The Ottawa Journal from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • Page 36

PAGE 36. A jazz duo that meets challenge REVIEW JAZZ MUSIC: Pat LaBarbera and Gary Williamson at CWs By Stephen Gauer JOURNAL RCPORTin CWs policy of booking jazz duos places extra demands on the musical resources of the performers involved. Without a full rhythm section to provide a underpinning for he music, soloists, and horn and sax players in particular, have-to work extra hard just to keep their playing from falling apart. But if that's a challenge for some, it doesn't seem to pose much problem for Pat LaBarbera, a Toronto-based saxophonist who's featured this week in tandem with pianist Gary Williamson, also of Toronto. The two musicians, both middle-rank stars of the Toronto jazz scene, proved during their opening set last night that the peculiar demands of a gig at CWs are easily met.

LaBarbera has played with the Buddy Rich band, but he's probably best known for his work with the Phil Nimmons group. He's a tenor sax player with a strong, well-balanced tone that's vibrant in the middle and upper registers, husky in the lower register. The architectural qualities of his playing came through most clearly in the final tune of the set, an intriguing version of Autumn Leaves played on the soprano saxophone. LaBarbera began with a kind of free-form opening statement, full of rhythmic quirks and snatches of notes, -and then eased into a smooth line that lead directly Unto the melody. Throughout the rest of the tune, LaBarbera improvised at right angles to the melodic line but always returned to it as though he was using its classic form as the anchor for some adventurous wandering.

On tenor sax, LaBarbera tackled material like Coltrane's Some Other Blues and Ellington's In a Sentimental Mood. The Ellington piece was a model of clarity and confidence; LaBarbera has a very direct attack that tends to keep the rhythms just a touch off balance. He prefers rhythmic surprises rather than melodic ones. And he delivers them with such subtlety they're easily overlooked. His playing is accessible without being coy or obvious about it.

Partly it's the naked, stripped feeling produced by the lack of a rhythm section. Without the driving pulse of drummer and bassist, LaBarbera can't take anything for granted the fragility of the duo's momentum makes sure of that. But he can produce music that's thrown into bold relief by virtue of that fragility, and the results are very pleasing. Just as pleasing is the piano playing of Williamson, whose approach to the music meshes well with LaBarbera 's. Like the sax player, Williamson is fascinated by the quirks and jumps of bop rhythms, the quick phrases and asymmetrical figures that give the music an unpredictable quality.

Throughout the set, Williamson provided strong accompaniment for LaBarbera without drawing top much attention to his own playing. His solos were carefully thought out and well-executed. There's not a great deal of passion in his music the form and structure of his style demand a coolness that tends to place the music at a distance from' the listener but there is a great deal of intelligence. For Williamson, melodic material is never an end in itself. Rather, the smooth lines of a tune like Autumn Leaves suggest variations of a far more intricate nature.

He brings them to life with considerable skill. Like LaBarbera, his playing holds up well under the unique conditions of the duo setting; like LaBarbera, he sometimes sacrifices emotion for clarity, but that only proves that certain compromises are required in jazz, just as they are in other endeavors. Computers play electric chess LINZ, Austria (AFP) Computers from around the world will be swotting up on their opening gambits this summer in preparation for the third international electronic chess championships, to be held here Sept. 26-29. IN SYRACUSE IT'S THE BUDGET MOTEL CONVENIENT TO ALL SHOPING CENTRES AT THE CROSSROADS OF AIL INTERSTATE HIGHWAYS ROUTE 90 ROUTE 81 ROUTE 690 USE 8th NORTH ST.

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238-1413 AGGIE! ACADEMY AWARDS including BEST PICTURE BEST AGO BESTDIRfCTO KST SUPPORTING ACTRESS It ADDED FEATURF tyy- L3V NIGHTLY SHOWINGS' ATI 7:00 AND 8:18 DON ADAMS AGENT 86 DRIVE IN LITTLE MISS MARKER 2k NIGHTLY SHOWINGS ATl 7:19 AND 0:18 D.I. OPENS AT 8:00 OX OPBNS AT SiOQ PM. i Canadians flock to film festival CANNES, France (UPC) Canada has turned out its largest delegation ever to the Cannes International film festival, but. the 400 film types are in search of markets as much as glamour at the annual event on the French Riviera. "AN UNMARRIED WOMAN" Jill Clayburgh 7.V"! 11 Alan Bates I r.M PLUS "THE ROSE" Bette Midler Alan Bates 9:00 P.M.

Bank a Sunnystd 234-3403 QTHELOVE 1 21st WEEK! DUSTIN HOFFMAN "KRAMER VS. KRAMER" AAHrU IMTIE1 AINMINT fUTlIC niioc OO ADULT tMllllWMMT J- .4. BILL MURRAY PETER BOYLE mit Htfi fjiU I NIGHTLY SHOWINGS ATl I 7:20 AND 9:1 5 NIGHTLY SHOWINGS ATl 7:30 AND MO ADDED FBATUfW DRIVE IN "SEARCH AND DMTROV dnlT I IJ'M 1 1920 1980 OTTAWA JOURNAL WEDNESDAY, MAY 14. 1980 kal CINEMAS I "THE CHANGLINQ" I I MU Wlaili IMt I I EVE: 7:259:40 "LITTLE I EVE: 7:20 9:20 "NORMA RAE" I I WW IMtlTtWHWT I I EVE; 7:00 9:55 I I 1 "CHAPTER TWO" 1 EVE: 6:40 9:1 I "COAL MINERS Iw I Mwi Iwm, niT I EVE: 6:50 9:20 -1 "BLACK STALLION" 1 EVE' 7:00 9:16 a QUEEN AT IANK JJ7485S Fantastica's Gilles Carle, Carole Laure and Lewis Furey face the at Cannes. DMVE-W8 fc.

