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The Red and Black. Monday, October 31, i§77
Page 7
JAZZED AGAIN
VSOP still very special
By MITCHELL FELDMAN
One third of the Herbie
Hancock Retrospective Con
cert at the Newport Jazz
Festival in New York in 1976
(June 29 to be specific) was
supposed to be a reunion of
Miles Davis’ quintet from the
late 60’s. Miles was recuperat
ing from surgei y at the time so
Freddie Hubbard was asked to
play trumpet with drummer
Tony Williams, pianist Herbie
Hancock, bassist Ron Carter
and saxophonist Wayne Shor
ter. This was billed as a Very
Special Onetime Performance
(VS.O.P...like Courvoisier)
and was preserved on a record
released last winter
I mused over the irony
inherent in the announcement
that V S.O.P. would be touring
a handful of American cities
this past summer, but only for
a moment. After the concert in
Atlanta this past July I thanked
whoever had the brainstorm to
construct a tour featuring
these five jazz giants. Once
again we should be grateful
two of last summer’s
V S.O.P.'s were recorded and
released this month on two
discs called V.S.O.P.: The
Quintet.
Only once before has a
combo been referred to solely
by the number of musicians
VSOP with Herbie Hancock on
Photo by MITCHELL FELDMAN
piano
An Evening
with
Robert Klein
Thursday, November 3
in Memorial Hall Ballroom
room. Shows at 7:00 and
9:30.
Students Free with I.D.
General Admission -
$2.00.
Tickets available at
Memorial Hali Business
Office.
that compose it. and this was
the great John Coltrane s band
in the late oO’s and early fin's
which featured McCoy Tyner
on piano. Elvin Jones on
drums and Jimmy Garrison If
you said The Quartet today
people would still know who
you were talking about It is
proper, then, that five of the
most influential jazz musicians
of the 60 s enjoy the same kind
of spontaneous recognition
afforded the previous genera
tion.
Before carrying on Miles
Davis’ groundbreaking exper
iments on electronic or fusion
jazz. Hancock. Shorter and
Williams led 19 recording
sessions for Blue Note records
Hubbard led another nine and
though Ron Carter never
released an LP under his name
for Blue Note, he appeared on
most of his peers lists of
credits. Twenty-eight records
in less than five years; very
impressive.
Jazz purists wrinkled their
noses at recent solo efforts by
The Quintet Hubbard's use of
strings and vocalists on his
solo albums for Columbia and
Hancock's submersion in
Headhunter funk being two
examples Shorter’s band
formed with pianist Josef
Zawinul. Weather Report, and
though not acoustic, is elec
Ironic jazz at its best but
Williams' Lifetime is too
rocky for old timers.
Sighs of relief could be heard
across America after the first
V.S.O.P. LP was released
they’re still playing jazz' The
.atest tPering contains eight
lew o r positions, some sa\**d
Lin til '.he tour was well
'ii derway And Columbia Re
cords continues to amaze
mainstream jazz listeners with
releases ol the magnitude of
Dexter Gordon s Homerinning,
the first \ so I*, and now
V.S O.IV : The Quintet.
Ron Carter's ' Little Waltz."
recorded with Miles and
Freddie Hubbard's "Byrd-
like 'titled Birdlike’ on
Heady for I leddie. his second
Blue Note session 1 are per
formed in a lashion which
reveals the effects of close to
10 years' worth of mellow
aging
Carter's new composition for
the past tour. "Third Plane."
switches back and forth from a
I^atin style 3-4 rhythm to a
convoluted bebop bridge. Car
ter forms notes on his upright
bass which resemble bubbles
in both texture and action...
they fill up a space, vacillate
for a while and are gone
These five musicians are
telepathic Hancocks ballad.
“Jessica." allows Shorter to
moan on soprano sax and ends
with Carter and Hancock
feeling each other out on bass
and piano They are playing
two independent melody lines
dependent on each other, a
beat left empty by one is filled
by the other immediately so
that the music presents an
intricately and spontaneously
woven tapestry.
Tony Williams' “Lawra"
begins with percussive inter
play between drums and piano,
develops into a Monk-type
melody and explodes into a
lengthy drum solo 'Williams
uses African rhythms much
the way Art Blakev does) onto
which Hancock hitches a ride,
bumps off Williams and
welcomes Carter lor some
more mindreading
Paul Winfield in “Damnation Alley”
‘Alley’ a disaster
By BEN Fl’GITT
Whoever said that television
replaced the B-movie appar
ently hasn't seen Damnation
Alley. I shudder to think any
film could be more Grade-B.
First of all. Damnation Aliev
is about the aftermath of
nuclear war. not unlike On the
Beach. The Omega Man or the
Planet of the Apes series. A
worn idea perhaps, but one
that has never been fully-
exhausted Despite its over
usage, it still presents a
unique opportunity to dissect
the human conscience under
the most trying circumstances.
Unfortunately, writers Alan
Sharp and Lukas Heller are
much more interested in the-
time honored tradition of gi
gantic scorpions, man-eating
insects and their ilk you
know, the kind of things that
crawled out of countless
Godzilla vs. Blob quickies in
the 50's.
