Friday, February 1, 1980
University Daily Kansan
'Fiddler' recalls jazz days
By JON BLONGEWIC2 Staff Reporte
Staff Reporter
The price of gold being what it is toon, that golden-toothed smile must be worth some money. The smile was there, but the nose was not. The night before must have been rough.
Claude 'Fiddler' Williams rubbed his tired jacket with thick brown wool. He had taken a lot of the most likely had been asked all of these questions hundreds of times during the musical career
"I am retired," Williams said in a low gravel-like voice.
"I have been retired for 10 years. But I'm not going to retire until my fingers don't work," he said.
The quick smile flashed again. He was being patient with the rookie reporter.
To prove that his fingers still work, "Fidder" will celebrate his 72nd birthday by playing with Paul Gray and the Gaslip Gang tonight at Paul Gray's Jazz Place.
926 Massachusetts St. Williams has celebrated his last tw t birthdays at Paul Gray's.
"We'll have a big birthday cake with a fiddle on it," Paul Gray said, "eough birthday cake to feed 200 people. All of his friends will be there."
There is a possibility that television will be there too. KMBC, Channel 9 in Kansas City, Mo., is scheduled to film some of the show's segments for a segment on its FM Magazine show.
Williams said it would be his 21st birthday. Others speculate that he is older.
"My birth certificate shows 1908," Williams said.
That same birth certificate shows his place of birth as Muskogee, Okla., where he began playing in string bands at age five.
In his early teens Williams went on the road and has been off and on the road ever since. He first played guitar, band, manjo, violin on the old Black Vaudeville Circuit.
He continued on the road with Andy Kirk and the Twelve Count of Johnny Carson and Count Basie. Williams played clubs from Kansas City's Yale to Chicago Grand
When he was playing guitar with Count Base, Downbeat Magazine named him the number one guitar player in the United States.
But that was during the 1930s and '40s when jazz was the thing and Kansas City was the place.
"During the '38s and '40s the clubs stayed on 12th Street there were four or five clubs. Between Vine and Wooddown there were clubs." A quick I remember when I was.
It seems Kansas City is not like that any more.
Claude 'Fiddler' Williams CHRISTINE OSTROM/Kansan
If Kansas City doesn't pay it, we may not attend. It will be tour in March and April, and where his upcoming album will be released. Last year he made four tours of Europe for a total of 17 years.
"No place is as popular as it used to be; rock is 'n' roll has poisoned kids' minds with bad bumpin'. Williams said. It would be a better chair, the chair squeaked as his small body sat down.
"There are some clubs around here but they don't like to pay home town musicians," Williams said. "I don't like to play for nothing." A slight flash of gold.
He has previously recorded an album in Copenhagen, Denmark. Another album was recorded in New York, but was printed and released in London.
"They like their jazz over there," Williams said.
"Jazz is definitely coming back in the States." Williams said. "They seem to jazz better in Lawrence than Kansas City because of the college.
All this doesn't mean that 'Fiddler' is not popular in the United States.
"Paul Gray has got himself a good group," Williams said. Their group is based in New York, and their manager Gray's plays dickey jazz. Dickey is popular in Europe. "He's a great man," it says. "A lot of people have heard of him."
"In Lawrence they seem to love the fiddle." Williams said.
That golden smile just might be worth some money. It bought the rookie reporter without too much trouble.
Even though Claude 'Fiddler' Williams said he didn't "like to play for nothing," 'Fiddler' will make an additional performance in Lawrence Friday.
Williams will extend his birthday celebration to some underprivileged children in North Lawrence, according to the group. Paul Gray's Place, 328 Massachusetts St.
Williams and his famous fiddle will appear along with the Gaslite Gang at the Ballard Community Center. 786 Elm St.
Gray said the Gasliate Galls viber player, Gary Mackender, is also director of music for the Ballard' center and he set up the performance.
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
'The Rose' not without a few thorns, but Bette Midler emerges triumphant
By TOM DOOLITTLE Contributing Reviewer
"The Rose," a movie resembling the musical career of 80s female rock star Kate Bush, about the life and music of the rock movie syndrome. The intent of other rock films has been to combine film and music for a smash hit at the box offices, and on a story that is built around music.
The plot portrayes Joplin in the lifestyle that leads to her death. The jopin is vague in that it shifts between the '80s and the present. There are disturbing references to the Vietnam War, for example, in a rock 'n' roll movie, where the movie makers never claimed to know what is happening to retelling of Joplin's life, and her name is not mentioned throughout the film.
One must assume that the story is set in the context of a contemporary rock tour. In the context of her romantic affair between Bette Midler, the film's star, and Frederick Forrest, a chaiseuse she meets by chance at an art gallery, she is studied by her manager (Alan Bates), who always is at her threat Bates and Forrest are because their motivations never develop.
