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Daily Nebraskan
Friday, February 26, 1982
Arts & Eotertainuraent
Virtuoso builds bridge to art by playing 'truth'
By David Thompson
Guitar virtuoso Gene Bertoncini doesn't
believe in confining himself to any particu
lar style of music.
"It's all good music," he said in a Daily
Nebraskan interview. "I really love a lot of
the stuff out there. So much of what I
love about music is good harmony, good
medody, and I think more people can
bridge that."
IDs belief that one can find bridges
between musical styles lent the name to his
album Bridges. Those bridges will reach all
the way to Lincoln Saturday when Berton
cini performs at the Kimball Recital Hall.
Several pieces from that album will be per
formed along with a few others, all demon
strating the wide musical background Bert
oncini draws from his skillful playing.
Bertoncini has had many years to deve
lop his style and a variety of experiences
on which to hone his craft.
"I used to do The Tonight Show, he
said. "I always felt like I wanted to be out
there as a guest." Bertoncini has also play
ed with such noted performers as Buddy
Rich, Benny Goodman, Tony Bennett,
Lena Home and Burt Backarach.
"I was always happy to play with those
kind of people," Bertoncini says of his
years with the NBC Band and as a studio
musician. "But in regard to the guitar,
it's not as creative as it can be. I quit
NBC so 1 could cut the umbilical cord."
Bertoncini saw that umbilical cord as
limiting to his growth as an artist. Once
free of it there were still obstacles,
however.
"I spent several hours in the studio
one day just hitting the guitar. I said that's
not what I want to do."
Now Bertoncini is doing what he wants
to do. Several years ago he met bassist
Michael Moore, known as one of the
world's best bassists. Bertoncini said he
perfers playing with just a bass player.
Together with Moore he produced the
innovative music of Bridges. The album
features everything from Bach to Chopin
to Rodgers and Hart to the Beatles. Those
composers will be joined by Geroge Ger
shwin and Chick Corea to provide Berton
cini with a musical array that he will bring
to life in concert.
Bertoncini will not be joined by Moore
here in Lincoln. The other half of that
musical dialogue will be UNL Jazz pro
fessor Rusty White. Bertoncini likes a
bass accompaniment because "It allows
you to use the interplay between the in
struments. A guitar can be a complete
orchestra itself," he said.
hi addition to the concert Bertoncini
will conduct a jazz improvisation clinic
at 3:30 pjn. today and a jazz guitar clinic
at 1:30 p.m. Saturday in the Westbrook
Music Building.
As a teacher at the Eastman School of
Music in New York, he said he believes
education is an important part of the mus
ical world. "The more it's taught the more
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Gene Bertoncini
it will be appreciated," he said. "You can't
really stop the education process because
there's too many people that really love
it."
Love of music does not necessarily
mean admiration of quality, however.
"When you hear what's on the radio,"
he said, "it's really lacking in terms of
educating people musically. I don't have to
mention disco or punk rock - the distor
tion, the noise that's out there."
Bertoncini hopes that people will look
for quality in the midst of all the noise,
but realizes that people often take the
easiest route.
"People who want to know about med
icine go to a doctor," he said. "People
who want to know about putting up a
house go to an architect. Unfortunately
people don't do that. They go to builders
who put up anything for a buck."
This cheapness has infiltrated the music
world according to Bertoncini.
"I really think it's harmful," he said.
"I think there's very little excuse for it.
It may make a political statement, but it
sure isn't music. It's hurtful to see all the
people react to something that doesn't
have any depth."
Bertoncini claims lack of effort is the
cause of the popularity of what he con
siders harmful music.
"They want to be bathed in sound,"
he said, "without making any spiritual or
intellectual effort in terms of art. They're
missing a lot."
For those who don't want to miss any
thing, there is Bertoncini, calling for what
he believes is musical truth. "We sort of
know as musicians what is good and what
is contrived or commercial," he said. "For
each artist there's a degree of truth that
he's really aware of. I think the artist has
to say what he feels is truth. That's his
function in life, to go out and play what he
thinks is good, to show that to the world."
This part of the world will hear Berton
cini's truth Saturday.
"If you direct your life in a creative
way," he said, "eventually your energies
have to find an expression. Everything is
going to bust out eventually," Bertoncini's
energy busts out as a result of his faith
and belief in art, and his truth will be here
for those who listen.
Film catches sweat , spit of LA punk subculture
By Danny O'Kane
The band Fear has just taken the stage, at Los Angeles
club, The Arena. Lead singer Lee Ving is priming the
crowd.
"How many fags we got out there?" The crowd reacts
... he continues.
"You thought you were getting a weekend in Las
Vegas."
Twenty or so have gathered in front of the stage, and
are spitting on Ving. He spits back.
The band is tuning up. Wait a minute, do these guys
tune their instruments? They break into "I Dont Care
About You," and a girl with orange hair flys on stage in
jj Movie
e Review
Perhaps more disturbing than the concert footage are
the interviews with the young punkers. All seem to have
adopted a lifestyle which depends upon the punk scene
for the release of pent-up aggression. When asked where
the aggression comes from, Eugene, a young and intelli
gent skinhead says, "It comes from living in this city,
from the buses, the ugly people, and the dirt."
Does this sound familiar? Aren't these the same things
that gave rise to the rock subcultures of the '50s and '60s?
The bands featured in The Decline vary a great deal in
talent and appeal. Bands like X, and The Alice Bag Band
deliver tight, and deliberate songs, with biting social state
ments. Exene, lead singer for X, sums it up when she
screams, "We're desperate, get used to it." Their music is
easily traced to '50s style rock'n'roll, with Doors-style
poetics and harmonies.
Other bands, like the Circle Jerks and The Germs rely
wholy on destruction of normal rock conventions. Their
songs move at breakneck speed, sometimes lasting less
than a minute, and are filled with images of anarchy.
The Decline is an intense documentary which captures
the feeling of the LA punks. Still there is more than a
touch of satire in Spheeris's title.
Punk is not the beginning of the end. If anything it
is a regression toward simpler roots, just as most new
trends in rock seem to be. This film will probably be rem
embered most for its portrayal of the now internationally
known band X, in its infancy.
a rage. There's a scuffle, and with one swift kick to the
chest Ving propels her off the stage. Not having missed
a beat, this band is off.
The LA punk scene is not new, but The Decline of
Western Civilization, a film produced and directed Jby
Penelope Spheeris catches this subculture in its prime. The
film provides powerful concert footage of LA's best
punk bands, tastefully intercut with interviews of baad
members, club owners, and other assorted punk rock re
tinue. Miss Spheeris expertly keeps her distance from the
material making this documentary a powerful, and ob
jective statement, which far surpasses earlier rock films
like Woodstock and Gimme Shelter in its depiction of
a new rock culture.
Spheeris has filmed the club scenes from remarkably
short camera angles, giving them a frenzied beehive-like
appearance. The pogo-ers literally seem to be dancing on
top of the cameras. The atmosphere is always volatile,
seemingly on the brink of becoming a riot, but never
really boiling over. The bloody scenes so often depicted
in the press are not evident in tliis film.
( C::,ifi -
Darby Crash, lead singer of seminal LA. punk band the Germs.