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Show Fridar, RArch i - THe Daihr Utab Chronicle A . 1934 (o)S fill III LI mm 3 A living legend gives Salt Lake a lesson in blues would see a living legend perform before he would drift into the annals of rock and roll history. Imagine for a moment the feelings that would leap into your heart and stomach as Jim Morrison sauntered I BRYANT ISON Chronicle Music Critic BY On Feb. 23, the King came to Salt Lake City. Now, don't think that I've seen Elvis eating at Bill and Nada's or anything, because this is a different kind of king the king of blues. World famous blues guitarist B.B. King played to a Abravanel Hall, leaving all that attended awestruck and inspired to jam-pack- have spent a few hours in his presence. The minute B.B. King stepped out on stage, I knew that this would be one of the only times in my life that onto the stage clad in his snakeskin pants and suddenly exploded with "Break on Through." Then imagine the feeling of seeing Marilyn Monroe and JFK about 20 feet from where you were ever-famo- sitting. If you can at all imagine the awestruck feelings that accompany seeing a legend, then you can come close to understanding the palpable excitement in the auditorium when B.B. King stepped out on stage with his famous guitar Lucille. When a legend is present, everyone knows it, and the Salt Lake 20- -, 30-- , 40-- and crowd was no different. Respect would be the key word for the entire evening. B.B. King respected his band, the Blues Boys, by allowing one member to have a solo during each song, by encouraging a hearty audience response dur- ing and after another musician's solo and by introducing and reintroducing each member of the band throughout the show. The Blues Boys weren't just your average backup band either, but the unity between B.B. King and his band ushered in a feeling that you were back in some Chicago blues bar listening in on some great artists wailing on life as well as their instruments. Respect didn't just emanate from B.B. King, however, because it was more than evident that each member of the band paid due homage to the King of Blues. From a deep bow to the king after their solo to a constant following of his lead, the Blues Boys paid their boss the admiration that he had clearly earned throughout his 43 years of music making. The show was an experience less in hearing an overworked chorus 50 times than reading the expressive body language, and facial expressions exhibited during B.B. King's " IE J K I 1 , playing. As Lillian Roxon's eccentric 1969 classic, "Rock Encyclopedia," says about the intensity of this great performer, "You have it or you don't. Either way you can't define it. If you've lived through enough, if pain has been your constant companion and despair has seeped into your heart, lungs and guts so that no matter what good times come later they're always colored by that extra dimension of sorrow, it's so much a part of you that you can't sing or play without it coming through, then you may start to understand what goes into a performance by Aretha Franklin, B.B. King, or Otis Redding... " This pain came out through the groaning and wailing of B.B. King's extension of self: Lucille. B.B. King's innovative way of radically stretching the guitar strings with his powerful fingers produced a sound similar to the popular bottleneck sound of his contemporaries and left the audience with a haunting, twisted emotion translated into music. One of the highlights of the show was when B.B. brought out three chairs one for himself and one each for his rhythm guitarist and bassist. Then, reminding me of my grandfather sitting on the porch relating good and bad fishing stories, he jovially explained to the audience the different types of f" W j3 BY blues. He explained the happy type of r Two living legends, B.B. King blues through the song "Sweet Angel," which chronicled the generosity of a woman to her man. "I asked her for a nickel, and she gave me a and Lucille, gave a Salt Lake crowd a lesson about the blues. Chronicle Entertainment Editor ture demonstration by Louis himself. Both Louis and Nikolais, who passed away last year, have had a strong influence on the growth of Salt Lake City is in for a real treat next weekend. As part of their 30th Season Celebration, the Dance Company is wels Nikolais the coming and Murray Louis Dance to the Ririe-Woodbu- ry world-famou- ' Capitol Theatre for two superb performances. Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis, the founders of Nikolais and Murray Louis Dance, are two of modern dance's founding fathers. Their company combines their two distinctive styles to create unique performances which are guaranteed to leave the audience begging for more. For months, Ririe-Woodbu- ry has been and preparing for these exciting Not only unparalleled performances. have they arranged for two separate and different dance concerts, but they have also set up a free lecture and film by Joan Woodbury and a free lec modern dance in Utah. From 1962 to 1967, Nikolais conducted summer workshops for the University of Utah working with Woodbury, Shirley Ririe and Elizabeth Hayes, who was then chair of the dance department. During that time, the University of Utah was awarded a Rockefeller Foundation grant to invite international choreographers to the U. Nikolais, or Nik as he is known in the dance world, was the second invited guest. Throughout the years, he and Louis assisted the modern dance faculty in the design and implementation of its improvisationchoreographic pro- gram. Louis said that through this string of teaching sessions, both he and Nikolais grew close to Woodbury and Ririe. "It was inevitable. They became family," he said. When Woodbury and Ririe decided see "dance" on page eight - - MARCH 4 If you are in the mood for something out of the ordinary, check out Tibetan sand painting. Monks from the Ganden Monastery in Tibet will spend four days constracting a sand mandala. A religious symbol unique to Tibetan Buddhism, a sand mandala is believed to be healing to look at. At this time of the quarter, we might need all the healing we can get It's from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the main branch of the Salt Lake Library, 209 E. 500 South. For more informa tion, call MARCH 6 Looking for something a bit more traditional? The Wasatch Community Symphony Orchestra will pre sent a concert featuring music by Jqhann Strauss and Franz Schubert, among others. Erich Graf, principal flutist of the Utah Symphony Orchestra, will appear as guet conductor and flute soloist tt starts at 7:30 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church, "C Street and S. Temple. Admission is free. MARCH 7 Hie best of the best will perform as the University 1-- of Utah band department presents the winners of the First Annual ConcertoConductorComposer I asked her Concert will feature U. students Kristin Nilsen, Brian Jensen and Alacia Keller, as well as compositions from student composers David Checketts and Dana Gress. ft begins at 7r30 p.m. at Gardner HalL Tickets are $3 for general admission and $2 for students and seniors. MARCH 8 The O. Department of Music's Symphonic Band will perform its winter concert for your listening pleasure. A veritable smorgasbord of works will be presented from "Armenian Dances' to "Fantasy on Barbara Allen." You'll just have to check it out to learn more. Scott Hagen will conduct Time is 7:30 p.rn. at Gardner Hall and it's free. 524-820- 0. " bill Competition. The Wind Symphony Concerto BY KIM WOODBURY SANDER SHARP Chronicle Entertainment Writer r King. Salt Lake to get a look at famous dance group BY twenty-dolla- for a bottle, and she gave me a whiskey still." Then B.B. displayed the "sad, crying in your beer, type of blues" by singing, "Nobody loves me but my mother, and she could be jivin' too!" In short, spending the evening with B.B. King is an experience to be cherished for a lifetime. Whether you were alive back in the '40s when King migrated from the lowlands of Mississippi, or whether you can barely remember who Duran Duran was, B.B. King applies to you. His universality crosses age groups, economic classes and culture differences. The" blues have been around since man began, and nobody sings them better than B.B. ' . MARCH 9 The University of Utah Middle East Center invites you to bring your lunch and join them 'for a presen- film Hamoom. The film tation of the feapare-lengt- h crisis focuses on Hamid Harnoon, a walking mid-lif- e who finds bimself dragged into a divorce by his wife, who thinks his existential anguish Is a cover for brute narcissism. In telling this story,' the film's director draws on Kierkegaard, abstract; painting, Japanese manufacturing and FeHinesque fantasy sequences, It's truecould I make that rp?) A discussion will follow the movie, which Is In Persian with English subtitles. It starts at noon &l C Middle |