6 — Friday, September 13, 2019
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

By Steve Faiella
©2019 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
09/13/19

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

09/13/19

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Friday, September 13, 2019

ACROSS
1 Pretend to be
4 Center
9 Foot, in zoology
12 “Isn’t __ Lovely”: 
Stevie Wonder 
hit
13 Toyota until 2006
14 Posted
15 Time for an 
Oktoberfest 
tradition?
17 Erase
18 Deplorable sort
19 Where to find 
letters on tracks
21 Medical events 
in a 1977 Robin 
Cook thriller
23 Movie about a 
Jewish wedding 
staple?
24 Celebrity chef 
Garten
25 Set of values
28 Thinks intently 
(over)
29 Impedes, with 
“up”
31 Paramedic 
letters
32 Old brew revived 
in the 2000s
33 Festive Brazilian 
gathering?
38 Rapper will.__
39 Stick in a lock
40 Jazz vocalist 
Laine
42 See 14-Down
45 Charged
47 Reservoir creator
48 One in a line of 
frolicking sea 
creatures?
50 Increases, with 
“up”
52 Creator of a sci-fi 
“Traveller”
53 Schroeder’s toy
55 Getting __ years
56 Wedding 
reception 
highlight ... and 
a feature of four 
puzzle answers
60 Rolled __
61 Conceptualize
62 One may be 
bruised
63 MIT, for one
64 “Cool!”
65 Yang’s opposite

DOWN
1 Nile danger
2 John of “Star 
Trek” (2009)
3 1967 Etta James 
hit
4 Target section
5 Nastase on the 
court
6 Archaeological 
site
7 Jerks
8 Member of 
Genghis Khan’s 
horde
9 Write (in) 
tentatively
10 Ultimate 
objective
11 Weather 
headliners
13 Reason
14 With 42-Across, 
corrosive 
substances
16 Camping letters
20 Shakespeare’s 
plays are full of 
them
21 Slangy smoke
22 Heavy weight
23 Glowing 
barbecue bit
26 Orioles, e.g.

27 Medical care gp.
30 Bits
32 Prefix with sail
34 __ metabolism
35 Recyclable item
36 Source of status
37 Tide table term
41 Sounds heard at 
an ashram
42 Blessing evokers
43 Colombard 
grapes product
44 Part of, as a gang

45 Live
46 Sports news
49 Like the Hollow 
Tree Factory 
bakers
51 Santa __
53 Exam for jrs.
54 “Leave __ me”
57 Stephen of “The 
Crying Game”
58 Movie SFX
59 DMV wait time, 
seemingly

ALICE LIU / DAILY

You can’t really put a label on what 
kind of band Snarky Puppy is. Although 
they’re often billed as a jazz band 
and play in a variety of jazz idioms, I 
wouldn’t really call their music jazz. I’m 
not sure if I’d even call them a fusion 
or a jam band. The only thing I can 
definitively say about the band is that 
it’s a supergroup of some of the best 

instrumentalists in the world. Founded 
in 2003, this Texas-born ensemble 
returned to Hill Auditorium this past 
Sunday for the opening of the University 
Musical Society’s 141st Season.
The night kicked off with opening 
act Alina Engibartan, a vocalist and 
keyboard 
player 
accompanied 
by 
three other members of Snarky Puppy. 
Engibartan’s voice on both originals and 
jazz standards was a smooth way to ease 
into the energy of the main event.
Touring off of the release of their most 
recent album, Immigrance, the band 
mostly played new music, with a few 
favorites sprinkled in between. Many 
of these newer pieces were influenced 
by different types of music from all over 
the world. For example, Michael League, 
bassist and bandleader of the group, 
mentioned the influence Gnawa music 
had on the group after their recent trip 
to Morocco and then taught the audience 
how to clap an interesting three-over-
four polyrhythm to accompany the 
band on their new track, “Xavi.” These 
worldly influences aren’t completely 
new for Snarky, but the way they leaned 
into them more than their last visit to 
Hill was captivating.
For the most part, this new recipe 
tasted pretty good in the listener’s 
mouth. The addition of violinist Zach 
Brock added some textures that differed 
greatly from the traditional funk/fusion 
the group is famous for, but at times 
the music did feel like it was only going 
halfway. Certain songs like “Even Us” 
ventured deep into unknown territory 
for the band, while other songs like “Bad 
Kids to the Back”seemed like they could 
have come from any period in Snarky’s 
discography. It felt as if the band was 

