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I\ewjaz2 By Dale Smoak Gamecock Staff Writer Reviewed herein are seven recent jazz releases; some new records, some reissues. Amidst this hodgepodge should be something to interest every jazz listener. Apart from the upcoming release of a collaboration with Joni Mitchell, the last Charles Mingus album we will have is Me, Myself An Eye (Atlantic). It is a large ensemble recording of four Mingus compositions. At tho time ftf (lin ponnrHinrt iv vnv VI11IV Ul llll. 1 LV.UI Ulllg, lUIUgUd V>d3 too ill to play, but he selected the personnel and arranged all the pieces Personnel includes Mingus alumni such as Dannie Richmond, Ricky Ford and the Brecker Brothers, among others, and other favorite musicians of Mingus, such as Lee Konitz and Larry Coryell. Highlights are "Three Worlds of Drums," the half-hour piece on the first side that features drummers Joe Chambers. Steve Gadd and Dannie Richmond, and "Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting," an energetic, gospelish sounding piece that does not quite match the energy of the original 1959 recording but is quite good, nonetheless. Soloists, with the exception of trumpeter Jack Walrath, are uniformly strong. It is interesting to hear the Breckers in this context, and they acquit themselves quite well. Tony Williams' The Joy of Flying is a mishmash of performances recorded with friends. Most tracks are entirely forgettable. The fusion tracks are a waste as far as hearing Williams is concerned, because the duties of a fusion drummer are pretty well defined. Consequently, Williams' hands are tied; his talents are straightjacketed by the demands of the idiom. In "Open Fire," a no-attempt-at-fusion, straight rock and roll cut recorded with Ronnie Montrose and Brian Auger, Williams is freer to play, and his contribution is first rate. The highlight is "Morgan's Motion," reeordfHi with thf? orpat awanLuapHo "Jonipt ? .. .v.. v.v, v m t uut gui ut pi a i not and innovator Cecil Taylor. It is a reminder of what a great free drummer Tony Williams, who played on Eric Dolphy's Animate is rhapso Bv Dauiri RnWor I Entertainmsnt Editor ! South Carolina undoubtedly must be the last frontier for Watership Down to conquer. The movie opened in most other states this past November. Fortunately for everyone ! concerned, the film, which is based on Richard Adams' best-selling novel about life among the lepus, was well worth waiting for. A parable about the fate of outcasts, Watership Down details the struggles of a j band of rabbits which is forced to abandon I its home when a construction company begins to blast away the land in order to make room for a new skyscraper. Enroute to a safe new homp in th#? mountains, the rabbits encounter a counj tless number of dangers ? from hungry j dogs and cats to farmers with shotguns to j other rabbits who want to enslave them. When the rabbits, with the aid of a crazed s seagull who has inadvertently strayed too far from the "big water," finally reach their paradise in the hills, it is one of the most i satisfying moments in recent film history. Indeed, it has been quite a while since any I movie even looked as inviting as Watership Down. Fainted completely in blue, green . -^1 I life T I 11H i^B^k|gD|| I BnBBHwMM ^ fil PSa feartaBBSE. ' '- ahHKS^H^V a M j fe?| t'l 4 I I II jj^Hs^" 1 'The Joy of Flying classic Out to Lunch, is, as well as what a monumental waste of talent Williams' present direction entails. Williams has admired Taylor for years, before it became fashionable, and the two musicians seem to Know eacn other's every change of direction. Let's hope that there will be an album forthcoming from the pair. The members of the Art Ensemble of Chicago have been playing together in various combinations since 1962. The group was without a drummer for a few years until Don Moye was added in 1970, so they played miscellaneous percussion, and a lot of it. They still do, and it is a distinctive part of the group sound, as well as the constant switching among several dozen instruments for varieties of sound color. The Art Ensemble prefers the term "Great Black ? Music" as a description of their music, and they draw on the entire tradition of black music, jazz and otherwise. The AEC is proDaoiy tne most innovative, and the greatest, group in free jazz of the past dozen < years. Nice Guys (ECM) is perhaps the best introductory record for hearing the AEC; it captures the variety and stylistic range of d parable dy in blue and