Even more unfortunately,
the writers insist upon repeat
ing every other pulp cliche that
can possibly be dredged up
For instance, evident in the
characters, is your basic
generation gap (George Pep
pard vs. Jan-Michael Vincent*,
your mysterious beauty that
comes out of nowhere (Domini
que Sanda * and of course your
blatantly token minority mem
her 'Paul Winfield), who is. by
Movie
review
the way. in the classic
obligatory scene that can be
found in most pulp: the scene
where an insignificant charac
ter is eaten alive by something
(this time around it’s killer
cock-roaches)
But the film borrows more
than cliches When the bombs
fall, they have the nerve to use
the Hiroshima newsreel shots
that we've all seen umpteen
limes. They even go so far as
Ike Creature from the Black Lagoon
In 3-D (3-D Glasses Supplied)
Monday, October 31 7.00 and 9:30 p.m
$1 00 with I.D. at SP.I
Anyone in costume is
admitted for !? price.,
Free candy available.
J
UNIVERSITY THEATRE
Tickets Now On Sale
Call 542-2838 Between
12:00 noon and 5:00 p.m. on weekdays
Ouaranteed to get you
book into the water
r
. V A class A parody Of JAWS
Side splitting absurdity abound*
Sm HUSTilt
MASADA HIM RUIASING
C OPERATION
■ “GUMS"
N- - ' -Starring TERRI HALL
LAST « DAYS' SHOWING AT S 111 I i <L
LUcis cinemn
flip I C»nt» * 4* ■ *~ *
NEW
SHIPMENT
• 1st Quality Pants 5 10"
• Sweaters *7" and up
• All Ski Parkas l /i off original retail
NEW SHIPMENTS ARRIVING WEEKLY
“Where the Price
THE is Right"
CLOTHES
RAQUE
A Quality
Outlet
1054 South Lumpkin
across from Myers Holl
to borrow stock shots of
catastrophies from fairly re
cent films. (I noticed several
from Earthquake).
Worse yet. the special effects
that aren’t stolen are probably
the worst I've ever seen in a
feature film For instance, the
sky throughout the film is sort
of green, due to radiation one
would guess Well, the matte
shots that create this effect are
so sloppily done that parts of
the actors' faces are some
times actually erased in the
process.
In the first few minutes of
Damnation Alley a nuclear
war erupts, all the major cities
in the U S. are decimated, the
Earth spins off its axis, and
suddenly it’s two years later
The radiation has mysteriously
disappeared, and a few survi
vors from a missile base crawl
out of their holes
America is now a desert
wasteland Director Jack
Smight chose to film in John
Ford's Monument Valley, used
in countless westerns, the kind
of place that is well-suited for
Indian attacks but that just
doesn't make it with huge
mutant insects So. anyway,
everyone sets off for the
promised land in amphibious
vehicles: Albany, N Y., the
only place left untouched The
film’s title comes from the
path they take to get there
On the plus side. Damnation
Alley employs a new sound
system technique called “360-
Sound" in which the theater is
encompassed with dozens of
speakers Throughout the film,
this system proved to be very
effective Rockets swooshed
believably, and the bombs
seemed to blow things up more
realistically Now. if you only
had something to watch
Paris Adult Theatre
140 Washington Streft
549-1X79
Open 10:00 a m.
Now Shown)
"Hui »(thi Chst"
Pins
‘Bordello Giris"
XXX Hated
Student and Faculty
Discount with I.D.
S'
:
j I
11
i
h
v
3*
31
i >
I:
Great New
Athens Fair
(at the old Joycees Fairgrounds
Highway 78)
October 31st -
November 6th
Athens t ity Buses from Town
Available All Week
6:00 p.m. to II imi p.m
Saturdav and Sundav 1:00 pm
to 11:00 p.m.
• Clogging
• Dluegross
• Rock Music
Bear Wrestling
with "Gentle Ben"
Every Night
7:30, 8:30, 9:30 p.m.
Admission- Adults $1.00
Children $.50
Children under 12 Free
—Fomity Days!—
Wednesday, Nov. 2nd
Thursday. Nov. 3rd
Ride all rides on
Mldwav as many times
as >ou want from
5:00-10:00 p m
Over 100
Rides, Shows
Concessions
Jerseys
TMk!
FREE
PARKING!
Kids' Doys!
Saturday and Sunday
November S • 6
Free Admission to
School Age Kids (under 18)
Rides • « tor $1.00
Our Russell
Athletic Jerseys
tell it your way
Your name, your college, your
fraternity or sorority, your fa
vorite phrase You name it—we
put it on. You can choose a
Russell Athletic Jersey with con
trasting cuffs in a wide variety
of colors. Machine washable.
Jersey shown only *7.95 not
including personalization. Other
Russell Jerseys from *5.50
114 College Avc . Athens
(across from the arch)
Phone 353 2677 Open 10-6
_ alfour
House