Television: May 28, 1965

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THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ENTIRE WORLD AS SEEN THROUGH THE EYES OF COLE PORTER, REVISITED. The sly humors of a talented cast delightfully enhance the sophisticated wit and verve of lesser-known Porter tunes.

JUDITH. Jean Giraudoux has fashioned a modern parable on the motivations of heroism and piety from the apocryphal story of the Jewess who glorified herself and saved her nation by destroying a pagan conqueror. Rosemary Harris' interpretation of Judith embraces all the facets of a complex and beguiling woman.

RECORDS

Jazz and Blues

JOHN COLTRANE: A LOVE SUPREME (Impulse). This is a free-form hymn of praise to God, written by the avant-garde jazz tenor saxophonist, who explains his "spiritual awakening" and dedication in the record jacket notes. The opening movement is a strong-voiced Acknowledgement, but Resolution sounds more like Irresolution and Pursuance is a wild and ragged chase, ending in Psalm, a powerful, brooding declaration of faith. Coltrane's sax is backed by piano, drums and bass.

ELLA AT JUAN-LES-PINS (Verve). Recorded last summer at the outdoor jazz festival on the Côte d'Azur, this is one of Ella Fitzgerald's best albums, combining a happy, natural swing with artfulness. Songs by Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Rodgers and Hart become trellises for her looping embellishments and floating improvisations, but the melodies are never obscured, and her voice changes color and size to match the lyrics.

¡VIVA! VAUGHAN (Mercury). That successful Girl from Ipanema loosed a flood of south-of-the-border albums in Latin both sultry and snappy. Sarah Vaughan goes snappy for most of these songs like Fascinating Rhythm, Fever and Stompin' at the Savoy. Frank Foster's band is big with trombones, violins and percussion, but Sarah exuberantly tops it.

THE REAL EARL HINES (Focus). It Was Earl "Fatha" Hines who established the solo piano on the jazz bandstand, but until last spring he had never given a piano recital. While the recording of the occasion has a mushy sound, the playing itself is mesmerizing with its strutting chords, feathered runs and airborne arpeggios. Hines plays Tea for Two like sixty, invents a dozen ways of saying I Ain't Got Nobody, and bomps out a slow but tantalizing St. Louis Blues.

EARL MINES: THE GRAND TERRACE BAND (RCA Victor). The King of Pianology in his Chicago big band days. Besides the swift and brilliantly trumpeting piano of 1939-40 (in Piano Man, Boogie Woogie on St. Louis Blues and his radio theme song, Deep Forest), there is plenty of swinging band work by Tenor Saxophonist Budd Johnson and Hines's other colleagues.

RAY CHARLES: LIVE IN CONCERT (ABC-Paramount). This genius of rhythm and blues obviously had a good night at the Los Angeles Shrine Auditorium with his band, his piano and his Raelets. That hoarse but extraordinarily agile voice lassoes every nuance in sight as he crows I Gotta Woman, pleads Don't Set Me Free and whispers Makin' Whoopee.

CINEMA

CAT BALLOU. This waggish western spurns heroics and drums up unbridled hilarity when Jane Fonda, as a schoolmarm turned outlaw queen, gets mixed up with a couple of no-good gunfighters—both spoofed to perfection by Lee Marvin in a dual role.