Monk continues
jazz tradition
Editor’s note: Thelonious Monk Jr. will notj
perform at the Lied Center this weekenc
because of illness. This article was written
prior to the cancellation.
By Paula Lavigne
Senior Reporter
a e started by playing on his
J M bed with sticks and a pil
low.
Now drummer Thelonious
Monk Jr., son of jazz great
* “ Thelonious Sphere Monk, blazes
ai n6w trail into the ’90s with a perfor
mance style all his own.
Although his father was a quiet
giant in the world of jazz. Monk said
he wasn’t pressured into his music.
“I floated in on my own,” he said.
“After a while, (my dad) knew I was
pretty psychotic about it. He knew I’d
been practicing like a dog.
“I have a pure love of music, and
it’s not because my father was
Thelonious,” he said.
Monk didn’t run to fill his father’s
footsteps upon his entry into the mu
sical world. Acid rock bands were his
first home.
“My first cover tune was
‘Wipeout,’ like any other 15-year
old in 1965,” he said.
Monk was in an acid/hard funk
cover band until he turned 20 and
went on the road with his father. The
younger Monk said the real change
came when he served as chairman for
the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz.
On several occasions, Monk was
asked to accompany famous jazz
musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie at
various fund-raisers. He didn’t play
the drums from 1982 to 1990, so he
had to start practicing.
“Once I did start practicing, I said
you know, there aren’t many cats out here who
could really play, Monk said. I can do this.
It’s like second nature to me.”
Scrutiny fell on Monk because he was enter
ing the jazz world after his father’s legacy, he
said. Monk said he never was hurt by the shadow
of his father; instead, it was a blessing.
“Everybody lives and dies trying to figure
out a way of getting someone to remember his
name,” he said. “I was bom with a name before
I could say ‘word.’”
Monk said his father was part of the dawn of
the post-bop age, which came after the be-bop
style of early artists.
"Be-bop was a transition between swing and
modem jazz. New melodies and rhythmic con
cepts were brought up on a 50-year history,” he
taid. “Along comes T.S. Monk. T.S. brought
be harmonic foundation with which to rest
hese new melodic and rhythmic concepts."
The young drummer said since then, jazz
lad been stuck in a rut.
“Now, you’ve got this whole generation of
roung cats,” he said. "The philosophy is lost.
Ve are lost.”
Monk said he was trying to find his own way
>ut by taking a different path up the jazz moun
ain.
Sarah l)i i\
Something new cures winter blues
M
r. Groundhog — such a
cruel little creature.
Because he saw his
shadow earlier this week,
Nebraskans are in for six more weeks
of icy sidewalks, blustery winds, sub
zero temperatures, and nothing green.
Yeah, I know, winter in Nebraska
is anything but pleasant. And battling
the winter hum-drums is a never-end
ing uphill climb.
My solution: try something new.
This weekend when you have a bit
extra time, expose yourself to some
thing you’ve never done before or ac
complish something you’ve put off for
years.
Go see a laser light show. Depeche
Mode and Pearl Jam are playing at
Mueller Planetarium on 14th & U
streets this weekend.
Organize a closet. Put together a
photo album. Whip up a quick batch
of Baked Alaska;
(the flame will
provide extra
warmth). Learn
to play chess.
A feeling of ac
complishment
definitely helps in
battling die winter
blahs.
Doing some
thing you’ve put
off may not trip that trigger. Hey — I
know there are only so many times
you can whip up that Baked Alaska
without setting off the fire alarm.
So, why not treat yourself.
A few of my favorites — reading a
book while warming up with a cup of
hot chocolate at a coffee house. Build
ing a fire. Seeing a good flick, (i.e.
“Schindler’s List”) Checking out
some local art galleries. Ice skating.
Calling a long, lost friend.
The one, never-fail ingredient
that’s necessary in beating the weather
is being good to yourself.
So whatever it is ... go out... make
time ... drive slowly ... dream of your
favorite beach ...
Hey — this weather is for the
groundhogs.
Duey Is a senior news-editorial major and
the Arts & Entertainment editor.
Smooth Vibes
Jazz veteran Burton to bring his mallets to Lied
By Paula Lavigne
Senior Reporter
Always in a search for something
Idifferent, musician Gary Burton
[wouldn’t be satisfied with a plain pi
’ano, drums or saxophone. His love of
music translated to a different kind of
instrument, the vibraphone.
