton-directed video for
"Aunt Avis," which stars Jurassic
Park's leading lady, Laura Dern, gets

By Emily Lambert
Daily Arts Wnter
Hill Auditorium will be the venue
tonight for salsa queen Celia Cruz and
sonario Jose Alberto.
But when the salsa starts, Alberto

said in an interview
last week, the
locale of the show
becomes irrele-
vant.
"They always
get up and
dance," he said of
the audience. "Oh

 PREVIEW
Celia Cruz
Tonight at 8
Hill Auditorium
$10 student rush tickets

different rhythms
of Cuba," said
Alberto, who said
Cubans did not
use the term for
decades.
"Now they do.
The name has
gotten so popular

.erations, we really match very
well."
Salsa, Alberto explained, is chang-
ing. Even its name shows evidence of
outside influence.
"It's a name to commercialize the

Widespread Panic brings its funk to the Michigan Theater on Sunday.

shown. If the song itself, which
includes Vic Chesnutt's eerie, haunt-
ing vocals, could not coax MTV pro-
gramming directors, then the video's
big names should have.
But Widespread Panic's members do
not let lack of radio and television both-
er them. "That's not important to us. I
think that's why we're on the road so
much. We realize that we can't go on
the support of radio airplay," said Ortiz.

Widespread Panic may have never real-
ly made it, but it is making quality
music.
Even if you have heard Widespread
Panic before, check out its show this
Sunday at the Michigan Theater for
what Ortiz desribes as "an electric feel-
ing." Let your curiosity lead you to give
the band a chance.
"That's all we want people to do, just
give us a shot," Ortiz said.

yeah, even in theaters. Because the
music is so danceable and so hot,
you can't just sit down and listen to
it."
Alberto, a native of the Dominican
Republic, studied music in Puerto Rico
before moving to New York City. He
spent the best parts of his study, he said,
at the record player.
"I believe that the best exercise that
you have is to listen to music. Listen to
a lot of records. That will educate your
ear."
Now, he and his band delight audi-
ences across the globe. The salsa beat,
he said, is infective.
"They'll jump, they'll dance, they'll
applaud ... music is an international
language."
Cruz was one of the singers
Alberto studied, and remains one of
the biggest names in Latin music.
She has appeared on countless
stages, in the movies "Salsa" and
"The Mambo Kings," and in con-
certs with Alberto for more than 10
years.
Performing with Cruz is easy, he
said.
"The combination is so perfect. So
click. It's there."
Their styles mesh "because we
are two very happy persons ...
even that we are two different gen-

all over the world."
The music itself has changed, too.
"It's not the same style that it
used to be maybe 10 or 20 years
ago," he said. "A new generation
has come into our music, into our
roots. ... They adopt new styles into
it, new instruments and new
sounds, new ways of arranging this
music."
Far from critical, Alberto wel-
comes the evolution - and exposure
that goes with it. Salsa, he said,
receives more airplay than ever
before.
"I haven't been through what Celia or
what Tito Puente has been through,"
said Alberto, approaching his 40th
birthday.
Younger singers like Jerry Rivera,
he said, "they haven't been through
what I've been through ... So
(there's) always a new generation
coming into the roots and coming
into our music."
That, he said, means salsa's sur-
vival. Salsa can infect audiences the
world over, but it must hit home,
too.
"That's the important thing," he said,
"to educate a new generation and our
kids all about our roots, all about our
music - so that they continue doing
our music."

A2edges up on jazz scene with new festival

Gabrielle Schafer
4 the Daily
Fans ofjazz and creative music should have plenty
to rave about this weekend, as Ann Arbor's first annu-
al creative music festival kicks off tomorrow

"Edgefest'97" is an allbday cele-
bration of jazz and musical
exploration at the Gypsy Cafe
(214 N. Fourth), Club
Heidelberg (215 N.Main) and at
the Kerrytown Concert House
(415 N.Fourth). The all-day
nt features eight critically
acclaimed national and local jazz
groups.

P R I
Ed
,lomorrow
Gypsy Cafe, Kerryt
Club Heidelb
and creative music

scene in the past 20 years. "Edgefest" will be Dave
Douglas Tiny Bell Trio's first Michigan appearance.
Douglas will play at 10 p.m. at the Kerrytown Concert
House.
California's Rova Saxophone Quartet has been
making music for 20 years, and
is considered by Downbeat mag-
E V I E W azine to be the finest all-saxo-
Igefest '97 phone ensembles on the jazz
- 12:30P.m-2 a.m. scene. "Edgefest '97" is part of
town Concert.House, Rova Saxophone Quartet's 20th
erg - call 769-2999 anniversary tour, and the Quartet
will play 8:30 p.m. at Kerrytown
Concert House and at 10 p.m. at the Gypsy Cafe.
Charlie Kohlhase's jazz quintet, comprised of two
saxes, trumpet, bass and drums, has been described as
"post-modern jazz," with an accessible sound likely to
win over Ann Arbor audiences. Charlie Kohlhase
Quintet will play two sets at 7 and 8:30 p.m. at the
Gypsy Cafe.
Most of these creative music groups are connected
with the Knitting Factory in New York City, a center of
New York's downtown music scene. "Edgefest '97"
coordinator David Lynch, who has also been involved

