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daily nebrsskcn
thursky, cpril 29,1970
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W U U U U
By Michael Zsngsri
Maybe David Bromberg is the "demon in disguise"
he claims to be. After four albums, the only certain thing
is that he certainly defies classification.
It is not that Bromberg's music is strange, it is just that
it seems to be suffering from an identity crisis that
Bromberg's father, a well known New York City
psychiatrist, probably could well appreciate.
The first tremors of Bromberg's presence were felt in
New York, when rumors of his unbeatable acoustic guitar
playing sent people looking for the short mystery man in
glasses.
By the time Bromberg got around to recording an
album of his own, music business people were on the edge
of their chairs waiting for the debut. When he opened his
mouth to sing, a few of them sat back.
Like Bob Dylan, Bromberg's voice is a little coarse.
: : Worth listening to .
Although mat first album has found its way to the
cut-out sections of most record stores, the material is
worth listening to. The finest parts of the album are live,
a continued trait on his next two albums.
Although he plays a variety of music, most of it is
based in blues. His versions of the traditional "Mississippi
Blues' and "DeMia, a song he credits a Blind Willie
McTeH recording for getting him to think about, sport
some of the mellowest and most apt acoustic blues lead
lines now available.
Tine Tree Woman" has a nastier bite to it, but the
guitar lines still stand out.
Bromberg plays a mean guitar. It is probably this
album that landed him a place in the blues section of the
record store, a place where he easily fits.
And yet, Bromberg's second album, Demon in
Dibits, isn't exactly blues. In fact he takes issue with
classification in the title track when he warns . . jdon't
kt the glasses fool you.
There are blues on the album, but that is not all. He
takes tins out to do a live track cn the first side of the
album that consists cf a medley of Irish fiddle tunes.
Hs plsys it on one gultsr with a speed and clarity that
would make Leo Koftke lock pale. Several 1
socs, such as "Tennessee Waltz, also are nehidsd.
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The second album should have taken Bromberg out of
the blues section, but by his third album he was still
there..' -
On Wanted, Deed or Alive, he almost returns to blues
based music. He again plays several old blues songs,
including a live medley of "The Stateborro Blues' and
"The Church' Bell Blues". He extends the style he tried
on "Diamond LA" and comes up with "Someone Else's
Blue's", a lament on feeling down.
If he would stop there, maybe it could be resolved that
the blues section is where Bromberg belongs. But not so.
He does two more bluegrass songs and a rocking version of
"Kansas City, in which his improvised lyrics take the
song places it's never been before.
When you get around to listening to Bromberg's fourth
album, you get around to not classifying him at all. Now
it's the David Bromberg Band, and the album Midnight
on the Water.
A depasture - ;; "vu
This latest album is a departure in many ways.
Bromberg had produced earlier albums himself, always
maintaining a simplicity that enhanced the material. A
team from Columbia records produced I'idrht on the
Water. The result is a good deal more complicated.
Musically the album is much more consistent, but
that's the problem. It's a fine album, better than his
earlier ones, but it lacks the definite hih points the cider
ones always had.
Bonnie Rait and Linda Rcnstadt's lusty vocals
emphasize that this is definitely a good-time album. There
are bluegrass instrumentals, and vocal embellishments to
helpitalong.
Bromberg says it best during an instrumental break in
David Blue's "I like to Sleep Late in the Morning.' He
muses that most people probably wcnt be impressed by
his guitar work on the song. He points out that he's
playing both treble and bass at the ss: time and ends
with a Ilht, but fanatical charactsrsxtiGn,
fantastic, how does he do it?
Ercmberg's fusion cf thies and Uusrtss cry dzfy a
ready classification. But he stems to be playing for hin
sdf rather than for a ready-made market, and that's ckay.
saying
Si
A concert of easy lterfrg is in store for the audissce
at today's UNL CcSeghte Bind perfcrmnce, ecccrdinj
to director Robert Fought, asaciste professsr cf tiso
phose and mching bind director.
Starting at 8 pjn. in Kimball Recitd I!i!l, the free
public prosram wO feature the music of Richsid Rctrs
and George ?I. Cchm.
