Page 6 Portland Observar November 13, 1980
ENTERTAINMENT
IT HAPp
By Nyewtni Askari
SOPHISTICATED FUNK
JACK McDUFF
( On November 2, 1980, renown
jazz artist "Brother Jack M c D u ff"
gave a rousing performance at Jazz
de Opus. During the intermission of
the first show, and after playing for
almost four straight hours, M cD uff
talked briefly with the Observer.)
Observer: Brother Jack, how long
have you been playing jazz?
M cD uff: Forever! (laugh) Naw, 1
started playing back in 1946, and
have been playing constantly since
then.
Observer: Has jazz changed much
fro m when you firs t started?
M c D u ff: Yeah, yeah. The best
way to explain it is this way. There
are two kinds o f jazz, as well as, two
kinds o f jazz players. There is the
kind o f jazz you play, all o f us, for
the love o f it. So, you don’t care if
people come in to listen, or you
don't care if you make money. Then
there is the kind you play that you
try to make money with. I call it the
new jazz, such as you hear George
Benson and Tom Browne playing.
I t ’ s funky, and a lot o f the new,
young jazz players are playing it.
Observer: One o f the outstanding
features o f your music through the
years has been the presence o f the
saxophone. Why is this?
M cD uff: That’ s because someone
has got to state the melodies. It’ s
like five singers singing as a group;
somebody has got to sing lead, so
throughout my career, I have always
used the saxophone as the lead,
altho I play the Organ.
Observer: Speaking o f George
Benson, did he ever play in your
band?
M cD uff: For real he did! George
played w ith me fo r about three
years. When he firs t started, he
couldn’t read a note it seemed, but
he could master whatever piece o f
work you gave him. This was back
around 1963, 64. There was also
Grant Green, Joe Henderson, Jim
my Forrest, a whole bunch!
Observer: Tell us some more
about the new trend in jazz.
M cD u ff: First o f all, I like the
new trend. Check out Herbie
Hancock, George Benson, George
Duke, Tom Browne, they are
playing it. That’ s the new jazz. It’ s
straight ahead, make you wanna
move jazz. In the last two months, I
have went out and listened to jazz
groups, and they were playing music
like " A l l T heT hings You A r e "
"
"Sweet Georgia B row n" "Stella By
Starlight" and works o f that nature
There are very few people I know o f
these days, who wants to go out and
hear "Sweet Georgia Brown. " You
see, with things the way they are
these days, the gloomy economic
picture, the corruption in politics
and governments, the m ajority o f
the people wants something new
something that speaks to their spirit
their soul and body. The new trend
in jazz does just that. The young
people are movers, they are not into
being kicked back, or layed back
I t ’ s good to be kicked back, but
that’ s not the way the human spirit
is composed, so music makers like
Benson, m yself and others, are
always striving to keep the spirits o f
the people moving in a straight
ahead direction. One o f the reasons
I have lasted so long in this business
is by moving with the trend. See
you have players who say, “ We
aren’ t going to play it” and you find
them w orking every F riday or
Saturday night. And you have those
players who are playing the new
music and filling up concert halls
George Benson, right now, can fill
up a stadium playing jazz as i
relates to the spirit of the listener.
You see, the new music is today
tonight, right now music. You find
a lot o f young players trying to learn
how to play it now, whereas before
the music they were playing was so
simple. What they did was, devise a
quick method o f playing. They
wanted to play right then, and not
study for five, ten, or fifteen years.
Rock music was one way out. It
didn’t require a lot of knowledge to
play. Now these same youngsters
want to play the new jazz and many
are wishing they had acquired the
knowledge needed to play it.
It’ s good for seasoned players like
myself. You see, I broke in to
organized playing in 1946, at Simms
C orner in G ary, Indiana. I was
m aking five dollars a n ig h t, six
nights a week. That was a whole lot-
ta money for that time, but in this
day and time, things are different.