teasing us with a new direction and then 
immediately returning to where they 
had come from.
Objectively, the band sounded great. 
However, as much as I did appreciate 
the group trying to do something new 
with their new songs on this tour, I 
really wish they would have leaned even 
further into it. This was my third time 
seeing Snarky Puppy, and don’t get me 
wrong, each time I’ve seen them I’ve 
been blown away. The group was such 
an innovative, forward-thinking band 
when they emerged onto the scene in the 
mid-to-late 2000s. Years later, though, 
I wish they would fully embrace a new 
direction. 
For an album, I wasn’t a big fan of the 
lack of cohesiveness between tracks, 
but in a live setting, hearing the band 
play a variety of genres and styles was 
extremely entertaining and showcased 
just how talented this group is, even 
without their full recording roster 
of around 25 musicians. Each of the 
nine musicians on stage had a distinct 
musical voice, even beyond the fact that 
they were playing different instruments. 
Solos taken by saxophonist Chris Bullock 
tended to be more straightforward and 
melodic, while Shaun Martin often times 
took solos on his Moog synthesizer that 
integrated crazy timbral shifts and 
chaotic flurries of sounds.
As the group returned to the stage of 
Hill for an encore, the audience erupted 
into cheers as the opening chords to 
the band’s ever-popular song “Lingus” 
played, launching Shaun Martin into an 
epic five minute keyboard solo to end the 
evening. There was no better way to kick 
off the UMS season than with Snarky 
Puppy’s return to Hill Auditorium.

Snarky Puppy brings a fresh sound
to Hill Aud. with their latest album

CONCERT REVIEW

RYAN COX
Daily Arts Writer

In the eyes of a parent, a child 
can do no real wrong. Even the 
most vile of children might be 
seen as angels through the eyes 
of a loving parent, especially 
during their tumultuous teenage 
years. Our parents are supposed 
to be our biggest cheerleaders 
and our greatest protectors, but 
the reality is that they often see 
us as they want to see us, not 
as we actually are. In a sense, 
as a part of growing up, we all 
develop two separate identities 
— the people that our parents 
know us to be and the people 
who we are. In “Luce,” director 

Julius Onah expertly explores 
the inevitable gap that develops 
between children and parents 
as adulthood looms, crafting a 
riveting, wickedly suspenseful 
film that left me unexpectedly 
shaken. 
Luce (Kelvin Harrison Jr. 
“Monsters and Men”), a high 
school senior, has a relationship 
with his parents that seems 
quite healthy, filled with family 
dinners and car-ride banter. 
Practically a beacon of light to 
everyone around him, Luce lives 
up to his name. Envied by his 
peers, placed on a pedestal by 
his teachers, and adored by his 
parents, Luce is the paradigm 
model student. Or so it seems. 
To an outsider looking in, every 
piece of Luce’s life appears to 
fit perfectly. However, after his 
stern history teacher Ms. Wilson 
(Octavia 
Spencer, 
“Hidden 
Figures”) finds a mysterious 
bag filled with incriminating 
contents, the virtuosity of Luce’s 
character steadily becomes less 
and less clear. 
What really makes this film 
work is that every single actor 
brings 
their 
A-game. 
Props 
especially must be given to 
Spencer and Harrison, who 
truly carry the entirety of the 
film and keep audiences glued 

to the screen. Spencer and 
Edgar both play characters 
with 
questionable 
integrity. 
Throughout the film, we find 
ourselves going back in forth, 
struggling to determine who 
actually has the moral high 
ground or if both are in the 
wrong. A testament to their 
stunning embodiment of Ms. 
Wilson and Luce, Spencer and 
Edgar 
have 
us 
desperately 
picking up breadcrumbs leading 
to the truth from the opening 
scene until the screen goes 
black.
Along 
with 
its 
solid 
characters, the film score and 
expert pacing add to the overall 
enchanting air of mystery. The 
film is accompanied by a melodic 
but unnerving sprinkling of 
musical accompaniments. The 
score manages effortlessly to 
enhance the film as a whole, 
without distracting from what 
is happening on screen. Perhaps 
what makes the incorporation 
of music in the film so fitting 
is the perfectly-timed flow of 
events. Though not riddled with 
fast-moving, 
intense 
action 
sequences, “Luce” does not lose 
our attention for a second. The 
tension in the film lies in the 
clashing between the internal 
complexes of the characters and 
the external interactions among 
them. Seething with passive 
aggression and fakeness, the 
relationship 
between 
Ms. 
Wilson and Luce is a ticking 
time bomb just begging to be 
set off. We can’t help but sit at 
the edge of our seats, wide-
eyed and eagerly waiting for the 
inescapable explosion. 
As 
we 
are 
teased 
along 
for nearly two hours, there 
is an anticipated promise of 
resolution, but when the lights 
come back on we hold nothing 
but a few loose ends. Though 
initially 
disappointed, 
once 
we’ve 
tossed 
our 
popcorn, 
exited the theater and started 
to untangle the knot of emotions 
that “Luce” left us with, we start 
to see the film’s non-ending as a 
testament to its quality and as 
much more of a blessing than a 
curse.

‘Luce’ unsettles

FILM REVIEW

SAMANTHA NELSON
Daily Arts Writer

Luce

Michigan Theater

NEON, Topic Studios

These worldly 
influences aren’t 
completely new for 
Snarky, but the way 
they leaned into 
them more than 
their last visit to 
Hill was captivating

Spencer and 
Edgar have us 
desperately picking 
up breadcrumbs 
from the opening 
scene until the 
screen goes black

