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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 1979)
daily nebrcskcn frlday, fcbruary 231979 fl ft 1 1 o r;i; J" v . K s goioesi arum showcases music mastery By Deb Emery They say some people are born with a silver spoon in their mouth, however, in Max Roach's instance, he was bom with a pair of golden drum sticks in his hands. FCUCGO Drummer Max Photo by Mary Arm Colon Roach played to an appreciative crowd at Kimball Hall Wednesday. The internationally known jazz drum, mer performed with his quartet at Kimball Recital Hall Wednesday evening to high light Lincoln Jazz Week. Roach's appearance was one of several events scheduled this week to promote jazz music and musicians. The Leroy Critcher Jazz Quartet opened the concert for Roach. This Lincoln group warmed the crowd with jazz drummer Jeffrey Johnson rhythmitlcally lifting the crowd to mile-high altitudes, effectively demonstrating the high quality found in some of local jazz groups. Then after a brief intermission, the scholarly -looking Roach walked on stage alone to open the second half with a per cussion piece entitled, The Dmni Also Waltzes. Roachs years as an accomplished music ian were evident as he played with a mastery expected from one who ranks as one of jazz greats. Roach's hands moved in fluid, blurring motions that often resembled the fast fluttering of a hummingbird's wing instead of human hands. At the conclusion the solo number, the. rest of Roach's group walked on stage to play a number called It Time. His group, With whom he has played for six years, included Odean Pope, tenor sax; Cecil Bridgewater, trumpet; and Calvin Hill, bass. Roach's group complimented his synco pated rhythms. Each member of the quart et is a star in his own right. , During the second number, Roach pro duced some unusual sounds from his cymbals by striking them in different ways. Roach could easily write a book on 1,001 ways to play the cymbals. Sometimes Roach seemed to attack the cymbals with burning intensity resembling someone venting their frustration on an old car, but in a regulated, rhythmic fashion. Roach produced such, a variety of sounds from his drum set that it was hard to believe he was only playing one set. However Roach's versatility was not limited to him. His group performed With equal Versatility on their instruments, Bridgewater's trumpet was bright and sassy, Pope's sax produced heavy, mellow sounds, while Hill's bass strings matched the blur of Roach's sticks. ; Roach closed the concert the same way he began with a stirring percussion perfor mance that brought applause from a satisfi ed crowd. Warm receptions are no stranger to Roach, who started 'performing in the 1940s with the Charlie Parker Quintet. In the I950s,: he formed a group with trumpeter Clifford Brown which featured a leading jazz saxophonist; Sonny Rawlins, In 1971 Roach tool his music to the . University of Massachusetts in Amherst where he helped establish jazz as a major in the music department, , -'4 Heorarsed i&kfefle; a widely acclaimed jazz percussion piece and he won the Grand Prix du disque, a French grammy award for Jaiz. .." "My goal is to make drums as much of a solo instrument as solo guitar, or piano," Roach said. Prose poems of waking, sleeping Use tiid im$g$ By Bill Regier Tall and thin, Robert Bly's collection of prose poems, This Body is Made of Camph or and Gopherwood, is as easy to lift as to put down. Gendron Jensen's drawings, an animated sequence of an empty shell, gives the poems their adequate symbol. There is even a hovering smell of fish. .oxoxo dungeon, alone with the baker. 'The moon outside die-bedroom will travel through the arms reached up to it. . . It will go on, looking 1 1 Left gulping So will we, in the half-light of the sub marine. That is the sublimity of BryV work: it leaves one gulping nitrogen in deep sea. The prcse poem has a prestigious history studded with such gems as MaHarme's "Poemes en prose and Rimbaud's "Illuminations. But to compare Ely's sleepy swagger to these pre decessors is to do him no favor. Bly's prose , poems - are repetitive, both in tone and imagery: their fascination is limited to brief hypnogaga. v Preoccupations known Elys "preoccupations with snow, horses, and the "dark" are well-known. They return like loud relatives in every new book ofhis. Use and reuse of these images prevents any originality in Bly's poetry. This Body is Made of Camphor and Gopherwood is so The book demands a concentration that Jensen's drawings mercifully relieve. Bly forces his reader into what he calls imagin ative "leaps." Were these leaps themselves not harrowing enough, he leads the reader to them blindfolded, dizzy, and crying for the Earth-mother. ? Bly claims to be one of the very few current American poets who earn r living writing poems without needing a university teaching jobor income. This is only partly true. If his income from university guest lectureships were to vanish, Bly would be closer to hunger. Poem built with bricks For years he has beenworking in the anomalous form called the "prose poem, a form that builds with soft bricks. This Body is Made of Camphor end Gopher wood reconstructs many themes approach ed in his National Book Award winning Light Around the Body (1967) and Sleep-: en Joining Hands (1973). V f The latter especially dwelt in the twi Uht ruckus of waking and sleeping, the t-me field his newest collection surveys. The I::::: ss much as ft stimulates. : ' ArJ bter I will go inside, and lie down cn rr.y bed, and suddenly rny moon will vl.'i. The sleeper will 0 down toward utter darkness , . . VTio will be with hfmt lb will, meet tr.otI.rr ffcowln the full of Bly's predictable images 'that the book seems to be one-tenth poetry and nine-tenths signature. No doubt this misses Bly's point; We are free to believe that his poetry does some how .manage to purify the vital juices. If read from cover to cover, the poems should remind the reader that the mind is t play ground in itself. Since bur legs are too long for the swings now, we might , kick back and forth with Bly, a. little above the ground, a little closer to the vacant sky. Outlaw hand experiments By Carta Engstrom witkstyle ' The Outlaws have been labeled a country rock band by most critics, but the band continues to experiment with Jts writing style by putting more emphasis on rock, ac ' cording to lead guitarist and Vocalist Billy Jones. We've gone more into rock, but well still rely on country influences, Jones said in a telephone interview. Branching into a new writing style has le ft the Outlaws in limbo as to a label for their music style . Jones said he has a hard time explaining what type of music the band plays. A- "I dont know if a label has been made for us yet.? The Outlaws wCT give. Lincoln audiences a chance to hear their style Saturday at 8 p jn. in the Pershing Muni cipal Auditorium. ' . The Outlaws' writing style sets thenr apart from other tfandsof the save vein, Jones said. . . ... . - S.Z "We have four major writers Instead of the' usual one (writer) that most bands have." ' ;": J Variety of influences The Outlaws offer more variety in their music because the writers rely on different influences such as symphonic, rock and country when they compose, the guitarist ex plained.' I i : ""These different styles are fused together to make the Outlaws, he said. Being basically a guitar band has its disadvantages. ' " "You're really limited in the kinds pf music you can pursue." But the guitar is the main strategy arid people seem f.o enjoy that," he said. - . ' ... - Continued on page 9 Find a IRoommate or just say 'hi' use the Daily Nebraskan Want Ads v. t -....