was inspired in part by The Knitting Factory's "What
is Jazz?" festival.
"The idea behind 'Edgefest '97,"' said Lynch, "is to
use multiple, smaller venues and to schedule events so
that people can see all of them. Plus, all the shows are
within a one-block radius."
Along with the headlining shows, *"Edgefest '97"
offers some more eclectic music for audiences. Only
A Mother, a four-piece ensemble bent on combining
avant jazz-rock with twisted humor, is known for its
unorthodox sound explorations. Kicking off the fest at
12:30 p.m. at the Gypsy Cafe, Only A Mother should
provide good music, as well as a few laughs.
Detroit-based Larval will give "Edgefest" a shot of
drama with its clashing guitar chords and layered
rhythms. With three guitars, bass, drums and violin,
Larval is in keeping with "Edgefest"'s celebration of
music without boundaries. Larval will close the festi-
val with a midnight show at Club Heidelberg. Tickets
areS7.
Years from now, "Edgefest '97" will be remem-
bered as securing Ann Arbor a place on the national
jazz scene, where jazz musicians and music lovers can
come together to celebrate creative music and explo-
ration.

An all-day "Edgepass" is available for $35, granti-
ng entry to every event. Tickets are also available at
the door for each individual concert. Edgepasses must
be reserved in advance, and space is limited.
"Edgefest" headliners include the Dave Douglas
Tiny Bell Trio, the Rova Saxophone Quartet and the
Charlie Kohlhase Quintet. Shows for the headlining
acts are $10 each.
jgave Douglas, hailing from New York, has been
called one of the best jazz trumpeters to emerge on the

with "Jazz at the Edge" series,

said "Edgefest '97"

I

Allen brings poetry,
rhythms to Shaman

Jason boog
For the Daily
It is too easy sometimes to leave the
words ofa poem lying on the page, and
to forget the spoken, rhythmic roots of
the form. Detroit poet Ron Allen will
visit Shaman
Drum tomorrow r
to . remind Ann
Arbor that
ythm is the'
ost sacred prin-
ciple of the uni-
verse.
Allen's book, "I Want My Body
Back," is a blend of artistic and human
concerns, reflecting his other occupa-
tions as a teacher at a homeless shelter
and a drug center and as an avant-garde
jazz and theater advocate. But poetry is
most important, Allen stated in a recent
terview, calling it his personal "quest
A survival."
"Body" boils over with first-person
immediacy, supercharged through his
rhythmic focus. Allen brings poetry
down to exposure and examination of
the physical experience, declaring in his
title poem, "I want my body so I can dig
my toes in the Earth and walk like a nat-
ural man.' Avant-garde jazz musician,
Faruq Z. Bey attests to Allen's success.
on's is the poetry of sensation ... the
mordial rhythms of the street/bush
native who ogled his own core seeking
meaning.'
Allen also focuses on unnatural
barriers to celebrating identity rang-
ing from racism to television. Lines
damning television's "post mortem
examination of my guts for con-
. .. .. . ...



tax.
Allen's work is never far away
from his roots in jazz, the music that
shapes many of his unusual rhythms.
The music is captured in the tribute
lines, "the blues rippin little brother's
ear into pieces of
E V I E W sour mash in the
sweet riff of the
Ron Allen night." And like
Tomorrow night at 8 jazz, the discord
shaman Drum and experimental
Free sounds of Allen's
poetry need work
to digest. While not every single note
connects, the book is worth the
attempt.
Allen dropped out of the ninth
grade, and his wayward life was
saved at 32 through a "spiritual trans-
formation." This theme of enlighten-
ment also lives in Allen's poetry, with
references ranging from Christianity
to Egyptian deities. But the harmony
of Buddhism is Allen's guide in poet-
ry, as "on being weightless" proves.
"you the window the extension of
words. from the hara, the center the
closed math of air ... i tie you to this
thing called words to keep you,
inside," the poem chants.
This spiritual, inner focus is Allen's
chief message, passing on his personal
reformation to the reader. He hopes "to
break down the abusive and oppressive
logic of language" through his work.
Allen believes this is one road toward
healing the nation's psyche.
"Theoretically, when I read at Shaman
Drum, there shouldn't be any crime for
four blocks around," he stated about his

"Who's Your Suerhero? Centel
In honor of foxy singer-songwriter
Garrison Starr's self-titled release featur-
ing "Superhero," the Daily is sponsoring a
"Who's Your Superhero?" contest. Bring
us a picture - it could be a drawing,
painting, you name it - and a descrip-
tion of your superhero by next Friday,
Nov. 14. If we think your superhero is the
coolest, you will win a Garrison Starr sin-
gle, and your name and superhero will
get published in the Daily.
All entries should be dropped off in the
Daily Arts office, second floor of the
Student Publications Building, 420
Maynard St. The more creative the draw-
ing, the better your chances of winning!

Celia Cruz strikes a pose. Cruz, along with Jose Alberto, will perform tonight at
Hill Auditorium, bringing salsa's infectious, hot flavor to hungry ears. Catch Cruz'
performance for a mere $10.

w....

_


Two miniature operas of fairy-tale wonder and lyrical genius
by the composers of Bolero a nd The Firebird.
L'Enfati et les Sortileges by Maurice Ravel
"The Child and the Enchantments"
Le Rossignol by lgorstravinsky,
"The Nightingale"
Sung in French with English supertitles
Directed by Joshua Major
Conducted by Kenneth' Kiesler
With the University Symphony Orchestra
Power Center
November 13-15 at S PM
November 16 at 2 PM

SAY IT WITH COOKIES
.Hnadulouhnhnnupiq a nd



I