Trio carries on spirit of improvisation

The members of the avant-garde Thoth Trio say they are trying to continue the creativity that started emerging when the band had a slightly different form.

They hope their first album, "Apropos of Nothing," for which there is a release party Saturday on the South Side, can help spread that word.

"We had a trio going when Lindsey Horner was in town," says reed player Ben Opie, "but we knew Lindsay wasn't going to stay in town, and we wanted the band to continue."

He and drummer Dave Throckmorton got in touch with bassist Paul Thompson -- and the music kept playing.

"Paul was the obvious choice," Opie says of the bassist who joined them in 2002. "He and Dave have a real history together. He's a great player and he's easy to work with."

Thompson and Throckmorton, who provide the two "th" elements of the name with Opie adding the "o", played together with trumpet legend Maynard Ferguson.

Opie explains that the goal of the band with Horner, who moved to New York City, was to create music that was improvisational and reflected the strengths of all three players.

That was happening with Horner, he says, and has continued.

"That's the great part," Thompson says. "We all have a role, and we all work that way."

"It's a case of anything goes," Throckmorton adds. "I can play something really silly, and the other two will react to that."

"We develop what we play because of the band," Opie says. "When I pen something, it is with the players and what they do in mind.

"I don't want to just write tunes," he adds.

Thompson and Throckmorton say that energy is providing them a loyal following in the Pittsburgh area, and they hope they are able to do more to get the band known elsewhere.

Opie says he thinks that could happen, and knows of only one way of doing that.

"Keep at it," he says.

The album-release party will be at 10:30 p.m. Saturday at Club Cafe on the South Side. Cover is $7.

Details: (412) 431-4950.

Singer to show off personal photography

Graham Nash is best known as one of the golden voices of rock music. But the singer, who will be performing at the Chevrolet Amphitheatre at Station Square on July 18, also is an accomplished photographer.

Nash will make a rare public appearance at 7 p.m. July 17 at the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh to show slides from and autograph copies of his new book, "Eye to Eye: Photographs by Graham Nash," (Steidl, $60).

The event, sponsored by the Book Center at the University of Pittsburgh and Distributed Art Publishers, is free and open to the public, but seating is limited to 200. Reservations can be made until July 15 by stopping in at the Book Center, 4000 Fifth Ave., Oakland, between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, or calling (412) 648-1453.

John Knight comes to Pittsburgh Improv

Comedian John Knight claims he was the only employee at McDonald's forbidden to have contact with the customers. Apparently his boss was afraid of what he might say.

Knight, who appears Thursday through Saturday at the Pittsburgh Improv, turned his loose-cannon mouth into an asset, logging concerts with Jay Leno, Howie Mandel and Stephen Wright and appearing on Showtime's "Comedy Club Network" and "Star Search." His style has been called mocking, cynical and negative. Call him a demotivational speaker. He's giving up his Fourth of July holiday weekend to make you laugh, but if you don't, he would probably say, "So what else is new?"

Times are 8 p.m. Thursday; 8 and 10 p.m. Friday; and 7, 9 and 11 p.m. Saturday. There is no Sunday show. Tickets are $12 to $15. The Pittsburgh Improv is at 166 E. Bridge St. at the Waterfront in Homestead.

Details: (412) 462-5233.

Bowie cancels Denmark appearance

David Bowie canceled his planned performance at Denmark's annual Roskilde Festival, one of Europe's biggest outdoor rock events.

"This morning, David Bowie's physician informed us that (his) condition doesn't enable him to carry through the planned concert," the festival said in a statement Tuesday. No other details were available.

A statement on Bowie's Web site said the cancellation was "due to David's continued condition."

Bowie was scheduled to perform Friday, the first day of the four-day event known for its rock, punk, funk and hip-hop jams.

Last week, Bowie cut short a concert in Prague, the Czech capital, because of pain in his shoulder. Earlier this month in Oslo, Norway, he was struck in the eye by a lollipop thrown from a concert crowd but wasn't injured.

An estimated 40,000 fans will see and hear more than 150 artists on Roskilde's six stages, including the Pixies, Morrissey, the Basement Jaxx, the Hives and Avril Lavigne.

First held in 1971, the festival in Roskilde, 25 miles west of the capital, Copenhagen, was inspired by the 1969 Woodstock Festival in upstate New York. The event, which in recent years has appeared on MTV, attracts visitors from throughout Europe and the United States.

Memorial fountain for Diana opens

After many delays, the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain flowed for the first time Tuesday, a week ahead of its official opening by Queen Elizabeth II.

Designers and builders of the $6.4 million fountain, shaped like a water-filled sloping stone ring, watched as the fountain was filled. Visitors to the fountain in Hyde Park will be able to splash in the water or picnic inside or around the oval.

"The princess was a contemporary woman. I wanted very much for it to be a place you walked into. A total environment -- not an object you walked around," said Kathryn Gustafson, the American designer whose plan for the fountain beat 57 others.

"She was so inclusive that we wanted it to be something you felt you were part of."

The fountain will open formally at a July 6 ceremony where expected guests include the late princess' sons, William and Harry; her ex-husband, Prince Charles; and members of her family including her brother, Earl Spencer.

It will be the Spencer family's first public appearance with the royal family since Diana's 1997 funeral, where Earl Spencer criticized the royals for their treatment of his sister.

Construction of the fountain, which consists of 545 blocks of Cornish granite, was delayed by bureaucratic wrangling and arguments within the Memorial Fountain Committee headed by Diana's friend, Rosa Monckton.

The Royal Parks and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport provided extra funds when the installation ran $1 million over budget.

Dali exhibit canceled amid counterfeit claims

An exhibition of Salvador Dali's art was canceled as police stepped in to confiscate the works, several of which they suspected to be counterfeit.

Collectors who had bought Dali's print works at the exhibition had suspected them to be fake and notified the police, which prompted an investigation, police said Tuesday.

"We also got many phone calls from a number of art connoisseurs who had been to the exhibition," said Jyrki Seppala at the Helsinki Police.

The Helsinki exhibition, which commemorated what would have been the Spanish artist's 100th birthday, was set up by Helsinki-based Artco Scandinavia. It began in late May and was due to end Wednesday. It featured Dali's works from several periods, including sculptures and etchings.

Attempts to reach the company, which had an unlisted phone number, by The Associated Press were not successful.

A preliminary evaluation to estimate the number of counterfeits at the exhibition done in collaboration with art experts will be completed in about a week, he said.

All of the roughly 400 works displayed at the exhibition are under investigation.

"There is a whole range of works which are suspicious. For some of them, we might need expert help from outside the country. Others are obvious to us with just a magnifying glass," Seppala said, without elaborating on investigators' techniques.

Possible future charges related to the sales and the exhibition would concern fraud, counterfeiting, and copyright violations, he said.