Monday, April 1, 1968
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
3
Ella gets great audience response
By Carla Rupp Kansan Staff Reporter
Coiffures wilted in the Hoch Auditorium mugginess. Shirts quickly became sweat-soaked. Feet and hands became sticky, and legs were re-crossed many times. Sweaty fingers snapped to the music.
And more than 3700 people watched Ella Fitzgerald's first American engagement in nearly two months.
Accompanied by a trio composed of Tee Carson, piano, Keter Betts, bass, and Freddie Waits, drums, Miss Fitzgerald, the renowned "first lady of song," often turned to an instrument-like approach in her singing. The audience reacted with whistles and heavy applause after scat take-offs of "I'm Beginning to See the Light," "Sonny," "Going Out of my head," "Bonnie and Clyde," "Can't Stop Lovin' You" and "Mack the Knife."
During intermission, Miss Fitzgerald retired to her dressing room and changed from her long-sleeved brown silk gown to a green gown which she said she
hoped would be cooler. "It's just so hot and muggy out there," she said.
"I'm very nearsighted and when I sing I look out into the faces of the persons in the first few rows," she said. "I saw smiling faces, so now I know I'll be happy the rest of the show."
"I like to have fun when I sing," she said, "so I do my improvisations different at each performance."
An international favorite for more than three decades, Miss Fitzgerald said she always tries to keep pace with the times. "I don't want to be considered, as the song goes, 'As Cold As Yesterday's Mashed Potatoes.' I want to stay with it!" she said.
She said she thinks she's a little behind the times in America, because she just finished a five-and-one-half week tour of Europe. "But, I promise you," she said. "I'll catch up!"
Band leader Carson explained that KU is their first engagement since they returned from Europe two weeks ago. He said Miss Fitzgerald and the Trio performed
at such places as Budapest, Vienna, Amsterdam, Paris, and Zurich.
"Everywhere we went we received warm receptions," Carson said. He said he anticipated a possible language barrier, but said that wasn't the case at all. "We've been playing with Ella since last fall and find that when she songs, her music has a communication all of its own.
"Ella's truly a beautiful woman both onstage and offstage," Carson said.
Miss Fitzgerald, when she emerged from the dressing room again, said her biggest hit in Europe was "Can't Stop Lovin' You," with its "sort of blues rock"
Before the concert, she talked about the "special communication in music. Personally," she said, "I like to know what I'm saying in a song. I like to know I'm pronouncing things correctly. You know how we react when we hear a foreigner misplace the sound. Audiences prefer my singing in English—so, I usually concentrate on the slower stuff. Since most of the audiences in Europe don't understand the words, maybe they'll understand the feeling. They somehow always find the ballads more soothing."
ELLA FITZGERALD
In a class by herself, Ella entertained Saturday night to an audience which rewarded her with two standing ovations.
presents
TAU SIGMA
DANCE '68
A DANCE CONCERT in UNIVERSITY THEATRE Murphy Hall APRIL 3rd and 4th 8:20 p.m. Admission: $1.00 Adults .50 Children KU-ID Students
More than 50 persons stood in line to get Miss Fitzgerald's autograph after the concert. Among the autograph seekers was vocalist Marilyn Maye, who opens today at the Playboy Club in Kansas City, Mo. "I've always adored Ella so much I just had to come hear her marvelous voice on my first Saturday off," Miss Maye, who recently recorded "Cheri" and "Cabaret," said.
She said that before she was to sing at KU, she was "leery that the college students wouldn't want me—that they might rather have rock 'n' roll better. But, it's a wonderful feeling," she said after the concert, "that students come to hear me and the way I like to sing rather than the most current popular numbers."
Kenneth Rothwell, professor of English, will speak on "A Grammar for Comedy: Structuralism, Literary Theory, and Narthrop Frye" in a theatre research colloquium at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday in 341 Murphy Hall.
Students and faculty members are invited.
As Miss Fitzgerald walked out of the back exit of Hoch Auditorium, she commented how exhausted she was, saying to the members of her trio, "There's nothing like the road. I hope I'm invited back to KU sometime."
People in the first several rows at the Ella Fitzgerald concert Saturday in Hoch Auditorium noticed something was funny about the microphone Miss Fitzgerald carried.
It had no cord.
Since last September Miss Fitzgerald has been using a $1,500 cordless microphone, said her road manager, Pete Cavello. The mike contains a tiny transmitter and, instead of a cord, trails only a 15-inch wire antenna. It broadcasts to a receiver on a chair behind the drummer which feeds into the house sound system.
No wires hamper Ella
Cavello said the mike broadcasts on a clear frequency, and does not interfere with U.S. radio broadcasts. They have, however, picked up momentary bits of radio broadcasts in Mexico City and taxicab conversation in Tokyo, Japan.
Theatre talk Tuesday
George H. (Dumpy) Bowles, 78, who wrote the KU fight song "I Am a Jayhawk" died Saturday in Kansas City. He was a graduate of KU and a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.
Bowles dies,
wrote 'I'm a Jayhawk'
DAVID
MILLER
UP Candidate for
ASC
Large Men's District
Vote Wed. & Thur.
Vote Wed. & Thurs.
Stand on your own four feet!
Don't be buffaloed—vote:
JOHN HILL ★ sr. cl. president
BRENT WALDRON ★ vice-pres.
JUDY STOUT ★ secretary
MERRY SUE CLARK ★ treasurer
Don't get caught in the stampede.