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Thirteen is supposed to be an unlucky number. Anytime
the number thirteen is associated with a Friday, it's supposed
to be even worse luck.
Last Friday, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia's Portraits in Jazz was
presented for the 13th annual year. Was it an unlucky concert
for them? To a certain degree.
This is unfortunate, because the University lab band is
basically pretty good. Their problems, however, seemed to lie
in minor errors and their guest soloist, Buddy Baker,
trombonist.
BAKER IS A VERY GOOD technician, but his style of
playing jazz (late 40's or early SO's dancr band) did not seem
to match that of the modern 1971 Sinfonia lab band.
This is not to say that there is anything wrong with Baker's
style. On the contrary, this style of music aided greatly in the
progression of jazz, but the lab band just did not seem to be
comfortable playing in this style.
Baker's selections, "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You,"
"Night and Day," "Little Girl Blue" and "Can't Take My Eyes
Off of You" (the last two done with only percussion and a Kai
Winding-type trombone backing) were very good for what
they were, dance music, but not hard-driving jazz.
THE LAB BAND WAS fine, but the program mix-up and
the "encore" of a song which was supposed to have been
played earlier was slightly disturbing.
Also disturbing was the lack of continuity in the band's
dress. It appeared as if someone forgot to tell the members
what to wear. As a result, dress varied from tuxedos to suits to
blue-jean bell-bottoms.
It almost seemed as if the band was trying to imitate, in its
dress, an oversized Blood, Sweat and Tears.
IN THE PAST THIRTEEN years of the Sinfonia concert,
especially in the early years, tuxedos or suits were the standard
attire. This does not mean that blue-jean bell-bottoms are bad
and that tuxedos are good. Forget it! Either one is perfectly
acceptable, if everyone in the band would have chosen one
style or the other.
However, the lack of standardization in the dress seemed to
be a manisfestation of the disunity which plagued the concert.
The band really roared on "Big Sur Echo," its opening
number, and again on its "encore" "New Mood." It's too bad
one trombone had to come in early at the beginning of "New
Mood," but the piece soon made you forget about the
mistake.
"Anadge" and a 74 Indian tune, "Incelir," was very
interesting, but the audience didn't seem to appreciate them.
Bad audience! The band did a very good job with both of
these songs.
WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN the high point of the evening
was slightly tainted again by the presence of Baker.
"MacArthur Park" was one-hell-of-a song, it was really
grooving when Baker walked out and schmaltzed it up with his
solo.
But the best part of it all was the way the lab band lifted
"MacArthur Park" up again after Baker's solo was over, and
raced on to a great finish.
Special kudos to the soloists in the reed section, they were
good. Also to Robert Semrad, trumpeter, who, although he
didn't have any "down-front" solos, seemed to be the
inspiration and backbone for the entire brass section. In
addition, the conga drummer did a superb job all night long.
SPEAKING OF BLOOD, Sweat and Tears, remember that
they will be in Lincoln on April 3, at Pershing Municipal
Auditorium. Start thinking ahead for tickets.
This Friday Connie Lee will be appearing at Jazz and Java
in the South Crib of the Union. Plan on the starting time to be
3:30 p.m.
This is a good weekend for theater buffs. Opening Friday,
will be the University of Nebraska's production of Celebration.
This musical should not only be easy on the ears, but after
seeing some of the costumes, easy on the eyes too.
Tickets are now on sale at the Temple Building, but hurry
because good seats are really going fast.
ANOTHER THEATRE OPENING this weekend is the
Lincoln Community Playhouse's production of Under the
Yum Yum Tree. Tickets for this show are on sale at the
Lincoln Community Playhouse, 1 8th and L.
Tryouts for Song For Albert will be held next week, March
17, 18 and 19 at 7 p.m. and March 18 at 3:30 p.m. on the
third floor (if you count the basement as the first floor) of the
Wesley Foundation (Hungry Id).
The show, written and directed by Paul Baker, has parts for
five men and three women. A female blues singer along the
lines of Joplin is also needed for the show.
INGMAR BERGMAN'S The Ritual is still showing at the
Sheldon Art Gallery and will run tonight and Friday. The film,
which is Bergman's comment on obscenity and censorhip, is
shown at 8p.m. each night.
