ENTERTAINMENT
Expanding Musical Horlmonm -
Wake Arts Council Helps Area Youth
A room full of organized confusion
as young musicians of the Raleigh
Youth Symphony Orchestra get
ready for rehearsal. Music is arrang
ed on the music stands, instrument
cases are opened and the process of
tuning the instruments begins. Above
this general hubbub, a student is
heard to say, “This is worth getting
up for on Saturday mornings."
This comment underscores what it
means to young musicians to expand
their' musical horizons and enrich
their musical skills by participating
and performing in one of four youth
orchestras sponsored, by the Wake
County Arts Council.
The Raleigh Preparatory String
Orchestra offers the beginning stu
dent with at least six months’ ex
perience an opportunity to develop
basic ensemble skills in rehearsal
Mi
THE FADD—Brothers Ponce Calhoun and Julian Fteney Mend their talents to
form The FADD on K.M.A. Records. Their debut release a feur sang extended-play
single contains five tracks with two mixes from their current single “Clock”.
Roberta Flack Keeping
Central Musical Image
Roberta Flack, whose new Atlantic
Records release, “Oasis,” has a
number of producers, has seen
changes in the way recordings are
made. She goes along with them,
keeping in mind that the buyer of a
Roberta Flack record wants to hear
Roberta Flack centered there.
“You used to think of a person go
ing into a studio and putting down his
Ray Charlesness’ or her ‘Roberta
Flackness' and the fewer people who
moved in on that the better. It’s not
the way it goes these days.”
Now, she says, there are people
who produce just the songs they com
posed for an LP, plus video directors.
“The state-of the art requires more
people to be involved. You could be
Prince and play all the instruments
and direct your own movie and
maybe it’ll come out to be ‘Purple
Rain.’
“I think it’s best to realize music
continues to evolve and one has to
find the slot in which you can fit so as
to control the most important part.
Where is Roberta Flack in this? How
does she feel? Can we hear her? If
that gets lost, I think it’s a total
waste.”
Flack sang “Go Tell it on the
Mountain” and “A Cherry Tree
Carol” on the Boston Pops Christmas
special, taped for airing Dec. 23 on
NBC. At the end, she joined with An
dy Williams, comic John Candy,
Reba McEntire and Santa, singing
“We Wish You a Merry Christmas."
She worked on “Oasis” for two
years. “Not every day,” she says. “I
was performing in that time." In
1969, she recorded her first album,
“First Take,” in less than two days.
She had been singing those songs for
two years.
The biggest single she has had,
“The First Time Ever I Saw Your
Face,” was on that first album. She
says, “Atlantic didn’t release it as a
single. You couldn’t get a song on the
radio if it was over 2:40.
It was 5:12 or 13. 1 was naive
enough to think I had done a great job
and I loved it. When I finally met
Clint Eastwood he told me he was
driving down the Los Angeles
Freeway. He heard the song and
almost drove off the road. He put it in
the movie ‘Play Misty for Me’ and it
became a hit single in 1972.”
HEr other gold singles are “Feel
Like Makin’ Love,” “Killing Me Soft
ly with His Song,” “The Closer I Get
to You,” and “Where Is the Love?"
the latter two dueU with Donny
Hathaway. She has seven gold LPs.
far as the creative pari or my ex
istence is concerned,” Flack says.
“She is able to write and be creative
under the most stressful cir
cumstances. That’s a good example
for anybody like myself.
“How do you resist the urge to eat
after coming off stage? To her it is
simple because she leads a balanced
life. For me it hasn’t been simple. She
is one of my serious heroes.”
Angelou sent her words for three
songs. Two are saved for the future,
the singer says. “It’s sort of like a
trilogy of songs, very personal
stories. Each could be a story com
plete unto itself, without melody. You
get that in folk music, from from so
meone like me, a pop-rhythm ’n’
blues-jazz artist, it’s special, I think.”
Barry Miles, who has dropped his
last name and uses the middle name
his father gave him for Miles Davis,
composed “You Know What It's
Like,” with lyrics by Brenda Russell
and some melody by Flack. Miles and
Flack also collaborated on the “And
So It Goes” music.
She didn’t write much for the
album, she says. “I’m just trying my
best to sing my fanny off.”
