Telarc CD #80307 - Turtle Moun-
tain Naval Base Tactical Wind
Ensemble; Tennessee Bassoon
Quartet. Professor Peter
Schickele.

N MANY cases, a new:

release from P.D.Q.

deserves a purchase
ASAP. .

But if you're a rabid devotee of
football half-time shows, or your
feet are maniacally animated by
Sousaesque oom-pah, this isn’t
one of them.

P.D.Q. — aka Professor Peter
Schickele — has been churning
out these quasi-comical Baro-
‘queisms for a couple of decades
now, and, it should be noted, with
a great deat of not undeserved ".
success.

He-has won three Grammys plus
a special award from the governor
of North Dakota during the course
of these enterprises, none of
which should be recalled. .

However, it is equally important
to remember that the key to
P.0.Q.’s longevity lies in
Schickele’s inimitable ability to
cook up hypothetical music ina
palatable manner while at the
same time peppering it with a dash
of inside humor.

Here, unfortunately, we have a
package in which the bulk of the
spice isn’t found in the CD, but in
the liner notes instead.

Of course, there are those who
might argue this point, but, as |

‘warned you at the outset, you'd
have to be a pretty hard-nosed tat-
too-o-phite to do so... at least as
far as the feature composition is
concerned. .

On the plus side, however, there
are several saving graces to this re-
cording, most particularly the

Leigh’s latest
fest highlight
From page 28 ,

podge of genres that it almost
works as a comedy, Everyone can
afford big Victorian homes, but no
one shells out for light bulbs. Con-
sequently, there are a lot of half-
wits staggering around in half-light.

Hmmm, can you sue a director
for malpractice?

Vancouver Film Festival:To Oct.17

Bored of the same old same old?
Here's a short list of unpreviewed
but promising movies: Naked by
acclaimed director Mike Leigh
(Life is Sweet) and Raining Stones
from the director of Riff Raff, Ken
Loach, represent the Brits.

Asian films are highlighted by
Combination Platter and The
Wedding Banquet. Canadian fare
includes Zero Patience, a musical
about AIDS and Kanehsatake: 270
Years of Resistance documents the
Oka crisis (the latter was Toronto's
Festival of Festivals big winner).

Harmonies delight

From page 24
Brothers make a habit of surprising
the listener with their choice of
cover tunes, ranging from a rock-
ing version of Fats Domino's My
Girl Josephine to a wonderful gos-
pel tune — Walk In The Light.
The true delight here is found in
the vocal harmonies. At the bot-
tom end Wendell shouts serrated
soul. Mid-range, Sherman is all
smooth moves. Popsy tops the dy-
namic package with a profound
falsetto.

aroqueis

4

Ross MacDonald
MUSIC REVIEW

Dutch Suite — a duet far bassoon
and tuba performed by David
McGill and Ronald Bishop respec-
tively. ;

Also worth hearing are Lip My
Reeds and Last Tango in Bayreuth,
both written for bassoon quartet.

Any prejudice inferred from
these recommendations well
demonstrates your own highly de-
veloped critical acumen — a char-
acteristic likely of all my readers
anyway — but these really are the
selections in which P.D.Q. is up to
snuff.

Billed as ‘the last and least son
of the great Johann Sebastian
Bach,” P.D.Q.'s history is awfully
well written in a manner befitting
awfully written music.

In reference to the Dutch Suite;
for example, we are told: .
“Everything about P.D.Q. Bach's
Dutch Suite is nether: the country

nder the piano

in the title, the ranges of the in-
struments employed (the ranges of
instruments in the 18th century
were defined in relation to midcle
C; both the bassoon and the tuba,
therefore, were thought of as be-
ing largely below C level), the
quality of inspiration and crafts-
manship, and (probably) the place
of composition, since the com-
poser did most of his writing under
the piano.

“(P.D.Q.) visited the
Netherlands in all likelihood dur-
ing the Periad of Great Wandering
that preceded the Period of Great
immobility during which he pro-
duced the monument of in-
competence that is his oeuvre...’

Schickele’s disparaging evalua-
tions, however, are meant to be
facetious, rebutted prima facie by
what we actually hear, ... Mine
otherwise.

So when it comes right down to
it, there are maybe four reasons to

ick up this new recording: 1) You
ove awful lots of winds and per-
cussion; 2) you have every other
P.D.Q. recording anyway so why
screw up the set; 3) you have a
passion for good liner notes or 4)
you know that a “best of album
just isn’t in the immediate works
and you've come to know and
trust my omniscient judgment so
well that you want it for the por-
tions I’ve recommended.

Aciditioncl
Seatbelt Enforcement
Gct.i-o

Your Local Police and ICBC

iS

?

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