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Show Zion zapped by Utah Phillm By VAL NESS Chronicle Staff Shortly after Bruce Phillips got up on stage Tuesday nigh he commented, "I bet I know 80 percent o the people here." That may well have been true-it las certainly one of the most receptive audiences I've ever seen in Salt Lake City. He explained what he had been up to It only took a htde while in the East to realize that what Zion needed most was an anti-tourism campaign to keep all those messy easterners from despo.l ing our air land, and water any more than it ,s .already He related some of the rotten stones he has been telling about Utah, like "The only place you can get virgin wool in Utah is from the sheep that can outrun the Democrats and Republicans. With him on stage was Sol Brody, a very able-mouthed able-mouthed harp player. He later showed off his guitar playing and his fine voice in a series of late-fifties pop-rock. During a half-satirical rendition of the Fleetwood's "Mr. Blue," he even got the audience to spontaneously provide the choral background. Heavy-duty nostalgia. Bruce and Sol did a few songs together, broken up occasionally by more lies and distortions from Bruce. One song was called "Queen of the Rail," an absolutely beautiful song of a hobo and his dog. They also did Woody Guthrie's "New York City," complete with two part harmony and extended monologue. The audience was doubled over with laughter through half the concert. They left the stage to bring on Andy Cohen, who introduced himself as "Amos Cohen, the Yodeling Jew." He yodeled all right, and people sat up right away; that sort of music is pretty unusual to this sort of audience. His first song included a 30 second hard luck autobiography, accompanied by some fancy picking on the guitar. He has studied some under the Reverend Gary Davis, the almost legendary Harlem street singer. He sang several traditional and modern ballads and hi did the audience in with some superT andlh piano. After a standing ovation, he ca '"V38'1"1 an encore, and that finished up the ' second was at least as good. Irst set The In related news, I learned from John Ull March 6, Stephan Grossman will be 1 nthat" concert in the Union Ballroom C Saf, the music for the Joe Hill flick. HeT"13" several scholarly books on blues, ragtim W''tte" native American music forms, and for '"J-0" was a member of the infamous Fu lose. gS' You canl Later on, there are plans to bring jn Eric n hero, Roscoe Holcomb, and Mike Seeger singer and songwriter, so keep your yui,8 more news on that. V 5 Pen fa ANOTHER RECORD REVIEW!! A few days ago, Red Fred, the El Freako Min' the Absurd lent me a copy of Cato Barbieri's F ' his latest record. Cato is from Argentina Jl plays a very articulate saxophone. He's blown a lot of fine musicians in Western Europe Bra" Argentina, and presently in New York His p i album, The Third Worldy World, impressed !' because it sounded so much like Pharoah Sand It was a little frenzied, though, and although th. cover had a lot of revolutionary text on it the la t of coherency in the music made it sorta hard to 1 into. Forty minutes of solid anguish tends more lo make one weary than aware of others' problems! On Fenix, Barbieri shows a lot more control and sj do his sidemen, who, this time" around, include Ron Carter, a fantastic bassist, and Lonnie Liston Smi one of the best pianists in jazz today. They put t( gether the kind of music that could show the people peo-ple what modern jazz is all about, if they'd just listen lis-ten . Sometimes if flashes on me that Barbieri's music mu-sic is like acoustic Santanna, but with the guitar placed by a baritone sax. If that fires your imagination, imagina-tion, pick this us. |