Artists
nngwle For
Media Program
independent film anu video makers
living in North Carolina are eligible
to apply to the 1989 Southeast Media
Fellowship Program for Production
Grants of up to 98,000 for new works
or works-in-progress and for Equip
ment Access Grants. The application
deadline is Feb. 1, 1989. In March an
independent three-member panel of
film and video experts will evaluate
the applications and award
fellowships to those artists whose
work shows exceptional creativity
and a commitment to media as an art
form. Application forms can be ob
tained by contacting SEMFP, c/o Ap
palshop, Box 743, Whitesburg, Ky
41858, (006) 0334)108.
Media artists residing in Alabama,
Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Loui
siana, Mississippi, South Carolina,
Tennessee and Virginia are also eligi
ble to apply to the Southeast Media
Fellowship Program, *hich Is coor
dinated by
located i
from the
Arts
cated ineai
SEMFP is
and penonmng situations. This or
chestra frequently is a stepping-stone
to a more advanced level of ensemble
training in the Capital Area Youth Or
chestra.
In the Capital Area Youth Or
chestra , students at the intermediate
level receive added musical
challenges to develop their skills and
increase their enjoyment of par
ticipating in a youth orchestra.
The Raleigh Youth Symphony Or
chestra offers the advanced in
strumental student an intensive and
full orchestral experience. Whenever
possible, RYSO attends rehearsals
and performances given by the North
Carolina Symphony or hosts master
classes with outstanding guest artists
such as the Atlanta Chamber Players
or Alexander Markov. Following the
master class with Markov one of the
RYSO members was overheard to
mutter incredulously, “I’ve never
heard anybody play so fast in all my
life.”
The Creative Jazz Exchange is
designed for high school students.
This jazz orchestra emphasizes per
formance and the development of ad
vanced technical skills.
Students in each orchestra study
and perform under the guidance of a
professional conductor: Ilse Mann
(teacher and performer), the Raleigh
Preparatory String Orchestra; Greg
Hurley (conductor of the Enloe
Magnet High School Orchestra),
Capital Area Youth Orchestra; Her
nan Mumo (conductor of the Tar
River Orchestra), Raleigh Youth
sympnony urcnesira; ana ram jci*
frey (Director of Jazz Studies at Duke
University), Creative Jazz Ex
change. In addition, sectional
coaches assist the conductors during
rehearsals and frequently perform
with the orchestras.
Parents are equally as enthusiastic
about the youth orchestras. Parents
have credited the orchestras with
sustaining the students' interest in
pursuing their musical studies. One
parent remarked that her daughter
would have given up the flute if it had
not been for the orchestras. Several
parents have noted that, while the
student studies privately with a
music teacher and often takes music
in school, Wake County Arts Council’s
youth orchestras provide that much
needed opportunity for students to
play in an ongoing orchestra.
Travis Tracy, president of the
Wake County Arts Council’s Board of
Directors, states that “Our purpose
has and always will be to provide a
youth orchestra program of the
highest caliber, to develop the talents
of its members and to acquaint them
with orchestral repertory suitable to
young musicians while enhancing
their school musical or orchestral ex
perience. Hundreds of young people
have benefited from these orhestras
and many volunteers and profes
sional musicians have worked to help
make the Raleigh Preparatory String
Orchestra, the Capital Area Youth
Orchestra, the Raleigh Youth Sym
phony Orchestra, and the Creative
Jazz Exchange Orchestra possible.’’
KOPPER—Sweeping the nation with her latest release veteran female artist
Kipper thills music Isteners with current release “He Sweeps Me” and a mid
tempo balard 976-LOVE. Beth songs have gotten Radio and Dange Club play In
the Southeast In the near future Kopper wHI i *wse her second album titled “HOT
WATER”.
Budweiser Showdown
Scouting In Raleigh
1989 Budweiser Showdown program,
the nation’s premiere rhythm and
blues talent-search contest.
The Budweiser Showdown, now in
its seventh year, gives aspiring per
formers a chance to compete for the
title of Raleigh’s best
“undiscovered" rhythm and blues
act.
In the initial phase of the contest,
bands will submit audio tapes to
WFXC for consideration. RAdio sta
tion judges will select from the tapes
the best bands to compete in a live
performance. The winners of these
performances then move on to one of
five regional competitions held
across the country. The five regional
winners of these will compete in the
Budweiser Showdown national finals,
scheduled for next May.
