i.

3@ {Damiano
@ Warm]

; Digging up
a an old friend

GYMNASIA - MINARVM ,

Fig. 1 ~The Pediment

by PaulSteinhrecher

l have received several letters
regarding my proposal to excavate
the hallowed Women's Gym oi
yesteryear, but the most well-
researched response came from a
concerned member of the Iowa
Society of Classical Ar-
chaeologists. To wit,

“Dear Sir,

I must express strong exception
to your column of 9 inst, in which
you erroneously ascribe a
photograph of dubious authenticity
to the remains of the late, great
Gymnasia Feminaruin. Whilst
recataloguing sundry Midwestern
artilacts. my colleagues and l
happen across a scrap ol ancient
papyrus. At the base oi the
iragment was found part of a
votive inscription7+ ++LEGIUM
GRIN+E++I IO+EN517and
what we originally thought was a
sketch of the Senate building in
Washington, D.C. However, I
(correctly) surmised that such
could not easily be the case, as
Washington is somewhat to the
east of Iowa.

Careful reconstruction of the
scrap revealed a drawing oi an
ovoid building (in the style of
Trajan) replete with Corinthian
columns, Roman arches, pediment
and a most unusual steeple (or
votive spire) atop the roof. Such a
building would normally be of little
interest to the Society; however,
the unusual pediment and Doric
precedent over caution in our‘
mindsiwe quickly packed up and
set out for Grinnell. An excavation
soon commenced, the results oi
which are waiting to be published

The most fascinating things
unearthed were the pediment and
frieze, The papyrus scrap showed
the pediment sculpture as being a
standard classical configuration: a
peacock flanked on either side by

3 Charlie Davis in Blin

by Dan Hexter

‘ Hello again, This week Roy
Clyers was the highlight of my
listening, with a new disc entitled
“UBIQUITY, A Tear to a Smile.”
(Polydor PD 6046). This album has
a solid rhythm section consisting of
Bernard (Pretty) Purdie on
drums, Onaje Allan Gumbs on the
keys, Jimmy Owens on trumpet,
and Calvin Brown on guitar. The
dazzling sound of Dee Dee
Bridgewater on vocals steps up the
energy found throughout the
“album, and suddenly your head is
odding, your ieet are keeping the
beat, and your soul opens up to a
brighter day. The best cut, 1 reel, is
htitied “The Old One Two (Move
' to Groove),” which contains a
steady, high energy rhythmic
background and an interesting set
of guitar riffs throughout. This
album is colorful, tight, and very
‘ hip,
And now. the oncedn-armonth-
time blindfold test.
The blindfold test originated in
Downbeat Magazine, Noted
composers and performers lrom
the World of jazz are interviewed
as they listen to other artists
”“cordings in order to give the
¥ader both historical and cons
ceptual insight of the artists’
careers. The blindofld test in this
column. however similar in
structure. places more emphasis
n the period being discussed than
on the identification of the artists
whose recordings are presented to
whomever lS interviewed. The
records are used merely as a
starting point for discussing the
root-strata oi the music ideology
behind this column,
a This month, Mike Stillman and
myself, spent about four relaxing,
informative hours with Mr.

Charles DaVis. Charles, (or CD, as
he will be referred to) has played
with or listened to just about
everyone you wish you had heard
ten years ago. His experiences as a
proficient alto saxophonist took
him out of Harvard into the Latin
quarter community oi American
musicians in Paris, to New York,
to the clubs back up in Boston, and,
or course. to L.A,, where he grew
up. But even this concise
biographical sketch cannot stop
here. CD has more degrees than he
cares to discuss, has been on the
iaculty of Columbia University,
and teaches Afro-American
Literature right here in Grinnell
City. Charles has seen what most
oi us will only read about, and yet
one feels perfectly at ease when
listening to him casually speak of
people like Dexter Gordon. Woody
Shaw, and the man who occupies a
large portion oi CD’S heartiEric
Dolphy. But these are just a few.

The iirst album we played was
Clifford Brown and Max Roach at
Basin Street (Trip Jazz TLP5511),
a 1956 recording. We chose this
album because of its clear
representation of the best “hard
bop” ensemble of all time, This
album introduced many people to
the young Sonny Rollins, who plays
tenor with the band, replacing
Harold Land. Sonny is a favorite of
myself and Mike, and as it turned
out, CD. This band was tight and
respected. ior in no way did its‘
members lack the originality that
many other artists do. in iact, the
sessions of this band served to pave
the way for the scores of jazz ar-
tists who came up since the 1950’s,

Charlie was familiar with the
selection we played; in fact, he
owned the album himself.
However, the record served as a
good jumping off point for

Charlie's personal reminiscences.
Charlie met Sonny Rollins at the
Jazz Workshop in Boston around
1965, at a time when Charlie’s own
horn-playing was at a temporary
spiritual impasse because of his
conflict between approaching jazz
via the Berkely Music School route
(where he was enrolled), and his
desire to get out there on the street
with everyone else and blow. As

Hex
c
a

l”
S

CU tells it “I told him I was
studying at Berkely and he didn't
approve. He said, ‘Look, if you can
sing a melody when you get up to
the time you go to bed and wake up
singin’, you'll never go wrong with
the tone,’ and he Said, ‘Man, the
more you know, the more you blow,
and [he more you burn, the more
you learn.’ It was Rollins who
kicked me off to get out of
oerkely,”

M.Z.irle must’ve given you
some inspiration.

