Saint Patrick returns
to Emerald Empire
By Matt Meyer
Olth* Emerald
A little bit of heaven dropped
into the Hult Center Wednesday
night
Pat Metheny, the jazz guitarist
Rolling Stone magazine says
"plays like wind through the
trees in heaven,” and his band
mesmerized their audience with
three straight hours of angelic
music Whether making his gui
tar whisper and caress sweet
melodies sounding like a gentle
breeze, or whipping out wild
synthesized guitar runs in a
whirlwind of sound, Metheny
blew through his second
Eugene appearance this year
with energy, humor and consis
tent quality
“Yeah, it was a lot of fun out
there,' Metheny said backstage
after the show "We've had four
really good nights in a row, and
we've been ready to play here ”
Other performances on this
tour will recorded for a live al
bum Metheny is considering
Unfortunately, the Eugene
concert won't be included, due
to difficulties scheduling the
recording equipment
Metheny said he'd heard and
read good things about the Mult
Center, and was curious to
know whether they were true
"Everyone kept telling me it was
the best You’re always skep
tical when you hear that
"It's by far the best there is
It's probably the best concert
hall in the world
"To give you an idea, this is
the first time in over four years
we haven't used our own P A
This place is really incredible
It's like playing in a cross
between a recording studio and
a living room"
Despite Metheny's glowing
report, the sound system did
have problems adjusting to the
hall's first jazz-rock show The
much-acclaimed acoustics of
the Silva Concert Hall served
only to amplify poor mixing at
the beginning of the concert
Pat Metheny screamed solos and murmured melodies while living up to his reputation as the guitarist
who “plays like wind through the trees in heaven" during his performance at the Hult Center
Wednesday
and electronic hum at the end
During the first two songs, Lyle
Mays' spectacular piano work
was almost inaudible and the
treble on Dan Gottlieb’s cym
bals and Nana Vasconcelos'
percussive instruments was
similarly muted Later in the
concert, a phenomenal berim
bau solo by Vasconcelos was
marred by a distracting bass
hum
One song, "James," featured
a stringless guitar-synthesizer
called a synclavier, with a deep,
bell-like tone somewhere
between tubular bells and a
clavier According to Metheny,
the instrument "translates gui
tar-like gestures into something
the computer can understand
It's really 'out1. "
His synclavier is a prototype,
and there are still a few bugs to
be worked out At times, he
says, it throws in notes that
haven't been fingered by the
musician.
“It's very hard to play,'' Meth
eny said You've got to be so
careful, you can't really get into
it like other instruments Even
tonight I had some trouble with
it."
Metheny's music has two
components: academic and
emotional Some of the songs
take scholarly concentration to
fully appreciate the musical
stylings and improvisations the
band produces At other times,
the music quietly reaches down
into the listener's soul and un
expectedly releases emotions in
a rich flow of feeling. In either
mode, the band blends tradi
tional melodic jazz with
straight-ahead modern jazz im
provisations.
Finally, the Pat Metheny
Group blends the modern,
high-tech sound of synthesizers
with the mellow, traditional
sounds of acoustic guitar and
the ancient berimbau, a per
cussive instrument resembling
a gourd attached to a bow
"We re real interested in us
ing advances in technology in a
musical way," Metheny says. "I
see no reason why a berimbau
— which is thousands of years
old — shouldn’t appear next to a
synthesizer If you've got
something to say, a' musical
statement to make, it doesn't
matter if you use a kazoo or a
$10,000 guitar synthesizer.''
The audience Wednesday
night gladly accepted all phases
of Metheny's music, from the
wildly abstract to the soft and
smooth One of the high points
of the concert was the debut of
six original tunes written a week
before the band started its two
month tour Many of the songs
were untitled, and varied from a
soft acoustic ballad (accom
panied by duck imitations by
Vasconcelos) to hard-hitting
improvisational pieces with per
cussion
debbie roberts
a true reflection
Ah, adolescence! — a time of "zits" and
innocence For most of us, puberty was a pain,
and growing up was just an awkward phase, or so
our parents said In "Gregory's Girl," adoles
cence abounds, and no one is spared its cute
ness, insecurity, and moments of pain — including
the audience
"Gregory's Girl" is a refreshing respite from
the formula drugged-out teenage runaway movie
and the kid-sex movies a la Brooke Shields ram
pant nowadays in television and cinema
The film, made in Cumbermauld, Scotland, is
filled with quaint phrases such as "a wee bit,
lassie” and "really goot, mum." Best of all,
"Gregory's Girl" has teenagers who really look
like kids growing up
One of those kids is Gregory (Gordon John
Sinclair), a spindle-legged soccer player who
deals with acne and who by his own admission
"bruises like a peach ”
A bright boy with a strange sense of humor
(he likes to dance lying down), Gregory is terribly
in love with the star of his soccer team — Dorothy
(Dee Hepburn)
Dorothy is everything Gregory isn't — self
assured, talented and quite robust Dorothy
"hardly bruises at all.”
The story, thereafter, follows a delightful,
though sometimes too cute, course charting
Gregory's antics and efforts as he tries to ask
Dorothy for a date
One scene in which Dorothy encounters
Gregory in the locker room is particularly en
dearing as Gregory in embarrassment tries to
shield his "breasts" from Dorothy’s gaze
Another scene has Gregory asking advice
about love, not from his friends, but from his
sister, Madeline (Allison Forster) Madeline is wise
to the ways of courtship and tells Gregory that he
better start concentrating on colors when he
dresses
But Madeline still sensibly drinks "ginger
beer and ice cream — because she's just a kid
after all"
"Gregory s Girl” isn't the best film, but it
makes you feel good about having gone through
puberty, and it makes you awfully glad that you re
done with it all The acting is natural, the ending
has an entertaining twist, and the film is a
charmer
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