The script lacks credibility as two jolly soldiers are suddenly allured by "The Rose" and accompany the rock group on their tour. And old lesbian friend of Rose's conspiracy group is in the middle of the film, giving Rose and Forest a reason to temporarily split up.
It's all a bit confusing at times, but the attempt is to replicate Joulin's frantic lifestyle and her fear of confronting when not on stage. The love she receives goes far beyond her going, although she paradoxically beams for time off to get herself together.
In any case, the scenes come off as separate examples of Joplin's attitudes, and as a whole, the script lacks continuity and order. It's suddenly a love story, a rock story, a comedy and then a story about the between a performer and a manager.
The scenes are rushed but never milked to fulness. Sometimes scenes are overmilked until they become sour. For example, Rose and her boyfriend enter a cafe where they eat sushi. The students in student rosters are flashed over the radio. Before a developed conflict between Rose and the conservative customers can occur, Rose's boyfriend hits a man and they're off. The viewer never gets a real connection and its influence on Joalin and her music.
'em Joplin all the way, which tends to date the Midi, is miserful, sensitive and lonely, but also is rebellious and unable to resist. She successfully transposes this complex work. She successively combines Joplin, combining two great talents. The concert scenes, in which Joplin's well-documented dialogue and Midier's outbursts are combined, are the most memorable.
The songs are new, which may disappoint Jolin fans, but the soundtrack, one of the favorites of the band's early days, has not. However, the new songs do not capture the spirit of Jolin's extraordinarily life and legacy.
"The Rose" makes Janis Joplin's life and death more understandable. Milder's accurate interpretation of Janis Overshadows hapazard editing and groundless action. Milder still Janis Joplin. Unfortunately, this flimsy does not deal enough with Janis's real life.
Poe's biography an elegant tribute
Contributing Reviewer
By DALE EWING
Although "The Extraordinary Mr. Poe" fails as scholarly assessment, Woff Mankwitz has collected a beautiful pictorial biography of Edgar Allan Poe's life and work, from portraits and antique works. The Poe family, to evocative illustrations and costumes artists as Dulac, Clark and Salk, which Poe's characters and characters inspired.
As a sensitive artist, Poe reflected a mass of psychological contradictions in his poetry. He also poetified his poem. Poe was also an alcoholic and opium addict morbidly observed with the death of frail, unattractive women.
Children's play treats serious subject
"Perhaps TV viewing has made today's children sufficiently aware of levels of
Children may be confused when Ellie runs away, a scene that becomes a "nightmare montage." Davis said.
The small fairy-like figure of his mother wearing her best gown, her face white as wax after the hectic colour of her last days
The only flaw in "The Extraordinary Mr. Poe" is that he plays a playful, enjoining build, melodramatic tale. Poe's early life. These scenes are fancy, not unusual, but the details are interesting at the age of 3.
Staff Reporter
Unlikely traditional children's theater fare, and tigers and bears are missing from the stage in 'Step on a Crack.' The play by Robert Bresson for Young People's current production.
By KEVIN MILLS
... remained one of the most haunting images of Poe's childhood. He had seen his mother die beautifully on the stare often.
But Mankwetto is guilty by a minor fault. His book is an elegant tribute to the spirit of Pee. A spirit of such fey unworldiness has withstood the拌 with the dry rationality of history.
Zeder was a recipient of the 1976 Charlotte B. Chorpenning Award for excellence in playwriting, given by the Children's Theatre Association of America.
When Elen enters her fantasy world, the Voice hollerers 'red light' to indicate "stop" and they begin to "go action". reality resumes. A traffic signal on stage also reminds the audience of an event.
Director Jed Davis said the play was not a traditional children's show.
Of course, this is absurd. Poe saw his mother die often on the stage when he was 2 years old?
The play was presented Wednesday and yesterday and will be performed again today for Lawrence grade school children.
meets Amy Bellette, a young orphaned protege of Lonoff's Nathan deeply in love with Bellette. Meanwhile, she conversation with Lonoff remained the most difficult struggle in her own family.
Davis said the play was a challenge for the actors as well.
The play's title was derived from the jump rope rhyme, "Step on a crack, break your mother's back." Elle adds her own twist to the rhyme, a crack, break your stepmother's back.
said. "This show is primarily directed at
fourth, fifth and sixth graders."
"It's a difficult piece to act," he said. "All the characters are extremely rich, with lots of personality."
reality as they might appear in dreams," Davis said. "But the possibility of confusion is certainly there in any case.
"The play breaks new ground in plays for young audiences," Davis said. "It 'dares to treat a subject close to the hearts of many people, one that's uninjoyed on any other script."
A troupe of nine will take the production on tour in the Midwest. Davis said he had been invaded from nine Kansas communities from the Kansas Arts Commission, tour through the Kansas Arts Commission.
