University of Virginia Library

Toves Exhibit Polish,
Too Good For Success

By Jere Real

(Editors note - Mr.
Real, a graduate student at the
University, formerly was with Mercury
Records and writes frequently
on theater, films, and pop music.
His theater pieces have appeared in
National Review, and he has been
annotator for many pop music
albums, most recently for LPs by
Paul Mauriat, Sergio Mehdes, and
an upcoming LP of electronic
music, Seven Trumps from the
Tarot.)

The Slithy Toves - who played
a polished and exciting concert at
Cabell Hall Auditorium last Friday
evening - well may be that occasional
musical fluke, a group that
is, quite simply, qualitatively too
good for commercial success.

That is to say, the Slithy Toves
may be the victim of their own best
qualities, which are, good solid
musicianship and an inclination
toward experimentation and innovation.
In today's commercial pop
music business, the former quality
is rarely considered, and the latter
is usually a liability.

Yet, the Slithy Toves are one of
the more sophisticated groups in
their approach to the music of any
group, certainly, in Virginia, and,
no doubt, many states around.

In Friday's concert, which
attracted several hundred to Cabell
Hall, the Slithy Toves amply demonstrated
all their virtues in a
program varied in content, smooth
in its execution, and dynamic in its
approach.

The Toves, unfortunately for
themselves, are not what is known
in the musical trade as a "show"
band. (By "show" band, I do not
mean merely the semi-choreographed
performance of a host of "Soul"
bands. I refer to any group whose
on-stage actions are virtually as
important as their music; Jim Morrison
and the Doors, in this larger
sense, are a "show" band.)

The Slithy Toves performance,
physically, is that of a concert
group. The light shows, the incense
burning, even - perhaps - the long
hair and bizarre costuming are
really extraneous to the performance
of any concert rock group, as
extraneous as they would have
been, say, to a performance of the
Modern Jazz Quartet or the Dave
Brubeck Quartet who played to a
similarly rapt audience in Cabell
Hall in the early Sixties.

What has been happening recently
with the more talented
"rock" - oriented groups is a
gradual movement toward combining
the physical stage style of commercial
rock groups (The Byrds,
Herman's Hermits, Paul Revere and
the Raiders, and the like) with
more complicated musical formulations
adopted from both traditional
and "progressive" jazz. The result
has been, in recent months, a new
type "rock" group that includes
such diverse aggregations as Country
Joe and the Fish, Moby Grape
(in their more sane recordings),
and, naturally the unique musical
innovations of Paul Butterfield,
Cream, and Jimi Hendrix.

In their approach, the Slithy
Toves fall in this last - more
creative - category. The result of
their intense desire to grow out of
what was, only a year ago, the
rather limiting confines of "psychedelic"
rock was seen in Friday
evening's concert.

As with all amplified music
groups, the volume is still there, but
the Slithy Toves have begun to
experiment, most effectively, with
the full range of dynamic possibilities.
In the concert, the entire first
half was an uninterrupted set with
the group making brilliant use of
transitional dynamics to incorporate
a variety of hard rock, Latin,
and jazz pieces into a sort of
musical collage.

The first set offered several of
the numbers now recognized among
the Toves' faithful as standard with
the group, such as "Through the
Looking Glass," the up-tempo "Kaleidoscope;"
but the group varied
the delivery by inserting the Latin
toned "Bossa Nova Blues" and
making a spectacularly subtle and
exciting transition to The Doors'
standard, "Break on Through."

As always, the group has the
solid core of Don Smith's drum
accompaniment and is blessed by
his occasional fiery solo "takes."
Chet Blakistone is another strong
foundation of the group with his
lead guitar work, while both Lou
Cordera and Bruce Brandfon provide
cohesively tight bass and organ
work. The group made interesting
use of saxophone and trumpet work
- new additions to their instrumentation
- on the Jimmy Smith
number, "Who's Afraid of Virgina
Wolf?" in the second set as well as
with Blakistone's flute work on
other selections.

There are several flaws to be
corrected: one wishes Cordera more
often would be given solo organ
work, while lead guitarist Blakistone
usually remains at rear stage
when doing his best interpretations.
The groups new vocalist Bob Crawford,
an effective singer, is overwhelmed
somewhat by the instrumentation.
But these are relatively
minor matters.

What is really of consequence is
that the University community has
produced a group that is musically
inventive as any I've seen in several
years. The Slithy Toves may, or
may not, be commercially successful.
That success, these days is
usually a matter more of style than
substance; but in sheer musical
workmanship, the Slithy Toves
have vast quantities of substance.