The Ithaca Journal from Ithaca, New York • 36

12 Arts Leisure, Thursday, July 1 5-22, 1 993 The Ithaca Journal Glenora's summer jazz series opens with Bela Fleck a. it Howard left the band I didn't know what it would be like. Now we've been doing gigs for six months, and we've already made a new album slated for September release. We've worked really hard on the new music we're playing very little of the old music and we're always coming up with new tunes and new ways to play," notes Fleck. "We're using some effects and toys to get a bigger sound.

For instance, I have a synthesizer hooked up to my banjo so I can access a lot of the synth sounds Howard used to play. The arrang-ing's been real cagey we're finding ways to make it sound big and trade the melodies between the banjo and bass. There's a lot of ways to skin a cat, and it's forced us to be creative." Inspired by the Beverly Hillbillies, the New York City-bred Fleck began playing banjo at 15. "Tony Trischka a pioneer of modern banjo styles was my teacher, and there were all these great acoustic musicians around him," remembers Fleck. "A long time ago, even before I was in New Grass Revival, I had dreams of a band like the Flecktones.

When I was a teenager, I heard Chick Corea and Return To By JIM CATALANO Special to The Journal BANJO virtuoso Bela Fleck and his band, the Flecktones Come to Glenora Wine Cellars this Sunday, July 18, as part of the Winery's Summer '93 Jazz Great Series. Opening the 2 p.m. show is Hot Clave Bop. Fleck built his reputation in blue-grass circles in the late 1970s and 1980s he was part of New Grass Revival for nearly nine years but his current band spans many musical genres. "I don't know what we are," says Fleck.

"We play jazz festivals and the audience thinks we fit, but we also play bluegrass festivals and open for Bonnie Raitt and the Grateful Dead. The band can fit into a lot of things. There's a lot of jazz in the music, but there's also a lot of bluegrass and funk." The Flecktones, which include Victor Lemonte Wooten on bass and Roy "Future Man" Wooten on Synth-Axe Drumitar a guitar-shaped synthesizer he created that allows him to trigger various drum sounds recently became a power trio after longtime pianistharmonica player Howard Levy left to spend more time with his family. "It's working out real well for us, actually. I was real nervous when Jazz Great Series Who: Banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck and the Flecktones with opening act Hot Clave Bop Where: Glenora Wine Cellars, Route 14, 9 miles north of Watkins Glen When: July 1 8, 2 p.m.

Tickets: $1 5, available at the floor or by charging by phone, 1-243-5511. Later: Saxophonist Nelson Rangell with opening act Nancy Kelly, Aug. 15, 2 p.m. Fleck can't say enough good things about his current bandmates. "Victor is outrageous there's a lot of heart and soul in his music.

I think he's on that level with the very best bass players in the world. He's the new guy that everyone wants to see and hear. "And what Futureman is doing with the Drumitar is totally revolutionary. It's really wild people freak out when they see us the first time. It's a fun thing it makes us more accessible because we're weird," says Fleck.

Photo by JIM McGUIRE GOING TO GLENORA WITH A BANJO ON HIS KNEE: Bela Fleck (center) is flanked by the Flecktones Future Man, holding the Drumitar (left) and bass player Victor Wooten. Forever I wanted to be in a band like that, but I guess I had gotten convinced that it was a real long shot. I'm more of a person who likes to blend into things and be a good partner rather than a leader." Fleck strives to make his music accessible to his listeners. "It's very important for me for people to get it, but it doesn't have to be simplified. I think people can handle a lot more complicated stuff than they're given credit for.

I think there's a lot of people out there who are eager to hear music that is challenging to them. "We try to appeal to a cross-section of all those people without taking the guts out of the music, but by enhancing those guts and going for the diversity and complexity, to a point." Hocus Pocus' Missing focus billed as "the fairest of them all" has found the fountain of youth. Adapted from a simple but appealing Grimm fairy tale, "Snow White" tells of a beautiful young lass pursued by a vain and vengeful witch of a queen. Of course, there's also a prince on a white horse, but the film really belongs to the seven wonderful, scene-stealing dwarfs with whom Snow White seeks refuge. 83 minutes.