"MAD MAX" Forco of tho Futuro -ADDED ATTRACTION. "CALIFORNIA DREAMING" OPENS 8:00 SHOW AT DUSK BRITANNIA 1 1 "FRIDAY THE 13TH" Nightmare of Terror ADDED ATTRACTION- AMERICAN GIGOLO" Richard Oar OPENS 81OO SHOW AT DUSK Cannes electricians avert political row CANNES (Reuter) Striking electricians may have averted a political battle at the Cannes Film Festival yesterday when they blacked out a showing of the controversial Soviet film The Stalker. Festival sources said earlier this week they expected the Soviet delegation to pull out if The Stakerwere chosen as the surprise film. if- -'ft I Cannes offers showcase for fledgling directors By Trish Worroh CANNES, France Eight years ago, actress Micheline Lanctot was in this Mediterranean resort at the Cannes film festival and says "it was so revolting, swore I'd never come back." She still doesn't like the festival, but Lanctot hid any hint of distaste at an official reception given in her honor by Cinema Canada. It isn't only time that has mellowed her feelings about the festival, now in its 33rd year.

The Quebec native, who first visited here in 1972 as the star of La Vraie Nature de Bernitdette, has changed hats. She now is a director and her first feature, L'Homme a Toute Faire, is one of 22 movies chosen from among almost 500 screened around the world for inclusion in the Director's Fortnight a category for novice directors. "As a director I have $500,000 (the cost of her film) hanging over my head," she said in an interview. "Cannes is vital for distributors and being in the Fortnight means you get much better coverage." Pierre-Henri Deleau, the head of the Quinzaine, as the Fortnight is known in French, estimates that 80 per cent of the films shown in the selection are sold to distributors from abroad, who are in Cannes in full Such directors as the German Werner Herzog, who showed Aguirre in 1973 and American Martin followed the year later with Mean Streets, were introduced to the world through the Quinzaine. Puny budget Canadian Gilles Carle, who opened the official competition of the festival Friday night with his musical Fantas-tica, with Carole Laure and Lewis Furey, also showed his La Tete de Normande in the 1976 Fortnight.

Lanctot's film, known in English as The Handyman, opened in March to good reviews in Montreal, a pattern which is being repeated through word-of-mouth in Cannes. The production, which she admits was made on a "puny budget," Is an all-Quebec affair, including actress Andree Pelletier and newcomer Jo celyn Berube in the title role. Gilles Vigneault wrote the title song and Francois Lanctot, the director's younger brother, the musical score. The movie, the only Canadian production selected by an international jury for the category, is a portrait of Armand Dorion, a handyman from the Gaspe. Dorion is a hopeless romantic who seems forever cast in the role of the abandoned loverEven though he keeps meeting women who are too cynical to accept his gallantry, he can never take his macho friends' view of women, including such advice as: "Women are like steak, they get more tender the more you beat them." One New York reviewer said the movie was "simple, unpretentious and beautiful." Another said she found that Dorion reminded her of "a Charlie Chaplin character, the poor little loser." CANADIAN PRESS DMWfc-ON ions AIRPORT 1 "EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE" COM astwaod ADDED Burt fteynoMc AIRPORT 2 "ALL THAT JAZZ" 4 ACADEMY AWARDS ADDED ATTRACTION' "ALIEN" -AIRPORT 3- "KILL OR BE KILLED" ADDED ATTRACTION' "TALES FROM THE CRYPT" 3 lOPENS 8:00 SHOW AT DUSK, CELEBRATING 60 YEARS OF ENTERTAINING CANADIANS See him before he sees you.

M9QUEEN TDM OKI Based on the True Story 1 1 11 1 fT tMMtt STEVE McOUEEM T0M HORN" A SOLAR-FRED WEINTRAUB Muma Mo It ERNEST GOLD tatniM mam STEVE McOUEEN it br THOMAS McCUANE ml BUD SHRAKE 1 Pinl br FRED WEINTRAUB DMMWWIUIAMWIARD 5iSE wmmm mwcmthv w. awn nan uinn 1920 1980 Artwtt 33RD WEEK! CELEBRATING 60 YEARS OF ENTERTAINING CANADIANS JAMES CAAN mm Based On A True Story rife' 5 I imlfS "1 NIGHTLY AT: 1 DAILY AT: 1:35 3:30 5:25 7:20 A 9:25 FOSTER FOXES sumng ObU 1 1 DMIU SALLY KELLERMAN RANDY QUAID FEATURE DAILY AT: rtA I UHt UAILY AT: napfTfaMBMPM 1:30 5:20 7:25 9.30 ljlj LSI' felCTIiPirty NIGHTLY AT: AIRPORT DRIVE-IN PLUS "ALIEN'r vfimmxtmowm MMTUi. WT EW HUB 2ND NIGHTLY AT: WEEK! 9:18 ATTRACTION DRIVE IN ONLY I 'TALES FROM THE CR ENDS THURSDAY McCARTHV BO AT HUNT CLUI HO Ml Ml ItiNI WARNING: SOME 7 I QrFNFQ MAV UDT HP SUITABLE FOR 8TH PRE-TEEN AGE RS. T.B.O. WEEK NIGHTLY AT: 7:20 0:20 ENDS THURSDAY 5 pO DAILY ATl 1:10 7:18 HO DMVC OWNS AT 6:00 P.M.

i.iiai-iaii-iat.a,j j. A. THE CRITICS AND PUBLIC AGREE. There's nothing funnier than Peter Sellers "Being Therei', n. JjLa I I FtATURI DAILY ATI llTttil 1,10 10 ENDS yls, THURSDAY! OH FEATURE DAILY AT 2:10 4:30 6:65 0:15 ami t'WBIJIIHHI' 3 I.