The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 356

ENTERTAINMENT THE ARTSTV LISTINGS RELIGION CA NDAR SAN DIEGO COUNTY Cos Atiflcles Slimes SATURDAY APRIL 13, 1991 HIGHLIGHTS Mixing Pop and the Soul Deejays Admit to KROQ Murder Confession Hoax SAN DIEGO COUNTY Gino Vannelli opens his first tour in 12 years tonight at the Bacchanal. Music: Gino Vannelli hasn't always found it easy to reconcile his Top 40 success with his classical bent. But he's getting there. By JOHN D'AGOSTINO SPECIAL TO THE TIMES SAN DIEGO Backed by a four-piece band, Gino Vannelli will open his first tour in 12 years at the Bacchanal tonight. He's taking to the road in support of "Inconsolable Man," an album of sensual pop-funk that is his first release since 1987, and perhaps the best work he's done since 1981's "Nightwalker." The title of the new album and its namesake ballad refer to a man's tormented pining for a lost love.

In a telephone interview earlier this week, however, the Canadian-Italian singer revealed that "Inconsolable Man" might just as accurately describe a chronic malaise that has dogged him through much of his career and which was only exacerbated by the pop success he achieved in the late 70s and early '80s. Although he had been making records since 1973, Vannelli didn't strike a large public nerve until 1978's "Brother to Brother," the million-selling collaboration among Vannelli and his brothers Ross and Joe. The album yielded the smash hit "I Just Want to Stop," which earned Vannelli a Grammy nomination in the Best Pop Male Vocal Performer category. Vannelli didn't release a follow-up for three years, and, although "Nightwalker" produced another Grammy-nominated performance in the hit "Living Inside Myself," crucial career momentum seemed to have been lost in the interim. By then, however, Vannelli was wrestling with personal issues that dwarfed considerations of chart positions and sales figures.

"With 'Brother to I finally got the platinum album that I believed was my goal for so long," said the soft-spoken Vannelli from his current base of operations in Thousand Oaks. "The 'Nightwalker' album did By CLAUDIA PUIG- TIMCS STAFF WRITER Two of the KROQ-FM deejays involved in a phony on-air murder confession admitted on the air Friday morning that they concocted the hoax and apologized to their listeners. "We apologize," said Kevin Ryder in a recorded message. "We didn't think it was going to go this far." Ryder and Gene (Bean) Baxter stressed that management was not involved in the faked confession, which aired last June and involved deejay Doug Roberts. Ryder and Baxter promised never to pull another prank of this kind.

The pair, who have been placed on temporary suspension, acknowledged they made a series of "very serious mistakes" beginning with masterminding the hoax and then, later, with their failure to step forward to explain the truth. KROQ General Manager Trip Reeb also issued a brief apology. The Federal Communications Commission said Friday that it has received several complaints and is investigating the incident. The apology does not affect the course of the investigation, said Mary Catherine Kilday, FCC assistant chief of enforcement, but would likely be taken into account if the commission decided to take action against the station. very well for me, too.

But around that time I became deeply, deeply unhappy with the whole process of life. I wondered how I could sell a million albums and still be so dissatisfied. I was going through a very early midlife crisis." To understand how Vannelli dealt with his Angst, it is helpful to retrace the steps that led to it. Vannelli was born 38 years ago into a musical family in Montreal. His father, a singer, exposed young Gino to classical music and the best pop of the '40s and '50s.

"I learned to appreciate Frank Sinatra and the truly great arrangers of that era Axel Stordahl, Nelson Riddle and the others," Vannelli said. At age 11, Vannelli began singing professionally in Montreal clubs, and was on the road before he reached his teens. "Then, one day I realized that what I truly loved was Please see VANNELLI, F5 San Diego County GINO'S BLUES: In another era, progressive thinker Gino Vannelli might have been a classical composer. Instead, the 38-year-old is best known for his pop hits "I Just Want to Stop" and "Living Inside Myself." Reconciling the two extremes in his creative life has not always been easy for the Montreal-born singer, who begins his first tour in 12 years tonight at the Bacchanal. Fl HULA HOOPLA: Donna Uchizon-o's choreography includes amusing variations on the hula in "San Andreas," one of two works presented Thursday by Donna Uchi-zono Company to open Sushi's Neofest.

Reviewed by Prankie Wright. Fl SPOTLIGHT: For 30 years, Young Audiences of San Diego has been sending performers into the schools to give students firsthand experience in music, dance, drama and art. Now, the group hopes the students will come to it to see a newly commissioned performance piece, "John Jason Meets Pollie Jones," at the Lyceum Theatre downtown. F2 Elsewhere DEEJAYS APOLOGIZE: Two of three suspended KROQ-FM disc jockeys who masterminded a much-publicized on-air murder-confession hoax apologized to their listeners. Fl BACKSTAGE DRAMA: Behind the musical "Babes," which reopens tonight at the Matrix Theater, is the stuff of theatrical pluck and courage in facing AIDS.

Fl STORMY OPENING: "Miss Saigon" opened at New York's Broadway Theater amid taunts of about 250 protesters but got generally positive reaction from critics. F2 REVIEWS SCHREIER AND BACH: Peter Schreier made history with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, doubling as conductor and tenor soloist in the "St. Matthew Passion." Style and commitment were compromised by acoustical quirks. Reviewed by Martin Bernheimer. Fl POWER FALTER: Electronic technology proved inconsistent at the world premiere of Libby Lar-sen's piece commissioned by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

Reviewed by Daniel Cariaga. F6 FESTIVAL PICKS: Today's schedule of the American Film Institute Los Angeles International Film Festival. F7 WINKLER RETURNS: A true-life abortion court battle, "Absolute Strangers," with Henry Winkler in an infrequent TV star turn, offers advocacy drama on CBS. Reviewed byRayLoynd. F10 "Babes" composerlyricist Brian Shucker, left, and his companion, book writer Bill Sawyer, in healthier times.