The contestants In the Raleigh
event will compete for *1,000 in
musical equipment, with the runner
up receiving *500 worth of musical
equipment. The Budweiser
A national recording contract;
more than *35,000 in prizes; and a
chance to record a Budweiser radio
commercial will be on the line as
WFXC kicks off the Raleigh leg of the
budweiser Showdown is spoi
sored by Anheuser-Busch beer, whic
is brewed by Anheuser-Busch, Inc
and produced and coordinated t
Starstream Communication!
Houston.
— ision has come a long way from competing In
The sisterly trio debut single "I'm Gonna Get Over You beeame a top ten record
on the Biboard Black Singles chart and their self titled album >s still rising up t e
album charts.
Endowment For Arts To
Honor Jazz Musicians
WASHINGTON-, D.C.-For the
eighth consecutive year, the National
Endowment for the Arts is honoring
three legendary jazz performers with
one of the agency’s highest musical
awards. Endowment Chairman
Frank Hodsoll announced recently
that jazz greats Barry Harris, Hank
Jones, and Sarah Vaughan are the
1989 recipients of American Jazz
Masters fellowships.
Selected for their significant con
tributions to jazz in the Afro
American tradition, the trio joins the
list of 23 jazz luminaries previously
honored with the one-time
fellowships. Each of the three
grantees will receive $20,000 to sup
port a project of the recipient’s choos
ing.
"Through these distinguished
awards, the U.S. government is for
mally recognizing what the American
people have known all along—that
this trio of jazz legends are truly
'Jazz Masters’ of our time,” said
Hodsoll. “These colossal talents have
not only dedicated their careers to
helping preserve and pass on a truly
significant part of American musical
culture we call jazz, but their unique
contributions to this music have
changed forever how tms country
listens to and performs jazz.”
The American Jazz Masters
Fellowships program was created
through the endowment’s Music Pro
gram and since 1982 has annually
recognized jazz artists whose careers
have demonstrated exceptional ar
tistic merit in the field of jazz. The
1989 recipients were selected by a
seven-member panel of jazz per
formers, composers, and instructors
from around the country who review
ed nominations from throughout the
field of jazz.
“The Jazz Master Fellowships are
a celebration of American jazz,” ex
plained William Vickery, director of
the endowment’s Music Program.
“And on this particular day of
celebration, we would like the
American people to join us in toasting
three legends of the American music
tradition.”
According to Vickery, the endow-1
ment is asking all radio stations in the
nation—from classical and country to
soul and pop—to dedicate a portion of
their New Year’s Day musical pro
gramming to the playing of jazz,
especially recordings of the 1989 Jazz
Master Fellowships.
Play Probes Suspicion
On King Assassination
National suspicion is growing in the
role the FBI played in the 1968 death
of Martin Luther King, Jr. Two
significant vehicles have recently
pointed to this mystery. “The
Downey Show,” a nationally televis
ed program, included Josea
Williams, an aide to Dr. King, and
James Earl Ray, convicted killer of
the minister. Williams was adamant
in his suspicion of the FBI.
The next vehicle is a three-act play
called “People Who Killed King.”
The play was written in 1987 by
Philadelphia black historian Mark
Hynufh. It adds as Suspects in King’s
death the Pentagon, big business and
select blacks. Even the White House
is a suspect. Even though Jack Ken
nedy was a friend of King, the white
h church, according to the play, oppos
ed King bitterly. It had to recant
y because of King’s stinging reply in his
i, “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”
The open hostility of J. Edgar
Hoover toward King is openly
described. Hoover was director of
the Federal Bureau of Information in
D.C. Hoover called King "the most
dangerous man in America.”
The play does not point specifically
to any single gunman. It includes
those institutions which caused the
pulling of the trigger. Many of the
scenes in the play and dialogue have
been portrayed in the last two years
in documentaries and news reports.
These have given rise to even more
suspicions.
According to the publishers of the
play, “People Who Killed King" is
suitable for dramatic stage produc
tions. It can be performed by schools,
colleges, churches, black studies
groups, radio and television.
Mark Hyman Associates, Inc. is
publisher and distributor of the play.
They are located in Philadelphia,
Pa., 5070 Parkside Avenue 19131.
«• hm > cMimunltv Mkl araua Ika
•^r W vwIVHbIIMVIIv WwMHf
Mint H too moro than BOO similar groups bi IN USA today.
Tho sorlos airs on ABC-TV.
m