monday, november 13, 1978
page 8
daily nebraskan
arts and entertainment
jazz guitarist awes Kimball audience
By Jeff Taebel
Joe Pass opened the Lincoln Jazz Soci
ety! concert season Saturclay-ftiglU with an
awe-inspiring performance. Pass treated the
wildly enthusiastic Kimball audience to
two sets of fluid jazz improvisation and
guitar mastery. He was given a standing
ovation and was called back for two
encores.
concert review
Pass captivated the crowd from the be
ginning of the show, as he created an
incredibly full sound for a solo guitarist.
He displayed amazing rhythmic sense and
timing on all of this songs, regardless of
whether he was playing lush chords or
lightning fast single note leads.
Not an imposing figure
Pass did not cut an imposing figure on
stage, as one might have expected from one
of the world's greatest guitarists. Rather,
he exuded a warm feeling that can only
come from an artist so totally devoted to
his music.
He played as though entranced by the
incredible sounds emulating from his
guitar, stopping occasionally to give the au
dience a "report" after every two or three
numbers.
Pass strengthened his rapport with the
audience when he spoke, apologizing for
occasional rough spots in the songs and
making humorous references to problems
he was encountering during the show, yet
his dexterity on the fretboard was so over
whelming that the few buzzing notes were
all but unnoticed.
Some old standards
Some of the highlights of the show in
cluded renditions of old standards such as
"Green Dolphin Street," "Nuages," "It
Ain't Necessarily So" and "Summertime."
Also included were a few pop songs
such as "Misty," "Just The Way You Are"
and "Masquerade." Pass injected all these
songs with a wealth of musical ideas that
were probably never conceived of by the
authors.
Pass would usually begin his song
with a reading of the original melody, cre
ating fluttering arpeggios with his fingers in
The UpeT7egffiersrsuypd
playing a walking bass line with his thumb.
After he had payed tribute to the song
in this fashion, anything was likely to
happen and usually did. Pass would ex
plode in a flurry of slurred notes, come
back with some precision single picking
and lead back into the song with some im
pressive unison octave runs. Sometimes
he'd do all three at once.
Audience awed
During the slower songs, members of
the audience would gasp aloud at Pass'
expertise, yet he had so many ideas coming
across in so short a time that no one could
concentrate on any particular riff, lest they
miss something else.
Pass- has -Tjfterrstated-hT interviews that
he prefers to work alone because of the
improvisational freedom that solo
performances afford. Pass is his own back
up band, creating with only a guitar a com
pelling sound that few ensembles can ever
hope to achieve.
Pass thanked the audience after his first
encore for "sitting there and listening" and
offered to play a request the second time
he was called back.
However, sitting and listening was no
problem. As one Jazz Society member sta
ted in his introduction of Pass, "this should
be a fine way to cap off an almost perfect
day." It was.
j.PfcUW
German orchestra displays virtuoso precision
By R. A. Weigel
With music as rich as its heritage and
history the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leip
zig performed to capacity audiences Thurs
day and Friday evening at UNL's Kimball
Hall. Billed as East Germany's greatest
orchestra and sometimes referred to as one
of the world's best, they enthralled and
enchanted with their virtuosity and precision.
concert review
From the first chord of the Mendels
sohn's Italian Symphony, one could tell
that musicianship was having a field day.
The violins were terribly precise in their
bowings thus making for a superb sound.
In the Saltarello: Presto the speed and dif
ficulty of the string section left one
breathless. Even at such acceleration, the
shape of each note was defined and
accurate.
The conductor, Kurt Masur, follows in
a long line of famous conductors of the
Leipzig Orchestra, including Felix Mendels
sohn, Bruno Walter, and Gustav Mahler. He
conducted without the music in front of
him and without a baton. The way he used
his hands to give entrances and nuances to
the different sections was incredible; one
had the impression of a master magician
exerting his magical spell over the in
struments. The Prokofiev Concerto (No. 2 in G,
opus 16) for piano and orchestra was fla
vored with the mixture of nationalism and
modernism that make it an audience
pleaser rather than having the triteness of
complete modernism. It was compas
sionate and accurate in its performance.
Peter Rosel's piano virtuosity was in
tense and sometimes rather pounding, es
pecially in the second movement. His
showpiece in the finale was beautifully
performed despite the audience's over
zealous reaction to applaud before the
piece had finished.
The Bruckner Symphony (No. 3 in D
Minor), the "Wagner Symphony", has
much of the spice that Wagner has in his
own music. The largest orchestra of the
evening displayed genuine emotion in the
opening Misterioso section with the cello
speaking their truths much as Beethoven's
cello does in his ninth symphony. The
horns in the finale also had such character
with a more throaty European sound than
can be heard by an American orchestra.
Conducted like the building of a wall
(or perhaps the tearing down of one) the
work seemed to lay musical brick until the
finale had created something more than
man himself could cope with.
To hear such an orchestra revives one's
faith in the power and duplicity of music,
the one language that speaks for all men.
It's not that a communistic country can
create music finer than could be heard
from any of our major orchestras, but per
haps as musicians they can finally say some
of the things they could not say otherwise.
Record prices
too high to beat
mid term blues
In the twilight of our economy those
with the "lots of yucks with Yankee
bucks" philosophy of life are going to re
ceive a good swift kick in the crotch.
For those of us who have learned to get
the yucks without the bucks, there may be
slightly less pain, but we're going to hear
the crunch loud and clear.
michael zangari
Back in the days of the depression (a re
occurring nightmare that usually coincides
with mid-term deadlines) all things could
be patched up by simply making your way
to your local dealer and by buying an
album. The combination of treating your
self to something you really wanted and
the Afflux of new ideas and music was
enough to change the color of the sunset.
Precious albums
Putting the bucks away to actually get
an album was not a monumental under
taking, but it was just tough enough to
make every album you did buy precious.
When you are sweating to scrape up the
bones to buy an album, no LP you buy is
going to be a bad one, even if the Daily
Nebrraskan reviewer thinks it sounds like
the Mormon Tabernacle Choir after a bean
feed.
Reviewers get their albums free. This is
similar to what it must be like to be an
eighth-generation Rothchild. Nothing is
good enough.
With retail prices on LP's going up to
nearly 10 bucks a shot within the year
(that's 14 of my monthly food bill) it will
be good to remember that tidbit of in
formation about reviewers, since they'll
most likely be the only ones with albums.
It'll make conversations like the follow
ing seem normal:
Q: "Have you heard the new Dylan
album?"
A: "No, but I read the review. . . ."
Review of collections
People will more than likely have review
collections (in alphabetical order.) At
intimate gatherings of friends, the dedi
cated might get a familiar gleam in his or
her eye and say, "I've got a copy of the re
view of the new Tom Waits album. . ." and
proceed to read it to you. Mood reviews
will be saved for the more subtle of seduc
tions. People will always need music. If
albums are out of reach, perhaps people
will consider making their own art.
People's taste in art amazes me anyway.
Look for tenor kazoo sections at local jam
sessions.
If you think tins joke is getting a little
played out, you're not alone. Let's get
back to brass tacks and wrap this up.
Along with LP prices going up is the
news that we have a better than average
chance of paying a royalty tax on blank
recording tape and tape equipment. No
shelter at all from this storm.
I leave you with this prediction:
If you think that the mid-term de
pressions are a kick in the crotch, wait
until you try buying an album to ease the
pain.
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