The cost o f living has skyrocketed
Now, with young players setting a
new trend, it allows older players to
make a living, draw bigger crowds
and move the music from the small
coffeehouse type scenes to the con
cert, auditorium type situations.
Observer: It seems that you have
an admiration fo r the spirit o f the
younger players, do you?
M c D u ff: Yes. You see, I am a
musican, not necessairly a jazz
musican. So, at this point in my life
and in my music, I want to play
funk. It moves me, it moves my
s p irit, and w ith younger players
around it allows at type o f fusion to
take place. Some o f the younger
players have been playing funk for a
long time, but knows nothing about
Be-bop, so while they are learning to
play Be-bop, I am into getting down
with the funk. It works out fine. For
example, the group with me tonight
is young. The bass player is
eighteen, the saxophone player is
nineteen, the drummer is twenty-
fo u r, and the guitar player is
twenty-six. M y knowledge keeps
them growing, but it is their spirit
that keeps me young and able to
step into tomorrow!
"C O N V E R S A T IO N S W ITH MYSELF' S to refro n t Theatre; Rick
Jones as John and Ann Celsi as Mary.
(Photo: John Steinkamp)
Local playwright presents play
Kevin K. Berry is a local playwright. His personal interests vary from
Theatre and Film to Music and Dance to Architecture. In addition to his
work as a playwright, Kevin’ s activity in Theatre has included directing -
choreography, performing, and set/lighting design. He has performed in six
musical productions o f which four were in the Portland/Vancouver area.
He recently finished his second play Eastside Clinic (the scenario takes place
THE M A IN SQUEEZE - New York model Karen Jacobs became in the VD clinic o f a large city); and he is currently working on the book for a
everybody's "M ain Squeeze" when thousands of bus and subway musical.
posters and billboards showed her in the "Main Squeeze" adver
There have been three playreadings o f Berry’ s work Conversations With
tisement for Smirnoff Vodka.
Myself. It was read last May at the Firehouse Theatre, and this past June at
Somebody’ s Place, a local Portland tavern. This past August, Conversations
With Myself was read at the Theatre Rhinoceros in San Francisco.
Berry has been working very closely with director Jerry West with the
development and rehersal o f this play. Berry has also choreographed the
dances sequences for Conversations With Myself.
NEW YORK - Up to her shoulders in blue water, Karen Jacobs green eyes
and half smile transmit a mysterious message.
The play will run for 4 weeks Nov. 15th - Dec. 7th, 8:00 - 9:00 p.m. Tickets
are $4.00. The play will be presented at 6 S.W. 3rd avenue. For more infor
This already familiar photograph, for Sm irnoff Vodka’s “ Main Squeeze”
advertisement, is seen daily by hundreds o f thousands o f subway and bus mation call 224-4001.
commuters in cities across the country.
And it has made Karen Jacobs, who has been modeling since she was eight
years old, instantly recognizable in her native New York City.
“ I’ ll be coming down the street, and people will yell at me, ‘ Hey! My Main
Squeeze!’ It shocked me, because I don’ t walk around with wet hair,” she
laughed.
To photograph the ad, she posed for three hours, water dripping from her
hair and face, in the water o il a beach in the Bahamas. The shoot began at six
in the morning.
“ I was freezing in the water. I never got out. I knew that i f I got out, I
wasn’t getting back in,” she recalled.
Thousands o f the ads for the “ Main Squeeze” — which, incidentally, is
Sm irnoff Vodka and grapefruit juice - appear on bus and subway posters
and billboards in the top 15 cities in the country.
So Miss Jacob is now on the verge o f becoming as well-known as her older
brother, Lawrence Hilton Jacobs, of the television “ Welcome Back, Kot-
ter.”
Both came from a family o f nine children that grew up in New York City.
“ My mother was a dressmaker, and she was forever trying clothes on me,”
Miss Jacobs said.
Her mother helped her begin modeling for the American Agency in New
York when she was eight, but gradually was unable to find enough time to
raise nine children and take Karen to the necessary “ go-sees.”
