Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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The Paul Winter Consort at the Coliseum 0KCIS BY CHUCK CROMER AND TERRY DUGAS Of The Gamecock staff As we approach Thanksgiving holidays and so on afterward the inevitable final exams, we may find this week to be one of the last to afford any time for us to relax. Nevertheless, the spectrum of entertainment and cultural activities continues to be varied. If relaxation is what you're after, there's no better way to begin this week than with the insane comedy of Steve Martin. A regular on the Tonight Show, Martin will keep you wondering how he escaped from a mental hospital. His last scheduled performance at USC begins at 8 p.m. tonight in the Golden Spur. At the opposite end of the spectrum is a symposium on the works of the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature winner Pablo Neruda. The symposium begins with an opening address, "Pablo Neruda: The Voice of Chile," at 7:30 p.m. tonight at Capstone. At 8 p.m. Friday, a reading in Spanish and English of Neruda s poems will be given. A round table discussion will be conducted at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. Sponsored by the Department of Foreign Languages, all events are in Capstone and are open to the public. Neruda, who died last year shortly after a coup top p led the Allende regime, had been the Chilean am bassador to France, and was widely acknowledged as the greatest living South American poet. Robert Lowell shared this appraisal, calling Neruda a "weighty and great poet." A new selection of his poems, Five Decades, was made available in a bilingual edition earlier this year by Grove Press. For those whose interest tends toward rock music, possibly the last band to play In the Spur this semester will be Kinfolk, Monday and Tuesday nights. The band's material Is characterized as Southern rock in the "Allman Brothers tradition." One wonders why many semi-original bands classify their music as being in the Allman tradition. Winter C< a great d BY CHUCK CROMER AND TERRY DUGAS Of The Gamecock Staff The Paul Winter Consort arrived in Columbia Monday night amidst high expectations fostered by four superb albums and an outstanding concert here four years ago. Unfortunately, the evening proved to be a great disappointment. One reason for the disillusion ment was we expected far more than a five man group could I deliver. The intricate blending of dissimilar instruments which makes the Winter Consort albums so good is achieved with two ad ditional members, a string player and a brass and wind instrument player. The five man Consort could not keep up the delicate interplay of sounds while using David Darling's cello to dominate the compositions and intimidate the other in struments. Fortunately, Darling was the best musician in the group so his dominance was at least bearable. Unfortunately, Paul Winter was nothing short of terrible on sax and I oboe. Winter, as his albums and reviews testify, is one of the finest musicians in America but on Monday, he did little more than hit sour notes and skip entire passages. The keyboard man, Robert Chappell, was equally weak in his instrumentation, playing the harpsichord, Fender electronic piano, pump and pipe organ that sounded like a cross between "a cello and duck." He, like Winter, played wrong notes and skipped others. The percussionist, Tigger Benford, was unnoticed most of the night as his drums were dwarfed by the tympanies of his fellow percussionist, Ben , Benford played an occasional cow bell or wood block but, by and large, he was - not effectively utilized by the group. Carriel played, besides tym pany, an Indian drum set and a base marimba. The marimba, used in place of a conventional base, was often far too noticeable, masking the softer sound of the cello a ebars The- Cliseum set the official attendance at 756 and most people were apparently familiar with the type of music played by the Con sort. The two sets were intended to stir different emotional responses from the audience. Music Department presents trio The USC Department of Music will present the USC Piano Trio in concert at 8pm Tuesday, Dec. 3, in Fraser Hall. The concert Is open to the public free of charge and will feature the Beethoven "Archduke" trio op. 97 and the Brahms trio in e op. 87. The trio is made up of John Bauer, violin; Lucien De Groote, cello; and John Williams, piano, all of theUSC Music faculty. fsort pro Lisappointi The first det was intended, basically, to entertain and to show the ability of the Consort to adapt traditional musical styles to their own form. In the first set, Hungarian and Brazilian folk songs were combined with Bach chamber variations and classical guitar work. Even a Gregorian chant was adapted for cello and percussion. The first set, however, only pointed'out how desperately the Consort needed its other two members as Carriel's marimba boomed over the other instruments and Chappell's guitar work was painfully bad. In the second set, the Consort attempted to introduce a spiritual rapport with the audience similar to that of the Mahavishnu Or chestra. The Consort called at tention to the plight of endangered species by combining the calls of animals with instruments. The attempt was noble and, occasionally, highly effective. However the Consort included Nam June Pa1k, internatssafly I the USC Department of Art en Thi and discuss his werk at 12:3S and?7 Sloan College. The dewumstrata public. A Korean-bern writer, min presented his first video exhibit i artist In residence at The Televish In New York ty. Ovides nent over ten "animals in their presentation. The audience was invited to chant along with the Consort during the close of the number. Bu t the mood of the audience was too frivolous for it to be effective. The highpoint of the evening was the final song of the second set, "Minuit," an African tribal song. It was only in this number that the Consort achieved any cohesiveness in instrumentation. The song opened at a slow, flowing pace and slowly built in power and tempo as each instrument was highlighted and then blended with the others. The Winter- Consort will neyer be the powerful group it was in the past without the addition of a second brass man able to play oboe, sousaphone, and Prench horn, and the addition of a string player who can play guitar, lute, and sitar. Without these, the Consort is simply a group of musicians who are musically expert except when they perform *4 known ple.eer ofiGs. art, will visit ariday and Friday. Paik will show :3S p.m. em 'Thursday in reeam83e as and discussions ae epea t. She Icia., teacher and techmieiam, Paik Glermamy in 1963. Hie is cearmUty a Laboratery et WNr kne 13