Son-in-Law PG-13 Pauly Shore is about as close as this generation comes to a Jerry Lewis. For better AND worse. Shore's clowning in this new comedy is extreme and basic, as simplistic as it is silly; subtlety is not a word that comes to mind. Directed by Steve Rash, "Son-in-Law" blends Shore's California comic MTV persona with a basic fish-out-of-water formula. He plays Crawl, an eccentric California college student who goes home for Thanksgiving to be with a South Dakota farmer's daughter and her Norman Rockwell family.

100 minutes. Strictly Ballroom PG A joyous and inventive fable of dance, romance, and freedom, played out in the quirky, pastel chiffon world of ballroom competition. The film was a pre-release hit on the festival circuit last year, and aptly displays great imagination and vitality, the apparent attributes of first-time Australian director and co-writer, Baz Luhrmann. Miramax. 94 minutes.

What's Love Got to do with It Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne burn up the screen in this film biography of Tina Turner and her ex-husband Ike. The movie is best when she hits the stage as Tina in performance but doesn't measure up in explaining their long, abusive relationship. Starring Angela Bassett, Laurence Fishburne. Touchstone Pictures. 115 minutes.

Orlando PG-13 A This adaptation of Virginia Woolf's novel follows a 17th-century nobleman for 400 years, as he is transformed from a man into a woman. But it's slow-going and fairly opaque, buoyed only by the subtle performance of Tilda Swinton in the title role. 92 minutes. Rookie of the YearPG Daniel Stern gets a hit with this feel-good baseball fantasy that marks the feature debut for the actor-turned-director. Fresh-faced newcomer Thomas Ian Nicholas plays Henry Rowengartner, a young Cubs fan but incredibly inept Little Leaguer.

But after he breaks his arm, it heals in mysterious ways; the 12-year-old now has the power to pitch a baseball 100 mph. Before you can say Rowengartner, he's in the starting rotation for the Cubs. 1 03 minutes. Sleepless in Seattle PG From the timeless songs on the soundtrack to the emphasis on the special magic between lovers, Nora Ephron's film is the most utterly romantic movie to hit the screen in the 1990s. It's the ideal love story for folks who say, "They don't make movies like they used to." Yet it's smart and funny enough to please those who don't care if they ever make 'em like they used to.

Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan co-star as the potential lovers; and the continent that separates them for most of the film is not enough to stop the sparks that are struck between them. TriStar. 100 minutes. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs High-tech restoration is the big news in the return of Walt Disney's first animated feature. More than a half-century after its initial release, the film that's By MARSHALL FINE Gannett News Service "Hocus Pocus" is another entry into what is becoming a fairly crowd-ed genre: the comedy without laughs, or "le comedie sans laughs," in French.

Despite a cast that should be wonderful, "Hocus Pocus" falls down because it doesn't have any jokes. None. Nada. The slapstick gags are uninspired and the sight gags don't measure up either. Did I mention that it isn't funny? What should be a sterling trio Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker plays the Sanderson sisters, three witches in 1693 Salem, Mass.

They lure children to their house, then make them drink a potion that allows the sisters to suck the life essence from the youngster. The sisters turn youthful and the kids turn into desiccated skeletons. The townsfolk capture and hang the sisters, but not before Winifred (Midler) utters a spell: The sisters will return from the dead if a virgin lights their black-flamed candle on Halloween. Sure enough, exactly that happens in 1993. The virgin is Max Dennison (Omri Katz), a newcomer to Salem who visits the sisters' house (now a museum) with a would-be girlfriend and his little sister.

He Photo by ANDREW COOPER LIGHTING STRIKES TWICE: Bette Midler stars as a 300-year-old witch who will do.anything to reclaim her youth. lights the candle to show off and poof! up pop the Sandersons. It's up to Max and his band to try to send them back to the grave before they can suck the life out of unsuspecting children and give themselves eternal life. Younger children may chortle; to them, all movies are fun. But discriminating viewers will find "Hocus Pocus" totally lacking in magic.

Rated PG, violence, profanity. Hocus Pocus Stars: Rating: PG Running Time: 93 mins. Where: Hoyt's Cinemas, Pyramid Mall Times: 1:30, 4:30, 7:20 daily.