Jazz Orchestra to present concert for young and old
By Robert Richardson
Staff Reporter
The Nebraska Jazz Orchestra will
present its fourth and final concert of
the 1988-89 season tonight at the
Hilton Hotel at 7:30 p.m.
The 17-member jazz orchestra
will play the music of Duke Ellington
in a show called “Rockin’ in
Rhythm.”
“It is an appropriate time for this
music, said Ed Love, music director
for the Nebraska Jazz Orchestra. ‘‘If
the Duke were still alive he would
have been 90 last Saturday.”
This young group of musicians are
all professional musicians from the
Lincoln and Omaha area. Many of the
members are teachers of music or
have different professions outside of
music,
“All of us have other jobs that
keep us busy,” Love said.
The orchestra has been in exis
tence for two years and most are
alumni of UNL, Love said.
According to Love, the selection
process the orchestra uses is unique
and everyone gets a chance.
“We have a master list of people
we call that play well. There are a
whole bunch of good musicians in the
Lincoln/Omaha area,” Love said.
Along with the magic of Elling
ton, the concert will include guest
solo pianist Russ Gibson.
Gibson has been in Lincoln since
1932. He attended Doane college for
two years with a major in music but
Film focuses on social issues through art
By Bryan Peterson
Stiff Reporter
Helen Klodawsky’s 30-minute
documentary “Painted Land
scapes cf the Times” explores the
disturbing art of Sue Coe by em
phasizing both the artist and her
works.
The film will be shown Thurs
day at 7:30 p.m. in the Nebraska
Union with “Chile: Hasta
Cuandoa film about Pinochet’s
Chile. Both films are free.
“Painted Landscapes of the
Times” focuses on the paintings
and sketches of Coe, with clips of
Coc working and talking mixed in
between. It reveals how Coe’s
woik is a response to her view of
the world around her. The world
she sees, though, is different from
the world seen by most people.
Coe’s works arc centered
around social issues and carry
haunting visions of urban decay,
hopelessness and violence.
“When this world is free of
racist, sexist garbage, then you
will be free of my art,” she says in
the film. The drawings are dark;
reflecting ignorance and the night
~ the night, when wolves and men
alike come out in pursuit of gratifi
cation of one sort or another.
In Coe’s works, the men are
wolves, preying on women, the
poor and the innocent. The figures
are twisted and ghoulish, and none
of them are happy.
Some of the men are bloated
living corpses, sucking life from
the less powerful. Some of the men
are haggard victims drifting aim
lessly. None of Coe’s women are
strong or evil; all arc vaunt vic
tims, seemingly incapable of resis
tance.
Coe’s view of male domination
and power is best captured in a
work portraying the vang rape of a
woman in a Boston bar as twenty
patrons look on. The woman’s
anguish leaps out of the painting
but is overshadowed by the cab
lousness of ail those in the bar.
‘ ‘The world is violent My work
is nothing but a pale shadow”
compared to everyday interaction,
she claims. The film’s segments of
Coe riding in the New York City
subway or watching the news bear
her words out
The indifference of isolated
passengers lost in layers of graffiti
as Coe sketches them is telling.
Coe seeks "the entire truth, the
feeling of being shot, which you
can’t do in a photograph.’’
One must wonder why Coe
does not simply choose to move ,
elsewhere to escape the squaJqr
and decay of New York City. But
that would be to miss tbe entire
point ~ the squalor and decay are
the source of Coe’s art
As a documentary, "Painted
Landscapes of the Times’’ is not
outstanding. The camera has a
tendency to wander, as does some
of the narration.
As a depiction of the work of
Sue Coe, the film comes alive. But
a film composed solely of Coe’s
works, without narration,
wouldn’t have had nearly as much
power. ,
Coe has said: ‘ ‘The showing of
what isreal is hope in itself,even if
the message is despair."
Film depicts Chile during dictatorship
By Bryan Peterson
Staff Reporter
LASCO will be showing the
hour-long “Chile: Hasta
Cuando,” which translates as
‘ ‘ When will it end?’' The question
must be asked again and again
while watching the film.
The footage was shot in 1985,
twelve years after the military
coup in which General Augusto
Pinochet overthrew President Sal
vador Allende, tire first elected
socialist in South America.
Australian David Bradbury was
allowed to film the 1986 Academy
Award-nominated film under the
guise of filming a music festival.
While supposedly doing so,
Bradbury and his crew managed to
assemble a great deal of footage
depicting life under the dictator
Pinochet
The film opens with a birthday
party for Pinochet, who is sur
rounded by gleaming soldiers. The
soldiers seem to be everywhere in
Chile, and they are everywhere in
the film.
Bradbury presents a number of
ironies and paradoxes throughout
the film. His three-month stay was
marked by several fortuitous coin
cidences, such as an earthquake
which allowed Bradbury to remain
longer.
Another such coincidence was
a brief interview with John Denver
in Chile, who praised the govern
ment and denied reports of torture.