There will be another film at Sheldon Art Gallery on March
16. This film. The Hour of the Furnaces, is an essay on the
social, economic, cultural and political conditions in South
America.
Sponsored by the Union Special Films Committee, the
admission to The Hour of the Furnaces is $1 and show times
are at 3,7 and 9 p.m.
The University of Nebraska Symphony Orchestra will
present its spring concert tonight at 5 p.m. in Kimball Recital
Hall. Under the direction of Emanuel Wishnow, director of the
School of Music, the orchestra will feature the music of
Bernstein, Mendelssohn, Debussy and Britten.
THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 1971
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The evil Rich (Dean Tschetter) tries to triumph over the good Orphan (Jan Van
Sickle) in the University of Nebraska's production of Celebration, as fallen Angel
(Jeanne Mathes) watches.
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by CHARLIE HARPSTER
Staff Writer
the
war
The air, the water and
land are poisoned. The
stretches on, pulling patience
until it breaks. The government
refuses to listen. Everyone is
abandoning hope.
What to do?
CELEBRATE!
Celebration is a ritual of
hope. It is a celebration to
exhort evil, to welcome good,
to bring back hope.
It is a musical-it has
music but it is not a
lightweight musical comedy.
The authors believe a play is
a religious experience, to meet
primitive needs, director Dallas
Williams explained. Since
prehistoric cave rites, he said,
people have witnessed plays to
scare away evil and chase away
winter. They still do.
PLAYS ARE FUN too. But
beneath the fun, a battle is
being fought between the
forces of Death and the forces
of growth, between winter and
summer. Winter may cover the
world, but a seed always .
remains beneath the ice,.
Williams said.
All the seed needs is to be
reached by the sun to make it
sprout. Winter always passes,
and when summer
comes. ..forget winter-celebrate!
Celebration does not say: if
it feels good, do it. It is not
ostrich-like or Pollyanna-ish,
Williams said. It faces the fact
that times are hard and the
future appears hopeless. It says
if we work to get what we
want, as the orphan hero of
Celebration does, the world is
going to get better.
THE PLAY SHOWS Evil:
Edgar Allen Rich, the classic
rich man with nothing, a
peddler of fakes, falsies,
artificial flowers, facades. He is
played by Dean Tschetter,
whose Stravinsky-inspired
scenes backed The Rake's
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
Progress And there is
Potemkin, the con-man, played
by William Wallis.
The play shows Good:
Orphan, played by Jan Van
Sickle; and Angel, played by
Jeanne Mathes.
The play is about the
triumph of Good over Evil. It is
idealistic, but a morality play
dealing with the forces of life
and death has no choice.
IT IS SURREALISTIC for
the same reason. The dancing,
directed by Ric Marsh
expresses thoughts, not actions.
The choreography, with
abstract motions, reflects the
play, with abstract lines,
because this is the only way
thoughts can be represented,
Williams said.
The audience is to be a part
of Celebration through several
'techniques. Streamers and
confetti for the audience.
Music with magnetic, pounding
rhythms -meant to draw the
audience into the action on
stage. And lighting that plays
back and forth across, the
theater, with oscillating
shadows and colors that cause
differences between actor and
audience to diminish.
Celebration, A Musical
About Winter, will run Friday,
and Saturday, and the
following Monday through
Saturday, March i5-20th, at
Howell Theater.
Come to the party and fulfill
a primitive need with
Celebration on one of these
nights, starting at 8 p.m.
PUlitizer Prize
reporter here
A Pulitzer Prize-winning
reporter during World War II,
Leland Stowe, will speak
Thursday and Friday in the
School of Journalism.
Stowe, who also won a
Sigma Delta Chi Medal for his
reporting of the German
invasion of Norway, is now
European editor of Readers
Digest.
He will also address a joint
meeting of the student chapter
of Sigma Delta Chi,
professional journalism society,
and Cornhusker Editors at
noon Friday in the Lincoln
Hotel.
EMBASSY THEATRE
1730 "O" St.
DON SUTHERLAND
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