Wednesday, march 1, 1978
page 8
daily nebraskan
n o orts and
Akkerman's new album hollow, without former tenacity
ByJeffTaebel
I must admit, I was quite excited when
I received a copy of Jan Akkerman's new
record. Entitled Jan Akkerman, the album
is his third solo outing, his first since
Tabenakel, which was released four years
ago. I was excited about this record
because I was eager to see what this power
ful European guitarist had been doing since
his departure from Focus.
album I
review
Akkerman's work with that popular
band from Holland set him apart from
most other rock players and it seemed only
appropriate that his new album should
join the ranks of the recently successful
releases by guitarists such as George Ben
son. Jeff Beck, Larry Coryell and Al Dime
ola. Yet, after listening to Akkcrman on
this entirely instrumental effort, I wonder
if lie really should be mentioned along
with those fouf masters of the fretboards.
The first disturbing thing about this
album is the actual tone of Akkennai's
guitar. One of the distinguishing features of
his playing with Focus was the incredibly
full and rich sound that he got from his
instrument. As Guitar Player magazine
noted in a 1975 feature story on Akker
man: "Jan Akkerman's technique and
tone quality combine the subtlety and
demand of the classical instrument with
the roar and tenacity of the electric instru
ment." That statement might hold true for the
playing on this album except the roaring
tenacity is gone. Akkerman employs a
bright, trebly tone throughout the album,
which gives his chords and single-note
playing in the lower registers amazing
clarity, but causes him to lose the sustained
higher notes. The result is a solo which
might have roared tenaciously but instead
sounds rather hollow. Also, many of the
notes get lost on his high-speed riffs.
This is not to say that the album would
be much more successful if Akkerman had
altered the sound of his guitar. His playing
lacks the control of Benson's, the explo
sivencss of Dimeola's and the imagination
of Beck or Coryell's, which makes it hard
for it to be the focal point of an entire
album without getting monotonous, especi
ally when there are no particularly interest
ing sidemen to pick up the slack.
Akkerman's nondescript back-up band
features Joachim Kuhn on keyboards,
Cees van der Loarse on bass, Bruno Castc
lucci on drums and Neppic Noya on
additional percussion as well as a guest
appearance by Focus drummer Pierre van
der Linden on one song.
Another problem with the album is
that it often appears that little work was
put into its organization. Many of the
songs seem to be little more than long jams
on relatively simple themes, as exempli
fied by all of the cuts on side one. The
worst of these is a ten-minute exercise in
boredom called "Angel Watch." which
also has a cloying string arrangement.
The strings pop up again elsewhere on the
album, none to the betterment of the
music.
Side two fares considerably better,
with two of its four selections, "Sky
dancer" and "(late To Europe," being
rather interesting. "Skydancer" has some
catchy changes, giving the listener a break
from the repetitious two-chord themes of
most of the songs. It also features a fine
solo by Akkcrman which probably is his
best performance on t lie album.
"Gate To Europe" is a beautiful acous
tic guitar piece which might have redeemed
the album were it not irreparably marred
by its ridiculously overbearing string
arrangement. It rocks hack and forth like
it was recorded at sea and makes it hard to
concentrate on Akkerman's tender playing.
Certainly an artist of Akkerman's cali
ber cannot be written off on the basis of
one disappointing album. Perhaps he will
return with his guitar tuned up for his
next effort, leaving his string section
behind, but until then. Jan Akkerman
might be a good album to avoid.
Photo courtesy of Atlantic Records
Guitarist Jan Akkerman
'Non-traditional dancers give concert
Dances for Passer-By, a non-profit dance
company in residence at St. Mark's on the
Campus Episcopal Church, will present two
concerts today. The programs begin at 4
and 8 p.m. and are arranged through the
Union Program Council.
Tire company was incorporated Oct. 24,
1977. under the co-direction of Marguerite
Fishman and Irene Wachtel, as a perfor
mance and study group for classes in
modern dance technique, improvisation,
composition and repertory. Much of the
company's philosophy is based on the
Alexander Technique of relaxation and
natural movement, according to Wachtel..
Wachtel received her bachelor of arts
degree in dance at Mills College in Oakland.
Calif., and her master's degree at Ohio State
"tJniversity. She described the company's
choreography as environmental with
relations to space rather than the tradition
al front-oriented style. She said the dances
can be performed anywhere there is adequ
ate space such as in parks, museums or in
the streets-not just in theatres.
Tickets for the concerts are $1.50 for
UNL students and $2 general admission.
Music for the concerts will be provided by
Bill Hanlon, LeRoy Critcher and Carol
Warren on the flute, guitar, cello and per
cussion instruments.
More than geld glitters in life of jeweler-hypnotist
By Jim Williams
The posters describe Todd Christcll as
a hypnotist.. He will be performing, they
say, at 8 tonight in the Nebraska Union
South Crib, and at 8 Thursday night
in the East Union Terraces.
