Arts@Entertainment
_ .Daily -
Nebraskan
WcdnMday, February 2,1994
National and local artists
to gather for jazz festival
By Paula Lavigne
Senior Reporter
The sounds ofjazz will echo through
Lincoln at the third annual Nebraska
Jazz Festival Feb. 3-5.
With talented drummer T.S. Monk
and the Gary Burton Quartet as head
lining acts, the festival combines uni
versity faculty members, students and
local musicians for three days.
Festival director and saxophonist
David Sharp said the event tried to
bring out jazz musicians from around
the state with a variety of performanc
es and clinics.
“There are a lot of fine jazz musi
cians in Nebraska,” he said. “The
festival always tries to use those play
ers.”
Sharp said for Lincoln’s popula
tion, jazz was stronger here than in
larger cities.
“Jazz is never going to die. There
will always be jazz,” he said. “We’ve
had a resurgence in the past couple of
years.”
The thirtysomething crowd has
turned to jazz instead of pop or coun
try, Sharp said.
And this trend has hit Lincoln, he
said.
“Lincoln is a fairly cultural city.
Jazz is fairly popular, and I see it
thriving.”
The festival’s format is unlike those
of other cities and also serves as a
recruiting tool for the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln School of Music.
“We have a high school band com
petition,” he said. “We limit it to 10
bands instead of having several. We
want them to get close and work with
clinicians.”
The UNL Faculty Jazz Quartet and
the UNL Jazz Ensemble will kick off
the festivities Thursday at 8 p.m. at
Kimball Hall. The ensemble will per
form with guest saxophonist Kerry
Strayer and guest trombonist, bassist
and vocalist Earlie Braggs.
Tickets are $5 — $3 for students
and seniors. t
The UNL Faculty Jazz Quartet is
composed of Sharp, guitarist Peter
BoufTard, percussionist Albert Rometo
and double bassist Russell White. All
are instructors at the school of music.
-44
Jazz is never going to
die. There will always
be jazz
— Sharp
festival director and
saxophonist
--
Bouffard said the festival would
provide exposure to jazz music by
allowing it to be legitimized.
“1 think it’s a good thing in general
that we’re making jazz accessible to
students,” he said. “It’s truly an Amer
ican art form, but in some people’s
view, it’s still just a popular trend.”
The quartet will perform a variety
of jazz standards and more modem
variations, he said.
The Nebraska Jazz Orchestra will
perform Friday at 8 p.m. in Kimball
Hall with two guests, saxophonist and
Omaha native Steve Slagle and gui
tarist Dave Stryker.
The orchestra, founded 18 years
ago, started as more of a recreational
band, but eventually turned profes
sional.
Ed Love, saxophonist and director
of NJO, said most of the musicians
had another occupation to “put bread
on the table.”
“We have a few lawyers, teachers,
accountants,” he said. “They all have
a love for big-band jazz music.”
The NJO performs everything from
classic Duke Ellington to contempo
rary sounds with Latin or rock influ
ences, Love said. They also play music
written by band members and other
Nebraska musicians.
The orchestra has recorded three
cassettes and a compact disc.
“We’re not really popular yet, but
we’re working on it,” Love said.
Tickets to the NJO performance
are $ 10—$5 for students and seniors.
The festival will conclude with a
performance in the Lied Center for
Performing Arts by nationally known
jazz artists T.S. Monk and Gary Bur
ton. Tickets are $22 and $ 16 — $11
and $8 for students and seniors.
L
Courtesy of Adrian Buckmasler
A Saturday night performance by Jazz percussionist T.S. Monk will close the Nebraska Jazz
Festival.
311 feels cool California vibes
Locally bred band
continues work
on second album
By Tom Mainelli
Staff Reporter
What happens when a Nebras
ka-bred band living in California
experiences an earthquake that
measures 6.6 on the Richter scale?
They freak out.
“It was a wild thing,” said Nick
Hexum, lead singer for 311. “I was
just lying there in bed, and all of a
sudden the house was shaking and
the lights were flashing on and off.
It was like a scene out of some
horror movie.”
Hexum said 311, which moved
to Van Nuys, Calif., about two years
ago, escaped the quake with no
injuries and little property damage.
“We were all pretty shaken up,”
he said. “But when it was all over,
our health — and equipment —
was fine.”
The band needs that equipment
to continue work on their follow-up
to last year’s major-label debut al
bum “Music.”