"Every effort will be made to clarify the action, but the children's contribution to understanding this play is considerably more than it is usually asked."
Keeping the attention of an audience of children is difficult, Davis said, because there is seldom a single age group.
Nathan begins to question the modern Jewish values that allowed him to write such an incriminating story and to put Jews
"It's very rare when a show is universally appealing to children of all ages," Davis
The Voice is Ellen's inner self, which appears as a white mask and hands in her mirror. It eggs her on, Davis said, to promote her hatred for Lucille.
Roth's personality lurks in new novel
Davis said that a third fantasy character, the Voice, helps to ease the transition from reality to fantasy.
By CRAIG CHANCE Contributing Reviewer
"The chief difference between this and other children's plays is that it domain a good deal out of children. To jump from real life to a world you require some sophistication."
The script deals with the problems of acquiring a stepmother.
Actually, there are no ghosts in "Ghost Writer", but a veiled appearance of the author, Pilph Riph, harks in the background this novelizes debate on modern Jewish life.
The narrator, Nathan Zuckerman, a young writer, visits his mentor, a decaying writer, L. Lenhoff. During the visit he
"Step on a Crack" examines the relationship between 11-year-old Ellie, her father, Max, and his second wife, Lacelle.
Elle avoids contact with Lucile by retreating into a fantasy world populated by a monster called Willy Frisbie. When Elle home's situation starts to sour, she and her friends concoct wild ideas about Willy's existence.
The play's only public performance is tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. in the University Theatre.
Ellie returns from summer camp to find that "the ship has a new captain," as her father puts it. Ellie soon views Lucille as a "wicked stomacher."
"It's a situation that recreates a lot of problems close to children," Davis said, "pitting one parent against another, for example.
in a bad light. The ultimate question Nathan faces is whether to continue writing stories that point out the reality of modern Jewish history and to recognize his traditional Jewish heritage in his writing.
Behind this plot is the author, watching and waiting for the outcome. Possibly there is some autobiographical link between the author and what he has written. Possibly. In addition, Roth's ambivalent attitude about the chances in American Jewish society.
"The Ghost Writer" has few of the characteristics of a novel. The characters, although three-dimensional, don't seem to be unified. Only the two conflict unifies the novel in shape - Nathan's inevitable choice. If anything, the novel is a long short story.
Play time
Ellies (Laurayn, Seamans) and her imaginary friends play games with her stepmother (Polar Vander-Poise) in the
BEN BIGLER/Kansan staff
University Theatre production of "Step on a Crack," the play will be presented at 2:30 p.m. tomorrow in the University
spare time
FRIDAY
MOVIES: "Kammer vs. Kramer" Granada Theatre, 1020 Massachusetts; "The Rose," Varsity Theater, 1015 Massachusetts; "American Giobol," Cinema I, 31st and Iowa; "The jerk," Cinema II, 31st and Iowa; "The Silent and Iowa," Electric Houseman, Hillcrest II, Ninth and Iowa; "Straight Time," Woodruff Auditorium, Kansas Union, California Suite, Woodruff Auditorium, Kansas Union.
ART: Oral Vixen photography, University Gallery, through March 22.
MUSIC: The Sheiks, 8 p.m., Lawrence Opera House, Seventh and Massachusetts Claude "Fiddler" Williams, Paint Gray Jay Jewelry Museum, through March 22.
MUSIC: The Sheiks, 8 p.m., Lawrence Opera House, Seventh and Massachusetts Xanadu and Tof Teddy, Art Escapade Masquerade Dance, 8:30 p.m., Kansas Union Ballroom, $3.
THEATRE: "Step On A Crack," 2:30 p.m., University Theatre, "The Elephant's Child," Lawrence Arts Center.
SATURDAY
MOVIES: "Straight Time," Woodruff Auditorium, Kansas Union.
ART: Aggie Beynon, Enamelis, in the Marketplace, 745 New Hampshire.
MUSIC: The Sheiks, 8 p.m., Lawrence Opera House, Seventh and Massachusetts Xanadu and Tof Teddy, Art Escapade Masquerade Dance, 8:30 p.m., Kansas Union Ballroom, $3.
MUSIC: The Sorrow and the Pity, 2 p.m., Woodruff Auditorium, Kansas Union.
MUSIC: Carlion recital, Albert Gerken, 3 p.m., Memorial Carillon, free.
MUSIC: Al Cohn, tenor saxophonist, 9 p.m. to 12 midnight, Paul Gray J's Jazz Place, 926 Massachusetts College, Botton, fultt, 8 p.m., Swarthout Reclal Hall.
ART: "Lamia Lemues," Joan Livingstone, Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery, Kansas City, Mo., through Feb. 24.
MUSIC: Carlion recital, Albert Gerken, 8 p.m., Memorial Carillon, free, Xanadu, 8 p.m., Lawrence Opera House, free.