brown pastels, the fields, streams and farmhouses where the rabbits hop in search for a home bring as much magic to the screen as the settings of any non-Disney animated film ever have. Their colors certainly eclipse the stark frames of red and black that Ralph Bakshi so misused in his horrid The Lord of the Kings a few months ago. The voices of the leading characters in Watership Down are those of some of the best actors in the English-speaking theatre ? John Hurt, Denholm Elliot, Zero Mostel and Sir Ralph Richardson. Mostel, in his final screen performance, is especially good as Kehaar, the seagull. His accentual slandering of the gull's words provides the m? ...lit ' Him wiiri us comic nignugnis. Producer-director-scenarist Martin Kosen should be congratulated for his super efforts in bringing such a lovable story so vibrantly to life. He spent more than 2>/2 years and more than $4 million to do it, and every spent minute and penny are evident on the screen. Watership Down is one of the most arresting films so far this year and it should not be missed by anyone. i ture stylisti mflvf k 1 M^P^3pWH^^^P Tony Williams the group as well as any one album has ever done. It is so consistently good that highlights are difficult to pick out; they include "JA," which has a free opening section that suddenly becomes a calypso based on Roger Miller's "King of the Road." After the calypso part slows, the piece remains based on the same theme. The title cut is a brief, exaggeratedly SWinPinP li 11 1p niwp Ko r? 11 n anH nr.'l"'! 0 D ... ? ? u\,(,uii UI1U CIIUCU uy bike horns. "Dreaming of the Master" is, except for one section, a conventional jazz piece that proves that the Art Emsemble can operate in that manner, as have other records. There is also a frenzied waltz, among other goodies. The solo load is carried mostly by trumpeter Lester Bowie and multi-reedman Joseph Jarman. My only disappointment is not hearing more of multi-reedman Roscoe Mitchell, because I'm a Mitchell fan, but the AEC emphasizes a group sound over the individual. It's a marvelous record, but definitely not for everyone. The Art Ensemble's Live at Mandel llall is a double album of a 1972 concert and has been released for the first time in thic country by Delmark. In a style as dependent I : H 8 i3 ' ?':^^??:^i;pr ^k >7^'5f^v"-:j twi -v^^ij^^^BELafe4qsI9' "*.. '.f' -'i ^wa?v ..> " ]^H<~-t -? "^~r.v"trTi":*.^-';i . iVirf* aBWP!BK(^^?x \c variety on group empathy as the AEC's, the lack of it can be disastrous. The album consists of two continuous performances, the first nonfiit^nrl /\n ci/4n ama r??-?rl J ?? ? - 1 - v,upiui WVI U1I aiut UHV CMIU LUC aCfUllU UI1 .S1UCS two, three and four, and the emphasis is on some rather introverted percussion, considerably less imaginative than usual for the group. There are some amazing passages, as there are on all of their records, but they are too few and far between. This record is only for hardcore AEC followers. Arthur Blythe has been receiving acclaim as the finest alto saxophonist to emerge in the last 15 years. He has a distinctive, singing sound, a strong altissimo register and a great command of double-stoos (two notes played simultaneously). Two Blythe albums have recently been released. Bush Baby (Adelphi), recorded in 1977, is for the unusual instrumentation of alto, tuba and conga. It is not as strange as it sounds; the tuba serves the role normally taken by a bassist. There is a bit of sameness to the tunes, but they merely are vehicles for improvisation. Thr? trif* of nit- ?1 L "i.-iL-i .V Jiuja lUgciuci UUUUglJ Diy Llie s tempo changes. Blythe's and tubist Bob Stewart's use of double-stops gives the trio a fatter sound at times. Blythe sounds good throughout. LENOX AVENUE BREAKDOWN (Columbia) has Blythe accompanied by Stewart, flutist James Newton, guitarist "Blood" Ulmer, bassist Cecil McBee, drummer Jack DeJohnette and perflNcinnict . p T ? ?viuuciiuu r i ducu. improvisations are sometimes a bit outside, but the album is more accessible than the Adelphi release because of its strong rhythmic feel and a sense of joyousness and life. Each musician's contribution is energetic, but this is Blythe's show, and it is a noteworthy one. Among the latest line of "twofers" on Prestige is Eric Dolphy's Fire Waltz, a reissue of two albums from the early 1960s that Dolphy was a sideman on. The first rfvnrH \uac oHa - * " Mclntyre's session. Put plainly, Mclntyre was an unimaginative, simplistic soloist at S90 Jazz, page 17 gaBesseay k \ 4%/v ^fl| piBiWW