C.D.wh yeah. he gave me an
injection of inspiration 1 was sadly
in need ci. That rap will keep me
goin' the rest of my life.

The second selection we played
for C.D. was Miles Davis, Live at
the Blackhawk. Miles, who is in-
statly identiiiable blowing in any
context unless you happen to be
deaf, fronted a rhythm section on
this date that included l-lank
.Mobley. Tenor Sax; Wynton Kelly2

what can only be described as
stiletto high-heeled shoes and what
appear to be diamond rings (or at
leastbands supporting large stones
cut in the baguette style).

The frieze was also worthy of
note. In what was apparently a
satire of the famous Parthenon
frieze (located near the Greek
ruins of What Cheer. Iowa), this
Doric example depicts the Greeks.
Trojans, Lapiths and Centaurs all
being deieated by the greater
strength of a company of iemale
athletes (probably the field hockey
cult of the Collegium). The
remains of one woman were found
buried with several well»preserved
BioKemistri codices.

Clearly, this was the true
Women's Gym—invalidating that
ridiculously forged photograph
that you had me audacity to print.”

In order to test the claims of this
noted archaeologist, l myseli set
outwith a small but stalwart hand
and journeyed across the Central
Campus Plain to the site. After
cxaming the excavated ruins 1
created the accompanying artist's
conception of the structure. i would
like to publicly thank all those who
took an active interest in this
project (surely proud of the history
of their alma mater) and
especially the Anthro Department,
without whom all of this would
have been mercifully impossible.

' . ~T'h a mnasia radium with
ﬁg 1 e X votive Steeple

piano; Paul Chambers, bass; and
Jimmy Cobb, drums. As with
Sonny Rollins, CD had more than
just a liner note knowledge of the
men who participated on this date.
The sax hadn't gotten more than 2
bars into his solo, when Charlie
said, “That's not Trane‘, that's
l-lank Mobley. I played in Sam
Rivers' orchestra with him for a
year. Also in that orchestra were
Freddie Waits. Charles Davis
(Baritone Sax) and Charles
Tolliver, among others. Un-
fortunately, there were so many
other giants around that Hank
wasn’t given his due‘ credit, but
Hank is Smooth, listen to him
sing."

M.Z.7What about the drums
mer?

C.D,7That’s got to be Jimmy
Cobb on drums. No one else plays
the cymbals like that. If you saw
him live, you couldn’t help but get
entranced by him. He’d always be
lookin’ at his cymbals, He had a
fixation on them. This was one of
Billy Higgins main men. He
learned a lot from him.

M.Z 7H0“, about the bass?

C.D. That’s Paul (Chambers)
or Reggie (Workmen) on bass, but
Reggie didn’t record that much
with Davis,

M.Z.iDo you think of Chambers
as one of jazz‘s main bass men?

C.D.7Chambers was responr
sible for a lot of innovations. He
really brought the bow into con
tention and helped develop the bass
as a solo instrument.

M.Z Any comments on Miles?

C.D.—I don’t think there’s a
serious musician in the world who
could seriously put Miles down.
Growing up, we used to be able to
sing every Miles chorus. i always
like to get reactions ol people who

dfold Test

see Miles in concert, 'oause when
they tell me that Miles turned
around last night and pulled down
his pants, 1 got to think about it.
This dude that's done so much, I
just can't dismiss it because he’s
saying something.

The last tune we played for CD
was lrom a Charles Mingus’
Quartet album ieaturing Eric
Dolpliy, on Barnaby Records. On
the album, Mingus verbally in-
troduces the cut: ”All the things
you could be by now if Sigmund
Freud‘s wife was your mother,"
and that gave it away because CD
chimed in and said, “That’s
Mingus’s voice, i sat in with him in
Madison, Wisconsin,"

M.Z —How about the reedman?

C.D —That sounds like Eric on
sax. You know, you could follow
Coltrane through his records and
you can see real changes that
parallel philosophic changes. But
when Eric came out. he came Out
Eric.

M.Z.eWould you put Eric right
up there with Trane?

D —Yeah, definitely.

. —What about Mingus, do
you think of him as a bass player or
a composer? ‘

C.Dtil’d have to think of him as
more of a composer, but he's just
Mingus.

The contact we made Tuesday
night was with the Charles Davis
who knew his music. Others see
him behind a desk, or spending
time with black and white
students, just because he knows he
can provided an essential aspect of
their education. We would have
liked to fill the entire 8&3 with his
sensitive understanding of music;
by no means were we able to
record all that we heard that
evening.

 

