productions

Invitation

New Year's Eve, being a time that most of us want to go out and celebrate, seems to be the time for us to be together and supporting the bar, a space that has become important to Cleveland women this past year.

Plan to spend New Year's at the Three of Cups with your friends. Do not wait to buy your tickets! Only 150 will be sold. We will not exclude anyone from the party by the ticket price. Call us if you want to come but cannot afford the whole price. The party is 9pm til closing. Call the Three of Cups at 283-6393 or Oven Productions at 321-0692 for more information.

Cleveland, Ohio 44118

p.o. box 18175,

321-0692

ANNOUNCEMENT

Instead of making long announcements' at our intermissions, Oven will be handing out printed announcements at every event. Any women or organi. zations who want to include an announcement must call Oven at least one week before the concert. A $1 donation for printing is requested.

Rainbow WomanS'Irani Avedis

Electric energy and sultry dark tones beckoned the audience into her sensitivity. Her powerful voice swelled and rippled in complete control playing it the tension in her music that enticed. held in suspense and then resolved with impact

Still Singing the Blues", the opening number. was charged with energy and spicy blues piano Her voice was Laura Nyro-like in the way it dipped and soared and moaned like a lazy saxophone.

Her concert was rich with variety in both musical design and subject matter. One thing was constant the dramatic effect of words and music that were strategically developed to evoke a reaction in her audience.

In her tune. "Ain't No California Mood, she sang about the weather and played beautiful piano lines that imitated rain on a drought-stricken California. "It looks like clear skies and that damn sunshine again--but where can you hide in the sunshine? I want to get back to the autumn-time. Where's my New York City night--in the California bright?"

S'Irani shared background information about her music and her politics between songs. She feels communication between the audience and herself is crucial. As she explained, “The music you will hear tonight will demand a lot from you as a listener; much of it is coming from very keep inside me and if you let yourself flow with it, it can take your emotions through many of the changes that I have felt and tried to express through the music."

S'Irani was formerly known as Sally Piano. She changed her name to S'Irani Avedis which is an Armenian name meaning Rainbow and Bearer of Messages. S'Irani feels very connected with her ethnic heritage both in terms of her personal and political struggles and her musical personality. In one song, "Rainbow Woman,” the music was interwoven with Middle Eastern wailing, traditional blues runs and a special sound all her own. She sang, “You've got your own gospel; woman you've got your own culture, woman you've got your own suffering, woman You're your own Rainbow woman.'

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Rainbow is an important image in S'Irani's life and songs. It represents many things including being neither white nor black, a fascinating natural phenomenon and the after-the-storm (or revolution) calm and beauty of the rainbow.

In a tender love song, "In the Morning Sun," she wove a musical tapestry with her sensitive guitar-playng and sang, "Sometimes I think back on the feelings... wondering why it rose so quickly in the east... then set in the west. . . . Oh Judith, had a dream. You held your arms outstretched to me and I awoke just crying the mourning sun.”

Her incredible talent and mastery of voice, piano and guitar comes from hard work and following her inner spirit. She never had formal training but began to experiment on the piano when she was three. When she writes it is "like clay taking form."' Often she sits at the piano and plays it freely and formlessly until something catches her ear. Then she works with it until it becomes a clear phrase. She generally has several distinct phrases that she carefully blends into a flowing song. She then lets the music "tell" her what it is trying to say and then works the lyrics out into clear, concise phrases-full of poetic imagery and impact.

She shows exactly how she feels in her face, gestures and voice and is incredibly vulnerable and unabashed. She talked (and talked) about how she felt about issues relating to women and to her music. Each of her songs she sang at the concert was rich with honesty and sensitivity. This openness is her strength and appeal. She sang,“‘Ooh, I'm an angry woman and ooh, she can stand beside me and know just what I'm feeling inside of me."

To introduce one song, S'Irani said, "We're all wearing clothes of isms's ageism, racism, the thing is to get naked!” Later she

sexism

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photo by Janet Century

sang of the necessary process of internal change in a song called, "Start at Start." "I've got lots of work to do to weed out the trouble in me. I got a feeling that I'm about to be reborn--so if you're delaying making the change that's in your heart, I'm only saying--saying you will is the hardest part."'

Creating a new form of music true to her inner voice is one of S'Irani's goals (one that she has definitely accomplished). She feels women should listen to themselves for direction--not to imitate.

In her closing number, “Tall Enough to Stand,'' she sang about handicapped women. "YOU DON'T NEED TO BE AN ATHLETE TO BE AN AMAZON AND YOU DON'T NEED SIGHT TO SEE THE POSSIBILITIES AND YOU DON'T NEED LEGS TO BE TALL ENOUGH TO STAND."

That night had a powerful effect on me personally. I felt compelled to speak to her during intermission. I said, “S'Irani, I don't know if I should say 'thank you' or 'damn you' for affecting me so much with your music. We hugged and I eventually took a walk in the cold night and let the tears flow from me.

Christine Haynes

What She Wants/December, 1977/pogell