Television: Apr. 10, 1964

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THE BLOOD KNOT. Playwright Atholl Fugard traps a black and white pair of half brothers in a tin shack in South Africa, which proves to be a no-exit hell for a conflict that is bruisingly bitter, ruefully humorous, and much more than skin deep.

AFTER THE FALL. Arthur Miller subjects himself, his mother and his wives, notably Marilyn Monroe, to a tortured overintellectualized cross-examination in this play about the end of innocence and the burden of guilt.

THE TROJAN WOMEN, directed by Michael Cacoyannis from a translation by Edith Hamilton, gives U.S. theatergoers a rare sense of the power, agony, and cyclonic passion of the Euripidean classic. It movingly depicts the fate of a handful of proud women terrifyingly caught in the tormenting clutch of war and their Greek conquerors.

IN WHITE AMERICA has as its theme the oppression of the Negro, and the reactions to this pressure—in humor, in cynicism, in anger and in sorrow—are as numerous as the dramatic sketches that recount them.

RECORDS

BORN TO BE BLUE!: BOBBY TIMMONS TRIO (Riverside). Pianist Timmons has an unfailing ear for the sound of sorrow, but he colors his reports from the blue world with musical wizardry and many shades of feeling. With the understanding accompaniment of Ron Carter and the great Sam Jones on bass and Connie Kay on drums, Timmons here runs through such dark delights as Malice Towards None, Namely You and Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child, and the result is a fascinating blues album full of bemusement and cool laughter.

TRIBUTE TO TEAGARDEN (Capitol). An essay on the art of the trombone by the late Jack Teagarden, who played with such expansive charm that his presence in any band gave it heart, soul and a degree of musicianship seldom matched in jazz. The tunes, recorded in the '50s, include such Teagarden classics as Beale Street Blues, The Sheik of Araby and After You've Gone.

FIRST MEETIN': LIGHTNIN' HOPKINS (World-Pacific). An almost too intimate conversation between four masters of the grassroots, deep-ground blues: Hopkins, Big Joe Williams, Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry. The tunes are marvelous—Ain't Nothin' Like Whisky, Penitentiary Blues, How Long Have It Been Since You've Been Home?—and the maestri preach to one another in song, shouts and helpless laughter.

ONE STEP BEYOND: JACKIE McLEAN (Blue Note). Alto Saxophonist McLean is several steps beyond most listeners' taste, but his musicianship is faultless, and his stratospheric imagination takes him into what may well become the future sound of jazz. Trombonist Grachan Moncur and Drummer Anthony Williams are superb sidemen.

AIN'T THAT GOOD NEWS: SAM COOKE (RCA-Victor). A rich and diverse collection of songs and styles by one of the best jazz and pop singers around. Cooke is as strongly rhythmic and rocking on Good Times and Meet Me at Mary's Place as he is quietly swinging on the likes of A Change Is Gonna Come and Home.

HOW MY HEART SINGS!: BILL EVANS TRIO (Riverside). Pianist Evans is the most decorous musician in jazz, but his rococo style never obscures his musical intent: to force the birth of a mood, however painful, whenever he plays. Here, in eight tunes recorded nearly two years ago, Evans swings with an energy he has recently lost, and the album that results is a souvenir of better days.