Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 7-8

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Limit four discounted tickets. Not good with any other offers or discounts or on previously purchased tickets. Limited to availability. Only valid on Tue Wed shows thru VAGINA BY EVE ENSLER THE MONOLOGUES GET $15 OFF EACH TICKET VALID ON TUESDAY, MARCH 18 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19 (MUST MENTION THIS AD) By Steve Knopper Special to the Tribune Papillon Soo was never a rapper, but she supplied one of the most influential lines in hip-hop history: so horny! Me love you long The actress who played a Da Nang hooker in Stanley movie Metal wound up the 2 Live Crew hit So What made Luther Campbell, the impresario of dirty Florida rap, decide to use the sexy soundbite? was watching the movie, says the rapper, frontman of 2 Live Crew, which performs Tuesday at the Riviera Theatre. how I make records.

I get it from everywhere. I was looking at this so horny, me so was so funny to me. That was just off the wall. a good army movie is on, man, I go to Campbell adds, by phone from the Miami office of his longtime label, Luke Records. just sit there and look at Campbell, 40, knows something about war.

Although he has been a businessman for 20 in dirty hip- hop CDs, racy movies and online soft porn, among other still best known for his political battles of the early After 2 Live Crew released cartoon- ishly sexy album Nasty As They Wanna public officials and prosecutors picked it up as an example of moral decay. In response, Campbell declared himself a First Amendment martyr with his 1990 hit in the U.S.A.”—followed by a huge victory when a federal appeals court overturned a Florida obscenity decision. would have thought, given that he won, it made the world a little bit safer for hip- hop and speech in says longtime Crew supporter Dave Marsh, editor of the free-speech zine Rock and Rap Confidential. the actual response from the American public was to go out and elect Tipper husband. Rather than ushering in a new era of free speech, it was actually a last Of course, those battles played out more than 12 years ago, and the 2 Live Crew never quite had the lyrical muscle to maintain its star power in a constantly changing hip-hop world.

So Campbell is diversifying. been basically primed up to be the next Hugh Hefner, Larry he says, referring to the mercurial publishers of Playboy and Hustler magazines. what trying to get people around me who have that vision. The world is about urban right now, and what I can bring to the whole Like every other veteran pop star in the world, with the possible exception of rocker Carlos Santana, Campbell complains that impossible, without serious payola money, to place new releases on the radio or MTV. right now I do just as many performances, maybe more, than I did before.

I do hit videos now. People are like, can he fill up a and the crowd is going doing it in a different Campbell adds. doing it with And sex. Where Luther is concerned, you can never forget about the sex. Luther Campbell and his 2 Live Crew are still live, still hot.

MUSIC NOTES The Crew still has plenty of life left 2 Live Crew, with Insane Clown Posse and Anybody Killa When 6:30 p.m. Tuesday Where Riviera Theatre, 4746 N. Racine Ave. Price $29; 312-559-1212 By Sid Smith Tribune arts critic The plucky, inimitable Eifman Ballet consistently wins a mix of critical approval and audience popularity the envy of dance troupes everywhere. Formed in St.

Petersburg, Russia, in 1977 and unable (for political reasons) to tour the West until the late the company has been garnering passionate, loyal American fans ever since. These include many Chicagoans, who since 2000 have been catching the company in its annual appearances here at the Auditorium Theatre. In its three engagements so far, the contemporary ballet troupe has shown off founder Boris highly theatrical but tragic extravaganzas. His for instance, followed the travails of a classical ballerina who fled the Russian Revolution only to wind up in a mental hospital. Last year, The Mystery of Life and focused on the tortured life of Tchaikovsky, while Hamlet and Don Juan are among the mythical icons at the heart of other pieces.

But Eifman, the veteran cre- ator of more than 40 ballets, is bringing a comedy when the troupe begins its engagement Wednesday at the Auditorium. playing here just after its world premiere in Boston, is deliberately uplifting, he- gift, in a sense, to repay all the American kindness sent his way since first visiting here. taken a lot of positive emotions back with us to Russia after each American Eifman says in a telephone interview via a translator. Sept. 11, I decided to bring a more optimistic, more energetic work compared to my tragedies.