That is all true, too, but Christell is not
just some stage Svengali. At age 23,
Christell has enough career experience for
several people's lifetimes. An ex-UNL stu
dent, ex-inventor, ex-Lincoln Telephone
cable splicer and engineer, Christell has
finally settled as owner of Christell 's, a cus
tom jewelry-making and designing shop in
the Atrium.
Christell said he first became interested
in hypnosis while in high school in Omaha.
"At our church we had a hypnotist who
gave a little demonstration, and I thought
it was pretty neat," he said. "So 1 started
reading about it." A clinical psychology
professor at Northwestern University
taught him the technique, he said, but he
didn't do anything with it until coming to
UNL, when he hypnotized some friends at
the Farmhouse fraternity.
"I've hypnotized almost 1,500 people
around the university," Christell said. "I
did shows and parties and things, but the
first couple of years I'd tell people to study
better, ace their tests, stop smoking, weight
loss -all the clinical hypnotic things."
Christell said that even after he learned
hypnosis, developing an entertaining act
was difficult.
"It's kind of a scary thing, I guess, be
cause you can't practice it." he said. "The
whole situation lends itself to making it up
as yon go along. Wording is important.
People take things literally (when they're
hypnotized) if you tell someone to go
jump in a lake, if there's one close, hell do
it. It's super, super easy to get kind of
chicken to try new things because if you
try something new and it doesn't work, it
looks bad."
Christell has not been afraid to try new
things outside his hypnosis act. In high
school, attending Northwestern University
as a prize for winning a national science
fair contest, he invented a new kind of
hearing aid that could be tailored to indi
vidual needs.
When he was a UNL freshman, Christell
gave up the hearing-aid project -but not
voluntarily, he said.
"It was made very difficult for me to
continue by several companies," he said. "I
had one guy who was trying to kill me over
it -threatening phone calls. Death I don't
need."
After two years at UNL as an electrical
engineering major, Christell said he decided
he didn't like it.and quit. How did he get
into the jewelry business?
'That started in high school, too," he
said. "I just woke up one morning and said,
hey, I want to be a silversmith."
After a term as a cable splicer for the
Lincoln Telephone Company ("There
wasn't much future in it, but I liked climb
ing telephone poles ") Christell was pro
moted to engineer, and didn't like that
either, he said.
"Then I heard about this little building
(the Atrium) opening up," he said, "and I
thought, what the hell."
"I reallj like stones," Christell said of
his jewelry business. "We just went to Au
stralia to buy opals, and now we have the
largest collection of opals in the area. . .
Nature has a lot better ideas in design of
her stones than I could have in the design
of my jewelry."
Christell said his hypnosis act isn't quite
like those of stage hypnotists who make
their subjects look ridiculous.
"You get the extroverts (as volun
teers) or people who are so introverted it's
driving them crazy," he said.
"It's like people who have half a glass of
beer and get drunk. I'm usually sponsored
by the Human Potentials Series. . .and I
tell people I'm not trying to make fools of
them. I've never been hypnotized -but
people tell me it's a real good time."
Reunions ruin beloved views
of old-time TV personalities
By Pete Mason
Entertainment Editor
During the past year there have been a
lot of "reunions" on the tube.
There was the Father Knows Best re
union. The Partridge Family reunion, the
My Three Sons reunion, the Dobie Gillis
reunion and a Honeymooners reunion.
television.
fviw
Slows which have beea making the
black-and-white syndication rounds for the
past ten or fifteen years are being revived
"one more time" ostensibly, it seems, to
let everyone know "Whatever became
of . . .?"
In a way it's nice to know that the high
mucky mucks of television think that the
over-30 crowd constitutes a substantial per
centage of the viewing population. In these
youth-oriented, bionic times it's comfort
ing to know someone remembers.
The question is, do we really care? How
many people care what happened to
Maynard G. Krebs? Is there really a large
population of nostalgia buffs mooning over
the memory of Bud, Betty or Kathy
Anderson?
Maybe there is. And if there is, the net
works are on to something that should be
exploited to the limit.
How about a Leave it to Bever reunion?
Can you imagine parents calling their 32-year-old
son the Beaver?
"Well, Beav, how did everything go at
the office today?"
"Gee, Dad. Would you lay off the Beav
stuff? All my friends call me Ted now."
It would be a great opportunity for the
writers to develop Eddie Haskell's charact
er (Ken Osmond, who played Eddie, is a
Los Angeles vice cop now, in case anyone
is interested).
"Look. Wally. All you gotta do is put it
down as a deduction. Who's gonna know?"
"Gee. 1 don't know, Eddie. The IRS has
penalties for that kind of thing."
Continued on page 9