Miss Jacobs graduated from the Art and Design High School in Manhat
This year for their fall drama production, Wilson High School proudly
tan, with a m ajor in fashion illustration. Then she worked behind the
presents:
The G irt o f the Golden West.
LaCoste counter at Bloomingdale’ s.
This play will be directed by Julie Accuardi, and will show November 13 at
“ This man came in to buy shirts. He kept'looking at me. Finally he said,
3:30 and November 14, 15 at 8:00.
‘ What are you doing behind that counter?’ He thought I was a model
The G irt o f the Golden West, written by David Belasco, and first produced
working part-time,” she said.
in
1905, is the classic western story o f the girl who falls in love with a hand
Shortly after that, she asked photographer Trevor Brown to take the test
some
stranger, only to discover that he is in reality a desparado on the run.
photographs for her “ Book” - a portfolio to show to potential clients. And
On
November 14, 1905, The G irl o f the Golden West opened on Broad
she credits Brown with giving her the encouragement to pursue modeling with
way.
Wilson’
s presentation will open exactly 75 years later on this date. It will
the aggressiveness the New York modeling market requires.
be a delightful and entertaining show.
“ I just needed a push,” she said. “ Modeling is something I ’ve always wan
ted to do. I like clothes. I’ m very vain...I think most women are vain,” she
y Vu f f u )
Hiiiutu ( m it i
(503) 2 8 7 4 0 2 9
C härtet i Mohart
added with a chuckle.
Genera' Menage'
But even everyone’ s “ Main Squeeze” claims to have a problem that keeps
her from working every day.
1006 N E Broadway Portland Oregon
“ My look -- it's very unique. It’s an exotic look,” she explained.
To thousands o f commuters, that’ s no problem at all.
Classic Studios
NEW YORK MODEL
BECOME BIG SQUEEZE
THE GIRL OFTHE GOLDEN WEST
r
M rs. C ’s W ig s Inc.
j
« 1 4 0 a> u p
Hats Scarves &
Accessories Styling
7 0 7 N E FM M ONT
» O 0 ’ L *N (1 O »
|7 tm •
URBANS
T.t sai esas
MoMWoa C*aiui
iac Brrr» C B B
lue* MomMOoa«
a
in
SEE SPORTS O N G IA N T SCREEN T V.
JOE’S PLACE
1801 N.E. Alberta
SC u v r o
m
WORLD CHAMPION CHARLIE TICKNER
W IN !
TUES, NOV. 25 thru SUWOAV, NOV. 30
• C M lM w n
n C K IT « *7 M -* « }e -*S .M
( V tM N O B TUCB-TMU. 7: (B P.10; Fri-B oi (P M . BUM (FBI
M A T W C H FW -4PW . B « t Bun 7FM
Youth ( 14 A under) 4 Sen .or Citizens *2 00 OFF
Wed A Thu 7 30P M Fn 4PM and Sat 2PM
I
F
pr
1
t ' -z- 7
DO YOU REALLY WANT TO SAVE
ON YOUR FOOD BILL?
We offer saving' of up to 40% and more on fine quality wonder and Hostess
products, plus large discounts on other naked goods Besides our every
day low prices, we feature in store specials daily Just look for the "bar
gam" signs on the displays in our store. Discover for yourself what thou
sands of smart shoppers in the area have found
€)
You'll be amazed at the savings you
make at our Wonder Thrift Shop!
^PEGGY'S HIDEAWAY
HAPPY HOUR: Mon - Frl.
ib >
Draft Baer .38 & 50C
Wine 96C
2 N. KILLINGSWORTH STREET
PORTLAND. OREGON
281-4840
WONDER-HOSTESS THRIFTSHOP
115 N . C o o k S t.
Corner of Vancouver ft Cook St.. Portland. Oregon
° P en Mon thru Sat - 9am 6pm - Closed S u n d a y •
i;