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JACKIE McLEAN: NEW AND OLD GOSPEL (Blue Note). That hardy musical ghost, gospel, is summoned once again for this session. Its vibrations materialize most happily in a church-spirited composition by Ornette Coleman, who simply plays trumpet on this album. In Altoist McLean's four-part piece Lifeline, though, these vibrations become only the merest echo, as the group slides into the "new gospel" of freedom. Here McLean's quintet (Lamont Johnson on piano; Scott Holt, bass; Billy Higgins, drums) wheels uninhibitedly through the cycle of human experiences, expressing exultation with rollicking riffs, wonder with gentle breathings, anxiety with abrasive scurryings, and finally the pain of death with wrenching, atonal probings.
BOBBY HUTCHERSON: STICKUP! (Blue Note). West Coast Vibraphonist Hutcherson gets right in the swing with a tasteful crowd of young modernists. Featuring the flexible tenor inventions of Joe Henderson and the thoughtful suspensions of Pianist McCoy Tyner, the quintet favors an ambiance of melodic continuity set to disciplined rhythmics. The finest chapter of their musical book is in Verse, a rubato theme that moves into a flowing waltz tempo. Edging into the avant-garde on 8-4 Beat and Black Circle, the instrumentalists whirl gracefully around some unexpected chords. On the quiet ballad Summer Nights, vibes and piano trace shimmering patterns on the surface of a serene pool.
CINEMA
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. Director Stanley Kubrick's epic of the space age is at once a stunning visual experience and a demanding philosophical exercise that sets out to depict nothing less than the essence of our universe.
BELLE DE JOUR. This bizarre tale of the sexual fantasies of a young wife (Catherine Deneuve) is a fitting capstone to the 40-year-career of Spanish Director Luis Bunuel as it ranges from anticlerical homilies to fetishist daydreams.
HOUR OF THE WOLF. In this eerie symbolic tale of the deepening madness of a reclusive artist, Sweden's Ingmar Bergman paints one of his most effective portraits of the dark night of he soul.
I EVEN MET HAPPY GYPSIES. This Yugoslav film uses melancholy, autumnal colors to depict the anachronistic and often tragic life styles of the Indians of Europe —the gypsies.
NO WAY TO TREAT A LADY. A callow New York City cop (George Segal) dogs the elusive tracks of a psyched-up killer (Rod Steiger) with a closetful of disguises in this adroit blend of black comedy and bloody homicide.
UP THE JUNCTION. Suzy Kendall, a dazzling blonde bird from Britain, is the viewer's guide in this gritty, realistic visit to a Battersea slum.
THE PRODUCERS. Two canny Broadway con men set out to make a fortune by staging a flop in this first film by Writer-Comedian Mel Brooks, which, despite a few bad moments, offers some of the funniest American cinema comedy in years.
BOOKS
Best Reading
COUPLES, by John Updike. In his fifth and most ambitious novel, Updike shuffles the sex lives of ten couples as he examines adultery in the "imaginative quest" for life's meaning.
A GUEST FOR THE NIGHT, by S. Y. Agnon. Israel's 1966 Nobel prizewinner spins a searching, unhurried tale about the eternal Wandering Jew, who turns up this time in Eastern Europe just before World War II.