Freedo m Of The City ' Debuts

'Freedo m Of The Ci ty ' Debuts"Freedom of the City at the

Kennedy Center is a play con-cerning itself with the humanaspect of Noit hern Ireland'stroubles.

"Freedom" is the KennedyCenter's first opening of theyear. Written by Irish playwrightBrian Friel the production comesto Kennedy after its Americanpremier in Chicago last fall.Strangely apolitical, the playrefuses to condemn anyone savethe British.

The play opens with three par-ticipants of a Cat holic Protestmarc h in Londonderry waftedinto the Lord-Mayor's office on acloud of tear-gas, quiet ly, inad-vertant ly. The three are asunlikely a combination aspossi ble: scrubwoman (KateReid) and mother of 11 children,Skinner (Lenny Baker), a rat hershift less, but witty, bum andfina lly Michael (Allen Carlsen),the civil rights activist student.

Playwright Friel constantlyshifts the audience's viewpointfrom the three occupants of themayor's office to the military andpo lice forces who soonbarricade them inside-thinkingthat a band of 50 terrorists havetaken the office.

Their fate is predetermined.Early on in the first act a priestdelivers a eulogy for the three.Scenes of the official inquiry intothe incident are show n, com-plete with post-mortems on allthree.

Inside the three carry on, forthe most part oblivious to theirfate: '•

¦ " ¦

The student, arguing for therighteousness of his cause andthe gravity of the Catholic civilrights movement.

Skinner, not giving too muchof a damn for any organized ac-tivity or movement, constant lyretreats into defensive flippancy,occasionally lashing out at thenaivete of Michael, thestudent.

Lily, for her part, utilizes thepeasant logic and gut feelingsshe was born with to make thebjest of the situation) swillingPort wine out of the mayor'sliquor cabinet.

For a powerful, very humanand sometimes funny drama,one could hardly do worse than"Freedom of the City", at theKenne dy Center throughFebruary 9th.

Bob Melisso

oni Mitchell in concert

Jo ni Mitchell SingsW hile Joni Mitchell was

energetical ly closing her January29 concert at Constitution Hallwit h an upbeat version of hercurrent hit, "Raised on Rob-bery," it became strikingly c learthat Mitchell is capable of moreversati le talents than even herlong- time fans have seen.

Mitchell's music, largely auto-biographical in nature, is taking along- awaited upward swing.Most of her .music is folkie andsomew hat melancholy. One ofher most common themes islove; ranging from romancespast (and not quite forgotten) toones she is hopeful of finding inthe future.

She opened her 21- song showwith "This Flight Tonight" fromher "Blue" album. The audiencewelcomed her anxious ly w henshe came on to join her ex-ce llent jazzy back-up band andopening act, Tom Scott and theL.A. Express. The vocals were asclea r and harmonious as they'vebeen on all six of her studiorecorded LPs.

Mitchell's second tune (YouTurn Me on I'm a Radio) perfec-tly portrays the • haunting yethappy way she looks for herfleeting romances:

"If you're driving into townWith a Dark Cloud Above you

Dial in the numberWho's bound to love youOh Honey you turn me onI'm a radioI'm a country stationI'm a little bit corny"

Mitc hell puts into poeticrhythm the emotions andsituations of many women asshe continues the song with:"I know you don't like weak

women; - <;¦ ,. - ..- . . .You get bored so quick" vAnd you don't like strong

women'Cause they're hip to your tric ksBut you know I come when you

w histleW hen you're loving and kind"

The audience applauded inspurts throughout "I'm a Radio"and Mitchell was laughing as ifthe attraction between she andthe audience was mutual. Afterthe intermission, Mitchell wasprompted to comment, "You area beautifu l warm audience.You're feeding us a lot of energyup here and we sure appreciateit."

Mitchell, w ho wore two longbeaded and . backless eveninggowns, looked very happy to beplaying with a band. "Wood-stock" was performed with morethan adequate back-up by TomScott (on saxaphone) and hisband. The tune sounded muchjazzier then as recorded on the"Ladies of the Canyon" LP. Theband, especially piano, made thesong come much' more alivethan it usually sounds.

continued to page 16

Jazz. ..The Baromet er for American SocietyDave BrubeckDave Brubeck doesn't think

jazz enthusiasts should harbor asuperior attitude, he knows theyshould.^Contrary to the elitist image

wfiich Monty Alexander ,tried todispel in ' last week's article,Brubeck feels that the jazz cultin America has the right to feelproud.