Jim Schmuer, a graduate atant in bsnd from
Crock, wO conduct the "Coat of Arms" march by George
Kenny and "Cantico, a Latin American dnce pisce for
bind by Ahn Grayson. -
Also on the program wi3 be a tone pocra by lncsnt
Tersichetti, "O Cocl Is the Valley."
A tone poem, Fought sdd, is a Mcharacter piece with
much smoother Eats. .
Appearing with the band wZl be a jazz lib band. Dir
ected by Jon IHschke, the jazz group will' perform
"Awrisht, Awrisht," by Pete Jackson, "Lyric Mood " by
John La Porta and "Time Check" by Don K!enza.
Gi5B
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Colored ' dreams'
in prison cGmp "
inspired quartet
Olivier Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time, based
on the Apocalypse of St. John, will be presented free
tonight in Centennial College 'at 8 pjn. as part of the
dormitory series.
Messiaen wrote the quartet during his captivity in a
German prison camp, Stalag VHI-A, in 1941.
"This took place at Gorlitz, Silesia, in atrocious cold,"
he wrote. "The Stalag was buried under the snow. Ve
were thirty thousand prisoners. When I was a prisoner,
the lack of nourishment gave me strange colored dreams.
I saw halos and strange swirls of color." -
Messiaen wrote the quartet for the instruments they
had: a violin, clarinet, cello and piano.
The quartet is comprised of eight movements: Crystal
Liturgy, Exercise in Vocalization for the Angel Who
Announces the End of Time, Abyss of the Birds,
Interlude, Praise to the Eternity of Jesus, Dance of Fury,
Confusion (jumble of rainbows) for the Angel who
Announces the End of Time, and Praise to the
Immortality of Jesus. U
The movements are varied in the instrumentation. In
some, aQ four are featured. In others, only one
instrument. There are two duets in the piece, one for
piano and cello, and one for violin and cello.
Performing the Quartet are Morris Collier (violin),
Cary Lewis (piano), Dorothy Lewis (cello) and Larry
Maxey (clarinet).
Lewis, who teaches in the Musk Dept. at Nebraska
Wesley an University, has distinguished herself at
Interlochen, a summer music camp in Michigan, where she
is now a faculty member, and in master classes conducted
by Pablo Casals. Collier, instructor of violin and theory at
Wesley an, is assistant concertmaster of the Lincoln
Symphony. ' ' '
Lewis, head of the Piano Dept. at Wesleyan, studied at
the Vienna Academy of Music on a Fulbright scholarship.
Maxey is a member of the woodwind faculty at the
University of Kansas and studied at the Eastman School
of Music in Rochester, N.Y.
'Duchess and Fox'
good for a laugh
By DhssVzssk
After a couple weeks in which Lincolnites were ab
to see a whole passsl of new films, all of a sudden there is "
cot much to see. A small exception, however, might be
The Duchess end the Dttwcter Fox, now playing at the
Douglas 3.
The Dktwater Fox is George Segal, a card shark with
a crocked The Fox is rescued on the day of his own
lynching by desperadoes who force the Fox, as a repay
ment, to seduce the banker's wife and steal the keys to
GcMie Hawn is the Duchess. Eat she is redly no duch
ess at all. She's a shady lady with a great pair cf legs play
ing a duchess. The Duchess is on her way to Salt Lake
City posing as the titled governess to a family cf rich
Mormons.
Toother, the Duchess and the Fox axe'ehasd thrcsrh
drerous territory by a sheriffs posss and by the
desperadoes who want their stolen loot. They go through
the predictable gsnsut cf sc&ling rapids, falls off their
hcrses. and even hiding it at .
music from which sounds like the local hMi school
version cf FiZJkron the Roof
One cf the best scenes in the film, and there are many
funny scenes, occurs when the Duchess' G-string falls
cut of her Bible. She exclaims, "Oh, my Indian prayer
shawl-a tribal gift from the time the Duke .and I visited
Kilimanjaro at the foot of Lake Geneva!"
You've seen it all before, but it's funny and bright,
and Gcldie Hawn is one of those gifted people who can
get laughs out of just about anyone. If you tire of
common movie fare and enjoy a good chuckle, see this
one.