I wanted to give America something to feel good tells the story of Alex and Max, two dancers with the Imperial Theater who flee the Revolution in 1917. Unemployed and pursued by American gangsters, they take jobs in an American nightclub disguised as women. Like It and Billy Wilder are unmistakable inspirations. But Eifman says only a smidgen of his influences. very popular in Russia, where known as Only Women in he explains.

always been impressed by it, though I never dreamed it would someday inspire a ballet. But the disguise is really about the only point of Eifman was drawn to 1920s America and the Jazz Age thanks to a wealth of artistic sources. The score of includes music by Scott Joplin, Duke Ellington, Artie Shaw, Dave Brubeck and Benny Goodman. also music by Samuel Barber and Sergei Rachmaninoff. The latter two, more traditionally classical composers, inspire two sides of a dream.

Barber inspires the dark side, about the two Eifman says, the Rachmani- noff, taken from his American years, underscores the lighter side, when the young man expresses his heart to his beloved. listened to more than 1,000 CDs of American Eifman says. impressive, a new kind of music. My aim was to find a new kind of choreographic language to go with it. the story of immigrants seeking a different life, hoping with joy to realize their The two men leave Russia more for artistic than political freedom.

Eifman himself suffered years of repression and restraint under his old government. is not my he says. emotionally, close to these two guys. I understand going on with But is drag a bit daring for Russian art? Eifman says, revealing a hint of his impish wit, our theater, DANCE SCENE Moved by jazz, Eifman gets happy The Jazz Age inspired Boris and makes up most of its score. When: Wednesday through March 23 Where: Auditorium Theatre, 50 E.

Congress Pkwy. Price: 312-902-1500 By Rick Reger Special to the Tribune For many rock those who came of age in the two most dreaded words in the concert experience are Few things bring a great show to a grinding halt more effectively than a drummer pounding out the florid, often vapid series of stock rhythms that make up the typical drum solo. So understandably, some might approach one of drummer Chris solo performances with trepidation. However, thoughtful, inherently musical approach to percussion and the astounding range of sounds produced by his hybrid electric-acoustic kit ensure that his concerts are like nothing most music fans have ever heard before. Although Cutler is little known among the general public, a veritable legend among progressive rock and avant-garde music aficionados.

Over his 30-year career, the British percussionist has performed with a who of rock innovators including Henry Cow, Gong, the Art Bears, the Residents, Peter Blegvad and Pere Ubu. While avant-garde credentials are impeccable, always made it a point to perform in a wide range of contexts, from straightforward pop to free improvisation. always approached playing music the way an actor ap- proaches a says Cutler. like to take on different roles as long as I think the play will be good. And I shamelessly try to work with people who are better than I Regardless of the context, distinctive drumming has always been instantly identifiable.

Capable of both airy, raindrop lightness and crashing intensity, stick work also approaches rhythm in a way that rarely adheres to basic three- and four-beat patterns. always found Chris playing to be really says instrumentalist Thymme Jones of the Chicago art-rock band Cheer-Accident. plays through rhythms in a unique way and thinks in elongated terms where clearly structuring what playing over multiple Another one of distinctive traits is his longstanding interest in incorporating distortion into the sound of his drumming. As far back as the Cutler was placing objects on his kit and manipulating the tape recordings of his drum parts to alter the sound of his drums. always been concerned with sound as much as with rhythm, to the point where I think you can separate the says Cutler.

like distorted sounds because I think complex and full of character. why an oboe, which involves acoustic distortion, has more harmonic complexity than a flute or why ECM jazz records sound so gutless and anemic compared to Jimi Although Cutler uses electronics to modify the sound of his drums, he shuns drum machines and synthesizers because he finds them unresponsive and inflexible. Instead, he has developed a hybrid kit in which the sound of his standard acoustic drums is processed. Despite the comparative simplicity of kit, it produces an astonishing range of tone color and allows him to create improvised rather than mere drum that encompass sustained tones, tonal layering and variable pitching. Listening to the fascinating improvised compositions on remarkable new CD (ReR Megacorp), hard to believe that music of such harmonic complexity and depth was produced live, in real time, using just a modified drum kit and assorted percussion odds and ends.

However, Cutler is quick to point out that he believe in using his orchestra of sounds as simple approach all of my performances from a says Cutler. think in terms of large-scale structures, and my hybrid kit gives me massive sonic resources to draw upon. That makes solo improvisations particularly interesting and stimulating for Those performances are no less surprising and stimulating for audiences. In large measure because aesthetic is founded on thoughtful music making rather than novelty. Cutler never sounds contrived or adds Jones.

always sounds like totally inside whatever MUSIC NOTES Giving the drummer some is fine with Chris Cutler Chris Cutler When 9 p.m. Wednesday Where Schubas, 3159 N. Southport Ave. Price $10; 773-525-2508 Chris Cutler believes in manipulating the sound of his drums, even though he like synthesizers or programming..