Word: joplin
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Those who knew Janis Joplin only from her records can be forgiven for wondering quite what the fuss was about. It could not be communicated fully on records-the burning lava flow of energy raising audiences to their feet and into the aisles. But for those who saw her perform even once, it was not easy to forget the gyrating girl in a glowworm mini, all surging emotion boiling up through swirls of curses and Southern Comfort in a Dixie cup. Or the single vivid impression recorded in the mind's eye that, without the scalding voice and tremulous...
Unlike Janis Joplin, who lived a tribute to Bessie Smith, Van Morrison's life is inextricably tied into his music. The listener would do well to know of the personal problems Morrison has endured over the last year or so. Never the easiest man to work for, Morrison's domestic life collapsed around him just after the release of St. Dominic's Preview, and his artistic life reflected those changes. He fired, in short order, his band, his manager and his wife. He would, it seemed, sing no more songs of easy domestic bliss. Preview echoed the troubled times masked...
...Hendrix and Joplin legends satisfy precisely this fascination, and a whole school of films has capitalized upon this by exploiting rock's ability to suspend and heighten experience. Monterey Pop, Woodstock and Gimme Shelter use the camera to merely broadcast and reproduce the excitement generated by the music and the performers themselves. Rock and film sometimes mesh as neatly as bass and lead guitar. Gimme Shelter is at its best when the colored lights play over Jagger's body, and the Stones possess the stage. Offstage, without the protection of its excellent music, it grows tiresome...
...Seott Joplin: The Red Back Book (New England Conservatory Ragtime Ensemble, Gunther Schuller conducting. Angel; $5.98). Rag is essentially piano music, but in Scott Joplin's heyday (1897-1917) many of his most popular rags were orchestrated for marching, singing, dancing and just plain strutting. The orchestrations, New Orleans in style (squeaky clarinets and feisty trumpets), make good listening too. Indeed there is not a pianist around these days who-so far, at least-can match the cascading joy of these performances...
...Estelle Spurlock and Hector Mercado. At night the youngsters and other Iowa City dance devotees, attired in everything from sweatshirts to evening gowns and sneakers to wingtips, poured into Hancher Auditorium to see such Ailey staples as Flowers (a rock piece based on the life and death of Janis Joplin) and Masekela Langage (a militant, African-flavored work about the effect of violence on lives today). If there was a showstopper, it was Ailey's early (1960) Revelations, a scintillating fusion of jazz, folk and gospel, as well as a showcase for the art of Ailey's premiere...