Courage Behind 'Babes' Creators Battle AIDS as Homage to Musicals Reopens RANDY WELL Los Angeles Times Peter Schreier doubles as maestro and Evangelist for "St. Matthew Passion" at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. MUSIC REVIEW Schreier Conducts and Sings Passion By MARTIN BERNHEIMER TIMES MUSIC CRITIC Peter Schreier, the universally admired lyric tenor from what used to be East Germany, isn't the first major singer to take up the baton at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau led the Los Angeles Philharmonic in an ill-advised symphony concert back in 1974. The indomitable Domingo turns up in the pit for the Music Center Opera regularly some might say too regularly.

But Schreier is the first vocal virtuoso to conduct and sing the same performance. He did just that Thursday night when the Philharmonic ventured Bach's lofty, sprawling "St. Matthew Passion" for the first time in many years. Although Robert Shaw had led the "Passion" at Hollywood Bowl in 1977, downtown audiences hadn't experienced the masterpiece since 1972 when Zubin Mehta offered a romanticized abridgement. Schreier has been conducting since 1970, but he had not practiced his second craft in America until now.

Clearly, this "St. Matthew" represented a historic event. It turned out to be always fascinating, sometimes moving and frequently frustrating. Most of the frustrations were acoustical, not musical. Schreier positioned his forces on the vast Pavilion stage in an unorthodox configuration that threatened to compromise his best intentions.

He stood on a podium deep in the center, flanked by the key vocal soloists and surrounded by a semi-circle of supporting players. The splendid orchestra, split in half for Please see PASSION, F6 has AIDS. Sawyer promises that "I have several more years left, and I will be at the opening. "God willing, my doctor says it's OK for me to go," he said from his hospital room in Long Beach. "The irony is that this should be a great time for Brian.

He should be able to enjoy his success, but what has pulled him along through much of this was the knowledge that 'Babes' was being reborn." In fact, Shucker, albeit pale and frail, showed up at the Matrix recently for a casting audition. Throughout their mutual ordeal, Shucker and Sawyer, whose home was a Long Beach bungalow, rallied support for each other. Shucker, 33, has been fighting AIDS for 2V6 years. Sawyer, 38, first became aware of his AIDS last July. He-was just released from a hospital stay two days ago.

"Now I want to spend all my time with Brian," Sawyer said. "He's had a biopsy. They found a big cell tumor. He's Please see F8 By RAY LOYND SPECIAL TO THE TIMES Theater is rife with backstage stories often more dramatic than anything the audience sees. But there may be few more heart-rending openings than "Babes," the tangy homage to 1940s Mickey and Judy MGM musicals, which swings back to life tonight at the Matrix Theater.

The production, which originated at the Cast Theater where it ran for 15 weeks last fail and winter, has been revived, refurbished and recast. Tonight, with its seemingly endless promise, is a bountiful moment for the show's creators, composerlyricist Brian Shucker and book writer Bill Sawyer. But Shucker, whose "Babes" score was honored Sunday with a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle award, is dying of AIDS and hasn't long to live. Sawyer, Shucker's life partner for the last 11 years, also COLUMNS KID BEAT: Yet another talented Canadian enters the U.S. children's music market Norman Foote's debut album "Foote Prints" earns him room at the top.

Reviewed by Lynne Heffley. F4 COMPUTAINMENT: "SimEarth" is so politically correct that, in personal computing circles at least, it gives a whole new meaning to the initials P.C. F4 DANCE REVIEW Uchizono Just Short of Cutting Edge SAN DIEGO COUNTY Inside; Religion Pages F14-FI5 JESUS SEMINAR: A New Testament professor sees more indications of truth in the Gospels than evidence to support scholars who discount the writings. F14 INDEX es to a Polynesian hula are mixed within the contemporary frame of objectivist dance evolved from Merce Cunningham, Trisha Brown, and Lucitida Childs, for example, and from Twyla Tharp's stylized works. Uchizono danced the 10-min-ute solo "Siren" for the 45 to 50 in attendance at Sushi's performance space on 8th Avenue.

(The company's final performance is tonight at 8 p.m.) Set to steady one-two drum beats overlaid with strains of amplified cello, the dance moved within a narrow corridor of space, first focusing on Please see DANCE, F3 By FRANKIE WRIGHT SPECIAL TO THE TIMES SAN art" sometimes is created by taking apart "old" art down to the screws. How all the elements are reassembled in unlikely ways or with unusual materials-can have humorous, inspiring, and, at best, innovative effects. Sometimes, however, the new machine looks great and makes all the right noises but doesn't work. Not yet, anyway. Such was the problem with the the New York-based contemporary dance troupe Donna Uchi- zono Company, which opened Neofest, Sushi's annual Festival of the New Arts, Thursday night.

Uchizono's choreography is similar to a dense sequence of unfinished sentences, fully possessed of enticing sound but lacking a poetic core. One witnesses a language of movement "in process" as she tries on and casts off one gestural reference after another. Every-, thing and more from convulsive shaking, toggling heads, pelvic rolls, puppet dancing, martial arts sparring and Hindu gesture danc Astrology F13 Comics F12-F13 Doonesbury F4 Letters F2 San Diego movie guide F9 TV; Tonight's schedule Fl 1 Donna Uchizono Company opened Sushi's Neofest Thursday..