The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, April 29, 1976, Page page 8, Image 8
PC"2 0 daily nebrsskcn thursky, cpril 29,1970 M f" r X rr ' (If A - MY :J7r4at 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. r P 0 M f , 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 G f n -J o i r ? 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.