Newsday (Suffolk Edition) from Melville, New York • 67

Ray Charles at the Bluest bing both feet stomping the floor dn-nchjng the stage with throbbing earthy chords rasping and wailing die blues he creates a sensation that no other performer can duplicate Happiness and pain excitement and sadness regret and exultation flow out of this blind man who has the gift of making us fed life aa well as see ft I- even die band soloists were inaudible when placed at microphones across the circular stage What was heard however was magnificent Charles is so expressive to moving Mixing his blues work with renditions of his mast familiar pop tunes Stop Lowing You On My Mind" he paced himself and hs musicians beautifully Ably supported by die four RaeUts who joined him halfway through die second act he made even bit -standard repertoire seem fresh and new The opening segment of the program fea- tares the Charles band and the Singing da no-ing Impaots four young men who sing well together and have an abundance of energy that they pour info their work They also try some funny business and while it exaotiy hilarious they do get some well deserved laushs Hie band with such excellent musicians as -Curtis Amy Keg Johnson Clifford Scott and Henry Coker zips through a selection of contemporary jazz tunes including and Remember and plays' diem with skill and interest But when Ray Charter sits at the piano after intermission his head and shoulders bob By Bob MicUin When man ic known as "The you have to figure either the very best or the very worst at whatever he does In die case of Ray Charles introduced in peison and on records as "The Genius there is no doubt about it he the finest Hues singer in die business Charles his orchestra the Racists and the entertaining Impacts opened a show at die Wesdwiy Music Fair last night and for more than two hours the blues was everybody's business Once again theater-in-the-round experience a disappointing turnout for an opening night but once again the fortunate fintegbtn more than made up for the empty seats with their enthusiasm Charles and company responeded in fine style despite a show of temper by the usually urbane Joe Adams personal manager and manager and emcee of die show over die inadequacies of the sound system Adams's point although expressed harshly was well taken This reviewer had difficulty throughout the evening hearing Charles and in most cases Blues Singer Fined $10000 Boston (AP) Ray Charles 35 internationally renowned blind singer and pianist yesterday was given a five-vear suspended jail term and fined $10000 in Federal District Court on two counts of possession of narcotics The entertainer who pleaded guilty Nov 22 1965 before the late Judge George CL Sweeney also was placed on probation for four years He is required to undergo medical examinations every six months to determine if he has given up drugs 1 Sentence was imposed by Judge Charles Wyzanski after a physician testified Charles had overcome the drug habit Judge Sweeney had agreed to a postponement of sentence to give Charles a chance to get rid of the habit Charles had said he was an addict since he was 16 yean old Raj Charles At the Music Fair On Arf 0 BEFORE DINNER The musical to Dinner" is discussed by director end Laurence Rosenthal who wrote the score for the musical version The show star ring George Sanders es Sheridan Whiteside opens on Broadway early next year Nuggets Found In Quiet Corners 1 i Bjr Bowden Broadwater Tliere is always a dark Week in die art gallery season The paintings seem to be all white-on -white resisting description The sculptures sic many lengths of pipe evenly spliced So roe moment has oome -to see places and objects ordinarily passod over First on the list might be Manhattan's Cooper Union Museum Housed in the quiet upper floors on staid and stately Cooper Union (at Third Avenue and 7tn Street) it specializes in the decorative arts It has no rival in that field in the U5 Indeed She Musce des Arts Deooratifs in Paris is its only peer There are many pleasurable aspects to this little museum If some things there such as die are not absolutely first-chop it is hard if not impossible to find an item that is not pretty interesting or charming Frequently it is all three The textiles wallpapers architectural drawings porcelains from past and present are well set out and organized No one will be peering over your shoulder (That is another of the pleasures) There is a hum of the 19th Century about the place The elegant library of two of Peter spinster descendants may be teen intact These two the Misses Hewitt a very personal hand in die museum giving it some of its most beautiful objects Their allied collections of birdcages and porcelain stovepipes might raise a Freudian eyebrow Such a faint ripple of oddity is one of many here The museum is open every day except Sunday from 10 to 5 Still another refuge is the Museum of Primitive Art which occupies part of a former townhouse at 15 West 54th St The work shown here is chosen for asthetic rather than anthropological reasons A totem figure from die Near Hebrides so terrifying that no sensible peison would willingly touch it keeps company with figures so classic that reviewers like so manr dogs respond like Brancusi The fact that not one of the artists represented is known by name even the dates of the pieces are shrouded in may be relaxing to certain viewers The tugging voice of art history cany far in these small and admirably arranged rooms At the they are occupied by an excellent collection of masks and sculptures Hie hours of the museum are every afternoon except Monday Peace and quiet on Sunday afternoon can still he found surprisingly at the Metropolitan Museum Hut is iS you know where to go At those popular times when Roman Circus crowds are faking (heir exercise elsewhere in the museum die ground-floor galleries (clocks and watches silver ceramics etc) are practically deserted a special exhibit of Renaissance jewelry (and be jeweled objects) down there now This is a rich diet And an unusual one too Hie subject of a hat ornament in gold enamel and A variety of exquisite pendants indicates that this is no isolated case A lady in those days could celebrate around her neck the of or quite expensively a ferret Take your time in this oasis There is a Spanish (or possibly German) lock the bold cubes of which make it a rival of certain modern sculpture Absolute lightness and grace like a Mozart aria is the note struck by an ISth Century porcelain chess set and board (die latter made like a rav) Hie worldly goods of die western world are set out under bright lights and leave at their best en impression of hue worth Wednesday November II If Si i Selected Short Subjects Nassau College Picks Thoreau As Theme off '67 Poet Festival Dr Wesly Jensby chairman of die college theater department said Hut Thoreau had been chosen for the 1967 festival in an attempt to our students emotionally and excite them intellectually" and to dal with increasing alienation of youth from our in Yiddish mans clever man and what needs right now Some chu chem managed to get Molly Picon and Menasha Sknlnik together as lads in the Mitch Leigh musi-al which tells of a Jewish community in ancient China But Miss Picon wanted more or a port than was left to her as the show struggled through Philadelphia and die quit twice die second time apparently for good Now Sknlnik has shrugged the whole thing off and left die show bringing tee production Nassau Community College has scheduled a third annual American Poets Festival for May 1967 featuring the works of Henry David Thoreau Highlighting the event will be an original production by the college theater department based on writings and combining drama dance and folksongs The dramatization will be written bjr (heater department professor Jewel Gresham in col- labocstkm with wnterproducer Robert Nemiroff whose Zero" was seen on Broadway last season The festival was Initiated in 1965 with Whitman starring James Whitmore and Barbara Barrie Hut play written by Pud Shyre and commissioned by the college is now at Gramercy Arts Theater starring Alexander Scourby Last production was Slowly with Kim Hunter Anne Meacham and William Roerick Commissioned to poet Norman Rotten it was based oa the life and works of Emily Dickinson to a bait The show is undergoing and renegotiation with Sknlnik in him back Its opening on Broadway previously postponed to Jan 4 has again been put off 3 A Oft:.