“We’re doing it in two halves,"
Hexum said. “We’ve already com
pleted six of the songs. Now we are
working on the second six.”
The band is recording at Sound
City in Los Angeles, where Nirva
na created “Nevermind,” he said.
The band has enjoyed working at
the studio.
“The place has a really cod vibe,”
Hexum said.
Music veteran Eddy OfTord has
stepped behind the controls again
to produce the album, which Hexum
said he hoped would be in stores by
May.
Fans, however, might have to
wait longer than that to get a hold of
the new disc.
“We expected the last album to
come out a lot sooner than it did,”
he said. “That stuff always gets
screwed up.”
But Hexum is confident the al
bum will be worth the wait.
“We’re working to put together
a good, solid album,” he said. “It is
going to take our music to a whole
new level.”
While the band’s music is evolv
ing, Hexum said fans could expect
to find all the same basic ingredi
ents.
“Its all in there,” he said, “Some
rap, some reggae, some funk—it’s
our musical niche, just a step up."
Band members are hoping to
build on the success of “Music,”
which sold about 50,000 copies,
Hexum said.
They would, however, prefer to
have that success on their terms.
“We want to do it through the
underground,” Hexum said. “We
want to build it slow and not end up
a flavor of the month.”
Hexum said bands like Stone
Temple Pilots, whose first album
exploded on the charts, had a hard
time making it last.
— u
Its all In there.
Some rap, some
reggae, some funk
—Its our musical
niche, Just a step
up.
—Hexum
lead singer for 311
-w -
The guys in 311 plan on sticking
around, he said.
“We plan on making a new al
bum every year, then touring,”
Hexum said.
Taking the music to the people
helps to build a good, strong fan
base, he said. Last year, the band
played 1 IS shows and loved it, he
said.
Hexum said it was especially
gratifying to visit a big city like
New York City and find loyal 311
fans.
“Its pretty cool when these peo
Ele are singing along to your words,”
e said.
But nothing beats comine home
to Nebraska, he said. Omaha and
Lincoln will be some of the first
stops after the band completes the
album and starts a new tour.
“I really love* getting back to
Nebraska,’* Hexum said. “We’ve
got lots of friends and good fans
there."
rum depicts dazed generation
“Dazed and
Confused”
“Dazed and Confused” brings to
life the ambiguous rebellion of the
’70s generation in a vague and enter
taining fashion.
“The ’50s were boring. The ’60s
rocked. And the ’70s just suck” was
how one girl described the era in
which she was living.
Written and directed bv Richard
Linklater, “Dazed and Confused” tells
the story of the students in one high
school during the generation that “just
sucked.”
On the last day of school in 1976,
the seniors are graduating and the
juniors are assuming the mantle of
power. This involves initiating the
new freshmen.
The new senior guys chase down
the freshmen boys and whip them
with paddleboards they have made in
shop. The senior girls subject the fresh
men females to humiliation.
The introspective seniors who
aren’t involved analyze the hazing
and wonder why it is a generally ac
cepted policy.
Meanwhile, the star quarterback,
“Pink” Floyd (Jason London), is con
fronted by the coaches, who demand
that he sign a form promising not to
drink or use drugs over the summer.
He debates throughout the film whether
to conform to the system.
The show climaxes with a huge
party at Moon Tower, a secluded area
in the woods outside of town.
The film is only one day in the life
of these students, but the audience
gets a good sense of the bewilderment
in their lives — having all the rebel
lion of the previous generation but no
direction in which to point it.
With so many colorfiil characters,
it would be difficult to make an indi
vidual stand out. But several of them
do. London is excellent as the jock
who is caught between his desire to
please his football buddies and his
personal ambitions.
Rory Cochrane plays “Slater,” one
of Pink’s friends who goes through
life stoned. He is convincing in his
portrayal of a pothead — not an easy
task to do sober.
Wiley Wiggins as the freshman
“Mitch" is at first subjected to a beat
ing and later accepted by the seniors.
He tries to adjust to the fast-paced,
illegal lifestyle of the older crowd in
one night.
The cinematography is done well,
with interesting angles, timely slow
motion and confusing close-ups.
It’s a story about being stoned,
drunk and dazed, but it’s also a story
about finding a direction in life. *
“Dazed and Confused” won’t win
any awards, but it is an excellent film
that helps outsiders understand the
’70s generation and insiders relive it.
— Joel Strauch