Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 3, 1992                   TAG: 9203030266
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SETH WILLIAMSON
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

AN ENJOYABLE EVENING BUT FOR THE PIANO . . .

The husband-and-wife team's recital surveyed "The American Popular Song, 100 Years" in the college's Little Theatre - but Bolcom, alas, is no Gerald Moore. He is a composer who plays the piano, not other way around.

Nevertheless it was a fun evening, and the repertoire made a good case for the pair's by-now familiar contention that the American popular song at its best is worthy of comparison with anything Europe can offer.

The trip began with sentimental favorites such as "After the Ball" and "Just A' Wearyin' for You," journeyed through the mid-century landscape of Jerome Kern, Cole Porter and George Gershwin, and made side excursions through Hank Williams country with "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry."

Joan Morris has done this repertoire long enough to avoid the most obvious pitfalls for the classical-recitalist-turned-pop-singer. Some of the most bizarre recordings of the past two decades, after all, have been perpetrated by opera singers laboring under the notion that any bozo can crank out a pop album.

Morris's pleasant instrument obviously is classically trained, but she has assimilated her bel canto style to that of the American genteel tradition, the vaudeville song and the saloon song. The result is a stylistic amalgam that does what she asks of it quite well.

After the music-hall cornball of "After the Ball" and "The Bird on Nellie's Hat," Bolcom and Morris ventured into more sophisticated territory with several collaborations by Jerome Kern and P.G. Wodehouse (of Jeeves and Bertie fame), including the classic "Just My Bill" from the 1927 production of "Showboat." More interesting was a version of Eubie Blake's "I'm Just Wild About Harry" done in three-quarter time, which Bolcom explained was the time signature the composer originally preferred.

Excellent was the George Gershwin standard "Someone to Watch Over Me," but Morris's rather stiff "Can't We Be Friends" had to be a disappointment to anyone familiar with Frank Sinatra's unforgettable version.

Bolcom began the second half of the recital with forgettable versions of the Trinidadian tune "The Little Sailor Boy" and Ernesto Nazareth's tango "Odeon." Things began to look up when Morris returned for Rodgers and Hart's "Spring Is Here" and E.Y. Harburg's "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?"

But the finest post-interval pieces were songs by Bolcom himself, three co-written with former Hollins College professor Arnold Weinstein. The chorale-like block chords behind "Waitin'," the quirky "Song of Black Max," the witty tale of "George," who was "stabbed in the middle of `Un bel di vedremo' " - these were fine examples of contemporary songwriting. Also wickedly funny was the last of three encores, Bolcom's paean to ladies' club luncheon food entitled "Lime Jello Marshmallow Cottage Cheese Surprise."

Seth Williamson produces feature news stories and a classical music program on public radio station WVTF (89.1 FM) in Roanoke.