Denver’s beliefs are quickly
dispelled by scenes of protestors
being beaten senseless. Groins and
glasses are equal targets for the
shiny combat boots and trun
cheons.
Scenes of demonstrators being
beaten are nothing new to the tele
vision screen, but Bradbury’s foot
age of such events is still compel
ling.
Even more interesting is his
presentation of the funerals of vic
tims of government torture. Every
such event is turned into a political
rally, and the participants bask in
the glory of martyrdom.
Pinochet himself is comical,
strutting about in a full-length cape
while the streets are full of tear gas
and bullets.
“People can relax. There is no
problem,” he says.
The general is portrayed as a
self-styled glorious warrior
against communism (“It is a war
we fight everyday’ ’). The irony of
the crowds who echo his senti
ments does not escape Bradbury.
Bradbury explains how the
church is strongly split between
those who support the government
and those whodo not. In one scene,
Catholics demonstrate against a
dissenting cardinal, yelling “Kill
the dogs, long live free Chile.”
There are other ironies: a tor
tured Christ on a crucifix watches
from the wall as soldiers ransack a
woman’s house looking for her
son, who was seen at an opposition
meeting.
Such scenes contribute to the
film’s excellence. The film’s big
gest flaw is that while trying to
portray the terror of living under a
dictatorship, it offers little criti
cism of the opposition.
Still, Bradbury has created a
visual record of terror and oppres
sion, a record which should not be
easily dismissed.
The Matt ‘Guitar 9 Murphy Band plays at Zoo Bar
By Matt Burton
Staff Reporter
The blues came roaring through
Lincoln via Matt “Guitar” Murphy
Monday night at the Zoo Bar.
Murphy, the guitarist for the Blues
Brothers Band, has been playing gui
tar since he was eight
At the time, Murphy said he had
no intention of being a guitar player,
however, factors such as a growing
curiosity in the instrument and the
fact that “it was not very expensive”
resulted in his pursuing the guitar
more fervently.
Murphy is touring the United
States with the dynamic Matt “Gui
tar” Murphy Band, riproaring
through various blues staples wher
ever it goes.
Murphy and his band played songs
such as “Kansas City” featuring
wild keyboard by Keith Davis and
Murphy’s Fingers moved all over the
frets in the style of a man named
“Guitar.”
The gig included many blues jams
showcasing the band’s skills.
Murphy let his crew take over for
fantastic jazzy solos by Bob Laramie
on bass and Alex Brooks on drums,
which effectively worked the audi
ence into a frenzy.
Muiphy sang a few songs at the
beginning of each set and brought out
Lurry Thurston to sing such favorites
as “Soul Man,” complete with
Murphy shouting “Play it Steve,”
and “Til* the Midnight Hour,” in
cluding a hot, squealing saxophone
by Jay Fort who adequately played
solo where normally entire sections
are used.
The members then eased into
“Knock on Wood” and James
Brown’s “I Feel Good” maintaining
maximum tightness.
Except for occasional glances to
the audience to check for approval.
Murphy remained totally focused on
his guitar.
Murphy displayed confidence in
the future of the blues.
The blues is doing well,
Murphy said. “(The blues) is dis
guised in other things.”
Such styles as rap music are “just
part of the blues,” Murphy said.
The Blues Brothers Band will be
getting back together this summer for
a tour of Europe, possibly featuring
Eddie Floyd and Thurston on vocals,
he said.
SUMMER REfflXNG COURSE
PROGRAM
— REMEMBER —
Registration ends May 12,1989 at 5 p.m.
Simply walk in to:
Division of Continuing Studies
Registration Office - Room 271
Nebraska Center for Continuing Education
33rd and Holdrege
For more information contact the Department of
Evening Programs and Lifelong Learning Services at
472-1392.
" UNL is a nondiscriminatory institution
f s
said he dropped out because of the
hard times the depression brought on.
“I didn’t have enough money to
continue going to school,” Gibson
said.
Gibson said professional musi
cians have a hard time making it in
Nebraska.
“In this area, unless you are teach
ing, you don’t have a chance as a
professional musician. You can’t
sustain yourself on music alone,”
Gibson said.
But music is what this group is all
about.
“We like to play music by Ne
braska composers,” Love said.
Randy Snyder, UNL professor of
thcory/composition, has helped ar
range some of the music for the show
tonight.
The Jazz Orchestra’s set tonight
certainly will not be an alternative
music style.
“There is a segment of the popula
tion that is crazy about the old tunes
of the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s,” Love
said.
Just because the music is of an
older nature does not make it easier to
play, Gibson said.
He complimented the orchestra,
calling it <fa great group of young
people.”
,fIf they weren’t they wouldn’t be
able to play the kind of music they
do,” he said.
As for the crowd they hope to
attract tonight, Gibson said, “Both
young and old will like it. It is not
only well written but well played.”
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