Pages10 The Michiganepdaily SundayMay20, 1984
-Hmmond hits head-oln
By Joseph Kraus
T HINK OF that feeling you get
when something you knew was
going to go according to plan turns out
to be everything you expected.
Imagine betting on a tape-delayed
football game, for instance, when
you've already heard the outcome on
the radio.
Well, that same feeling, minus any
ethical qualms your method may or
may not have spawned, is the feeling
that came from John Hammond's
Thursday night show at the Blind Pig.
Hammond was billed as nothing short
of today's best version 'of yesterday's
blues legends. With a history of ecstatic
reviews for his live performances as
well as an already awe-inspiring collec-
tion of recorded tracks, Hammond
needed to be superb just to get away
without cheating his crowd.
And Hammond was superb.
Proving his reputation to be as
correct a label as those little blue signs
in front of all the university buildings,
Hammond put on a show of quality and
consistency. Using nothing more than
his guitar, harmonica and voice, he John Hammond belts out
captivated the entire audience for two successful.
hour-long sets and then came back for wrenching riff.
an encore. He also managed to produce
One of the more startling points of the sound than a single indivi
show was Hammond's stage presence. dinarily can. His guitar was
He sat hunched forward so that he, the seldom unaccompanied. Hi
guitar and the microphone seemed to ranged from rythmically di
form a single creature. When he played true-bluesy rasp and his ha
he gave no sign of noticing the audien- finished off the total sound ina
ce, drawing his reinforcement instead wash of bent notes and chords.
from hitting a particularly gut- But perhaps the most amazir
Mimnneaoi usic
arrives on the
Curtiss A train
DEBORAH LEWIS/Daily
one of the personal songs that made his Thursday night performance at the Blind Pig so
of Hammond is his relationship to his the problem early and the show went
far more music. He has taken the'art of making on without any further hitches.
idual or- the Delta blues and made it his own With a performer like Hammond
full and without betraying the rich heritage that waiting in the wings, it would have been
s vocals it implies. Throughout the show he per- easy for opening act Steve Newhouse to
riving to formed blues numbers from the classic get himself into trouble with the
armonica Robert Johnson's "Love In Vain" to audience, but the Ann Arborite held his
powerful some downright obscure treasures, and awn
managed to give each one his own in- own.
rg aspect dividual stamp. Playing a Leon Redbone-tinged style
A+sI, we ueginning oi nis snow..., iam-. Di i.DUC, InCiiDU5~C W ii OSni LiiC CiiniW
it
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At the beginning of his show, Ham-
mond announced that it was being
taped, but technical difficulties may
keep any of the tracks from reaching
vinyl. In the midst of the performance
strange cracklings started, prompting
Hammond to say, "I don't know what
that noise is, but I'm sure not making
it."
But give the Blind Pig sound people
credit because they did straighten out
of boues, Newnouse won over the crowd
to the point that they called hime back
for an encore.
The whole evening turned out to be a
great way to break in the new Pig
Ballroom. The seating worked perfec-
tly as there somehow existed a strange
equilibrium where there were always
one or two seats available for
newcomers, but never a sparse feel to
the crowd.
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By Larry Dean
M INNEAPOLIS might not seem like
much of a musical Mecca up
against stalwart seaports such as
New York City or Los Angeles, but con-
sider this: Prince, Vanity 6, the Time,
the Suburbs, the Replacements, Andre
Cymone, and a hoarde of other critical
darlings all claim the midwestern
stopover as home turf, and with a list
like that, you're not dealing with purely
underground stuff.
The latest export from Minneapolis to
grace our ears is Curtiss A, a
singer/songwriter compared favorably
to the likes of Bruce S ringsteen and
'Graham Parker, amongst others. A will
be in town tonight - on adouble-bill
with Californians Clay Allison, ataste-
treat of equal footing - at Joe's Star
Lounge.
A survivor of the Minneapolis bar
scene, Curtiss A has two LPs under his
belt on Minne's own Twin Tone label.
The first, Courtesy, was released in
1980, and the most recent,,Damage is
Done, followed it up fouryears later.
The comparisons to Springsteen and
Parker seem most readily apparent,
since A has a reedy-yet-raspy voice
with a surprisingly strong range. The
music, too, falls into the "workin' class
rock 'n' roll" category, only many
times better than A's contemporaries,
like J. C. Mellenchamp, or B. Seger.
Why is Curtiss A "better?" For one
thing, his songs have more of a pop
edge than either Mellencamp or Seger,
recalling the Flamin' Groovies or the
Strawberries at their rocking best. And
there's a real sense of having fun in the
process. Whereas some of the tunes on
Damage reflecta bit on the dark side'of
things, the overall feeling is exuberant
and sincere. Here's a fellow who's
probably always wanted to be a rock
musician, and, now that he's "made
it," is having a ball.
Clay Allison are a little more cryptic.
In describing them, all I really hve to go
on is the parts of their sum. Featuring
two refugees from California's
psychedelia-and-etc. revival-Kendra
Smith, ex-bassist for the Dream Syn-
dicate, and David Roback, from the
Rain Parade - Clay Allison purpor-
tedly carries on the psychedelia
tradition replete with some far-eastern
influences, as well.
I'm not sure whether Curtiss A or
Clay Allison will have the power of
longevity, but their double-bill together
promises to be lots of fun. Far from the
maddening megabuck hype of the
Jacksons-cum-Pepsi tour, independen-
tly-produced music continues to be the
most intimate, arresting, and, quite of-
ten, the most satisfying, as well. Allow
yourself the luxury of getting closer to
the bone, with C.A.-squarred, tonight,
at Joe's at 9:30.
Records
Crusaders - Ghetto
Blaster (MCA)
An appropriate enough title, as a
ghetto blaster is about the only fit place
for this sordid collection of vulgar
psuedo jazz. The Crusaders were never
a jazz band to be revered, but at least
they once could work respectable, even
fun permutations on traditional for-
mulas.
But here, as in their last several
records, they're aiming for a commer-
cial appeal with condescending jazz-
funk so uncomplicated and bland that it
ends up being virtually subcommer-
cial. Their half-hearted mimicry of
popular black music trends is so ar-
thritically awkward that its obvious
these guys don't even know where to
start.
The songs on the album (there are
three of them) are the ususal inanities
about lovin' and gettin' down and would
be great parodies of jazz-pop cliches if
it weren't so obvious that we're meant
to take them seriously.
On "New Moves", one of their female
guest vocalist laments about thelack of
romance in her life, and ends up
sighing, "No one would help me fly . . .
How many times have cross-over
jazz performers run that metaphor into
the ground?
The musicianship of the trio is
dreary, like a group of session
musicians jamming along some in-
nocuous melody without direction.
Wilton Felder's bass playing sounds
like a paint by numbers copy of current
funk styles. Leon Chancler (replacing
Stix Hooper) pounds out the rhythms
without any variation on his drums like
an overzealous metronome.
Most disappointing is the work by
pianist Joe Sample, whose work here
(as in his recent The Hunter solo
album) sounds like pure background
filler. The liner notes list nine keyboar-
ds that Sample apparently used, in-
cluding state of the art Prophet synths,
but it doesn't show. Sample lamely
resorts to that old electric paino sound
that was dated ten years ago.
The Crusaders, like George Benson,
seem determined to forge ahead into
that bold new territory, jazz-musak,
with ferocious lethargy. Avoid this
album unless you have a need for an
oversized coaster for your coffee table.
- Byron L. Bull
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