Archbishop Mitty High School - Excalibur Yearbook (San Jose, CA)

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DRAMA There have been athletic successes and failures, but Mitty theatre and music has always been of the finest quality. The Fall Season saw repertory perfor- mances of Arsenic and Old Lace and Tartuffe. The several bands somehow get better every year fthe '69-70 group finished third in five western states at Renojg music and Mitty have be- come synonymous. The following ar- ticle looks not at the well-known, but turns attention to a solid group of musicians working relatively indepen- dent of the Academically Established units. There are some things this country doesn't need any more of, comedians, construction engineers, and people who want to give their opinions about music. The shame of it all is that some people who really KNOW some- thing about music are never heard above the din of ill-informed disc- jockeys and newsmen who have be- come instant music critics by virtue of a local festivity. Of course if you sell a million records or catch the fancy of the right promoter, your opinions on music, revolution, philos- ophy, etc. will splash across the pages of ROLLING STONE, DOWN BEAT, or even TIME. or NEWSWEEK. Mitty's community of musicians who have worked independently to put their ideas into sound, have a wide spectrum of thoughts concerning music , what is its purpose, and where it's going. Most of the community's artisans are striving to attain an original sound, and some of them, when asked who influenced them took it as an insult, as though they were being asked who they were trying to copy. The teen Bands of the early 60s who tried to look and act as much like the Beatles or the Rolling Stones as possible just aren't around anymore. This is good, but a musician should know where his roots are, and be able to recog- nize his influences. John Coltrane al- ways credited Lester Young and Charlie Parker as being greatinfluences on his style. Leon Thomas, avante garde jazz sing er and drummer, goes even deeper into his roots and speaks of African music as being a very integralpart of his music. For acid-rock fanatics, there is not a whole lot to look for- ward tog it looks more and more as though jimi Hendrix took his music with him to the grave. But then no form of music ever really dies, its reign as a predominant music may pass, but it continues to influence other people as music itself continues to evolve. It may be as guitarist Dave Anderson put it, Yeah, I still like that kind of stuff, but every- body's doing it and there's not much chance for a new band breaking into it, or it may be that music is a form of communication and there are other things to communicate -- like per- sonal thoughts, and new musical idea Steve Fanelli, Dan Dahlhauser, Paul Hathaway, and Brian Sheredy are David Joe Gregg Dan Michael 'Vice Shawn Sanford Salerno Sabatell Scudero Scutero Siquenla james 5 -rw 5: Q, ,' 4 , 5 ' W r ' .M 25 f ' ' wk I ,M . f N e t 1 -L. 1 . , -ya: V '. .J - Q 'X 1 Q r .air YW x Ny r Q ww Q W 9 kk J les iw ,J It A ,4 - as J 5,5 Q awk i l ii? it Q

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four Mitty muniors who have recently formed a band along with pianist Phyllis Pearson from Mother Butler. Steve, who has played for seven years Qmostly 12-string guitarj, sat on one of those plasticized benches in the Mitty foyer as he tried to explain in his low, soft-spoken voice where mu- sic is going and what its function is. Music that was drug oriented, basi- cally started by the Beatles, is start- ing towards Christianity. Music is a form of communication, you can use music as a sort of tool to touch upon shadows of thought. Leonard Cohen e Tom je ff Sipiora Smithers 31 .in and Mason Williams have been in- fluences on him. Later I found another member of their band, Dan Dalhauser. l've had guitars around me since I was about eight. But I took my first lesson eight months ago, and I had my last lesson seven months ago. He paused for a moment and pushed his shoulder-length, stringy black hair back over his ears, and continued, l didn't improve at all during that time. I play for my own pleasure, which is why I can't play anything anybody else likes. l asked him what else he played be- sides guitar. He said I can play any- thing, butjustnotvery well, sometimes not at all. Like Fanelli he couldn't say what his music would really sound like, but offered some ideas, We play our own music the way it comes out, we let it flow together. Wc've decided not to decide what it will sound like . . . because we know our range of music is greater than we think . . . Dave Anderson was probably best des- cribed by one Mitty student: the Monster that never was. He is tall, .p , . c,s'l5.,tli K Q- xr' f, x T , Q4 'E X H 5 X S , . I I . . :QQ ' K A -av is A I I g Q . 0 S a.. 1 0 Q I Q 0 v- 4 , - M V Paul Tim Edward Bill Dominick Smith Smith Spence Sprugasci Stea gig 54 p .31 . uv' ,el ' 5 .,.- ' .. - un s . - + . 1 I .y b , o K