Records: Coming alive
By DAVE RANNEY
A growing phenomenon of today's rock scene is the recording of concerts for "live" albums. Recent adventurers into this area include Donovan, Richie Havens, Cream, Jefferson Airplane, Arlo Guthrie, Big Brother and the Holding Company and the combined talents of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper.
Most good groups seem to be better in concert than on LP's (ask anyone who saw Hendrix or the Grateful Dead recently in K.C.), and it is usually the poorer groups that depend upon studio wizardry to make their sounds palatable.
The harder rock groups, if they can overcome the acoustical problems of recording in concert, reach a degree of excellence that isn't achievable in any studio. The Jefferson Airplane and the team of Bloomfield and Kooper have just cashed in on the benefits of live recording.
The Airplane's sound has been getting better with each album, "Crown of Creation" barely missing the plateau of excellence. Their latest a live offering, "Bless Its Pointed Little Head"—is by far their best work and the group finally gets to show just how terrific they are in concert. They perform some showy new renditions of their old hits ("Somebody to Love"), play a few new songs that would bomb in a studio but which are great live ("Bear Melt"), and are remarkably adept at instant improvisations ("Turn Down the Lights").
But the pinnacle of live recording is reached in "The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper." It is hard to imagine how these two could have ever made it in a studio. Just why they are so good on this album is hard to figure out—perhaps it was audience feedback spurring them on. But Bloomfield is much better than he was on the Butterfield Blues Band's studio albums and Kooper soars far above his work with the Blues Project and Blood, Sweat and Tears. On their new album they play new material and some old hits, all with unbelievable grace and impact. Furthermore, the stereo quality, always troublesome on live cuts, is excellent.
On the success of these and other live albums, let's hope the trend continues. The difficulties of live recording are great—the auditorium, the audience and the all-or-nothing temperaments of the musicians. But the results are worth it.
The University Theatre production of Moliere "The Imaginary Invalid" has been rescheduled for March 19, 20, 21 and 22 due to conflicts with the Festival of the Arts week.
Rescheduling for Molier comedy
Directed by Robert R. Findlay, assistant professor of speech and drama, the play was Moliere's last and was first produced in 1773.
The KU production will involve technical gimmickry, including the use of films and slides.
Members of the cast include:
Roy Sorrels, Lawrence graduate;
Janet Jensen, Fremont, Neb,
senior; Lynette Butler, Cheney
sophomore; Lance Hewett,
Topeka junior; and Holmes
Osborne, Bates City, Mo., senior.
'Hmmmmm'
Cherie Shuck, Atchison, junior, and John Ingle, Kansas City, Mo., sophomore, appear in "The Imaginary Invalid," March 19-22 in the University Theatre.
Kansan Arts Calendar
Todav
4:30 p.m.—SUA Poetry—Peter Casagrande reads Theodore Roethke—Music Room of Union
7 & 9 p.m.—SUA Films—student films by Elliot Gage—Forum Room
7:30 p.m.-Latin American Film Series-"Green Magic"-Dyche Auditorium
8 p.m. "Phedre" (in French)
—Hoeh Auditorium
Wednesday
7 & 9 p.m.-Classical Film— "The Bridge"-Dyche Auditorium
8:20 p.m.—Concert Course
Pittsburgh Symphony—Hoch
Thursday
Thursday
7 p.m.-Films by Festival Underground Filmmakers-303 Bialey
8:20 p.m. “What’s Happening to Jeromy ...?” play, UCCF Building, 1204 Oread.
MacKinlay Kantor may be (note "may"; Leon Uris and Harold Robbins are constantly pushing him) the most successful lousy writer in America today. Years ago, before he went in for the marathons, he did some moving novels of the Civil War. But "Andersonville" and "Spirit Lake" were reading experiences comparable to slogging through a swamp.
Books:
Which brings us to BEAUTY BEAST (Crest, 95 cents). Not as big, but worse. Maybe a conscious attempt, even, to write camp literature. That title refers to a woman and her forbidden love for a slave. The old South before the war. And the publishers are pushing it as being from the same firm as "Mandingo." Now that's a comedown for even Kantor.
There's another big one this month, and it's really big (in the Ed Sullivan phrase): 640 pages of small type. It's KATHERINE, by Anya Seton (Crest, 95 cents). "Katherine" takes place in 14th Century England and is the story of a love affair that involved royal families of Europe. Katherine was a commoner in love with the nobleman John of Gaunt. It's old-fashioned historical fiction in the manner of Daphne du Maurier and Kathleen Winsor. Does that grab you?
A GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS, by Joyce Carol Oates (Crest, 95 cents)—a book that alongside the foregoing looks like a classic. This is about the daughter of a migrant worker, her father, a man who fathers her first child, her husband, and her son. This may be worth your time, bad as it sounds.
Mar. 11 KANSAN 5
1969
"SECRET CEREMONY' MAKES VIRGINIA WOOLF' LOOK LIKE LITTLE WOMEN."
-WANDA HALE, DAILY NEWS
BECAUSE OF THE UNUSUAL ENDING No one will be admitted during the last 12 minutes.
TWO STARS THE WHOLE WORLD LOVES!
ELIZABETH TAYLOR MIA FARROW more haunted than in "Rosemary's Baby"
"SECRET CEREMONY"
ROBERT MITCHUM
PEGGY ASHCROFT * PAMELA BROWN
• • • • WORKING WITH NOW • WORKING WITH NOW • WORKING WITH NOW
• • • • HOMEWORK • HOMEWORK • HOMEWORK
• • • • WORKING WITH NOW • WORKING WITH NOW • WORKING WITH NOW
IN TECHNICOLOR
Starts Wednesday
KROGER BABB presents
HARRIET BEECHER STOWE'S
UNCLE TOM'S
CABIN
CinemaScope * COLOR
22 Continental Stars!