"What is this jazz image," heasked.... "it's the image of peoplew ho have contributed more tothis culture and to our (theUnited States ') good name thanmost other Americans. Can vouname me one president or onegeneral who was as well loved asLouie Armstrong? I don't thinkthere's anyone. Now the mostimportant man .-in—the world,culturally, is Duke Ellington. Wehave a great image."The Cultural Desert

Dave Brubeck is. deeply con-cerned about the "culturaldesert " he believes . mostAmericans are living in. He feelsthat "this country is in serioustrouble because we don't knowhow to educate ourselves. Theaverage person isn 't intoanything deeper than the coun-try club or the golf club or goingswimmjng.""I'm saying things to you now,

that I don't usually say, youknow, giving a negative responsebecause you people (collegestudents) are\at the center of theproblem. The kids Mt your schooland at other colleges are ouronly hope. Some of our bestaudiences we've played to havebeen college audiences."

Ignorance of jazz and its rolein our culture, Brubeck feels, isonly symptomatic of the generalignorance of our society."Americans' education has beenseriously limited," he believes."It's fine as far as it goes, butthere's too much that's beingignored. We have ignored

classical music , the ballet ,theatre, poetry... anything that'simportant is slipping right pastus. I'm saying that we've beengiven a s lick , superficia leducation and that 's notenough."

Frustration .,.During the interview, Brubeck

apo logized several times for"lecturing." Brubeck was con-cerned that what he had to saymight serve to further alienateyoung people from jazz andother art forms. "The only thingI'm trying to get across topeople," he said," is that peopleshouldn't waste their lives andlive in suc h a sma ll box, thinkingthat they're so hip. I see so muchgreat artistic achievement in thiswor ld and most of it is beingcompletely ignored- by , the vastmajority of society. Jazz is onlyone e lement that 's beingignored.

"My first impression of peoplew ho won't take the time to ap-preciate jazz music is thatthey're stupid. It's hard to bemore objective than that. But Idon't really mean that," he said,"w hat I do mean is that jazzdoesn't . re flect a mood ofsociety, it predicts it. It's alwaysbeen ahead of its time."

Brubeck uses as an examplehis earlier years in San Francisco,w here he was a member of aculturally revolutionary group ofartists. "San Francisco was aspawning, ground for a lot ofbrand new ideas in the fifties. Incomedy, there was Mort Sahland Lenny Bruce. The KingstonTrio was just getting started. Inthe pop field, Johnny Mathis wasthe newest thing. And we (DaveBrubeck' s group.) were thenewest thing in jazz.

"You had the feeling that youwere living in a place which wasbreeding a lot of new ideas. Andthat's w hat I love about the city,w hen it's so full of new ideas."

Dave Brubeck in concert at Georgetown University with "Two Generations of Brubeck

Jazz and RockBrubeck believes jazz has a lol

to do with today's rock andblues sound. "Everybody knowsthat there wouldn't have beenrock if it hadn't been for blues...I wish the kids would take sometime to trace the roots, to under-stand where their rock musiccomes from. Kids today don'tknow why they like what theydo. But if they analyzed it, they'drealize that they dig a certainrock guitarist because he has alot of jazz influence."

The situation is not hopeless,accor ding to ^Brubeck. "Allpeople have to do is to exposethemselves to as many differentthings as they can." He feels thatpeople can educate themselvesin jazz by looking back.

"What would I listen to? Well,I'd start out with Jelly" Roll Mor-ton, Scott Joplin and perhaps thegreatest American musica lgenius, Art Tatum." We (jazzmusicians) may not be raking inthe money like some of the rockstars today, but we've been thespearhead of music for . years."

Brubeck may sound like everykid's, father, with his lecturingand retrospection. But beneath itall lies a solid foundation of ex¬

perience, expertise and genuineconcern. Brubeck speaks harshlyof the apathy because his ownphilosophy is that one must con-tinually learn, experience andreach new plateaus in order tosurvive. "Man is the sum total ofhis .experience," he believes. IfQ^e,.Brub ^;jm.u jcJ.$>prv0p^-ofhls'!|h rurn/h"e' .rfi igKt just be onthe right track." • ,.r

Meredith Sykes

Jon i Mitchellcontinued from page 14

Atter a nair hour intermissionMitc hell was greeted andthanked with a vase of flowersand some roses, one of w hichshe tucked behind her ear.

Audience receptio n peakecw hen Mitchell sang ancclowned on stage to "Big YellowTaxi", a song about the commer-cialization of life. , "

A fter rpunds of applause andlit matches Mitchell did4 her firs tencore, "B'lpnde in theBleachers", the true- soundingtale of how hard it is to"...holdthe hand of a Rock lsT Roll manvery long. Or count on yourplans with a Rock N' Roll man.Compete with the fans for yourRock N' Roll man for very long."

The back-up provided, by Scottand His band was perfect. Theynever overpowered her; butwere there to give addedstrength to previously, recordedmaterial. The band is relativelynew as a unit, biit its" membershave playedrwith musicians likeFrank Zappa ancH* Roge rMcGuinn. The six- man band,which sounds like what ChicagoshouId have been; play with Mit-chell on : heif; latest release,"Court and Spark." v ": :-

¦' " '•: , '¦•'•' : , ^v Betsy/ Stormmnm

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