After making records with singers
k.d. lang and Rebecca Parris, Bur
ton grew to be a pioneering force in
the technology of fusion-jazz. Along
the way, Burton has made a few
changes to the faces of jazz.
“My older sister played the piano,
so I wanted to pick something dif
ferent,” he said. “My parents took
me around to things like school con
certs.”
On/' trirv ('hanopH Rnrtrm’c mnci
his own group, he needed to determine
his right style of musical identity.
A generation gap had developed in
jazz, he said. Burton, in his 20s at the
time, noticed something was wrong.
“I wanted to connect with my own
generation,” he said. “I noticed my au
diences were middle-aged, older than
me.”
At the same time Burton was figur
ino nnt hnw hr> rnnlH mnnArt u/ith hie
cal life.
“We went to see this performance
of a local woman who played the
marimba, and to a 6-year-old, it
looked interesting.”
Burton’s initial interest in the
mallet family led him to the vibra
phone, which eventually led him to
jazz.
“The vibraphone is exclusively a
jazz instrument, and all the major
players have been jazz players,” he
said.
He said the vibraphone was a
little too soft to function in rock
bands, and it never had much of an
application in classical
music.
An obscure Dixie
jazz record
spawned
Burton’s in
terest. Living
in a small Indi
ana town, his ac
cess to jazz was
limited.
“The nearest place
that carried jazz was an
hour away,” he said.
“When we took trips to
Evansville, I’d get my par
ents to drop me off at the
record store.”
Burton soon went beyond
V buying records to making
pi some of his own. In the process,
ul Burton changed the face of jazz
U itself.
™ “Well, I had been playing in tra
ditional jazz settings in my first
years on the professional scene,”
generation, he discovered this newly
arrived rock music in the mid-1960s.
In 1967, Burton discovered a guitar
player experiencing the same desires to
mix jazz and rock, and the Gary Burton
Quartet was formed.
“We had longish hair and wore col
orful contemporary clothing,” he said.
“Jazz musicians up to that time had only
worn tuxedos.
“We were real barrier breakers,” he
said.
The term jazz-rock was coined. Bur
ton said jazz-rock became popular with
other groups down the line.
“Nowadays, it’s all crossed over and
mixed and so on,” he said. “Jazz-rock
was later termed fusion as it became
more electronic and loud-rock style.”
Burton’s repertoire is a mix of
straight-ahead jazz and contemporary
jazz. He said more had changed in jazz
over three decades than just music.
Burton’s original goal started becom
ing a reality.
“The change I’ve observed over 30
years is the makeup of the audience,”
he said. “It has become much broader
connecting to a broader range of
people.”
Urban areas were the limit of jazz
when Burton first started playing.
“The people tended to be middle
aged and predominantly black,” he said.
“There seemed to be a defined jazz fol
lowing.
“We wouldn’t think of doing a gig in
Lincoln,” he said.
Thirty years and four trips to Lincoln
later. Burton said times had changed.
“We play in Lincoln as often as we
play in New York,” he said. “There’s
Burton said. He said when he starte<
“It’s like if you talked to someone about Mt.
Everest,” he said. “The guy would say, ‘You
know, there’s a trail called K9X1. It’s the most
difficult, so nobody’s gone up it.’
“I’m going to take that trail,” he said.
Monk said his venture centered on develop
ing a new performance style, something to make
jazz as audience-friendly and presentable as
country or rock.
“You have to examine the dynamics. People
like the combination of words and music,” he
said. “You can rap, sing or you can just talk
between the music.”
“If Bruce Springsteen, who might make $2
million a night, isn’t too big to tell his people he
loves them, how did (jazz musicians) get too big
to do that?” he said.
Making the audience part of the music is
Monk’s goal. Monk, pianist Ronnie Matthews
and bassist Scott Collie blend with Don Siclder
on trumpet and Jillie Williams on tenor sax.
They have performed with several jazz greats
and even President Clinton.
“I’m here to entertain you, to make you
smile,” he said. “It’s presentation that’s going to
bring jazz into the 21st century and compete
with its rightful share of the entertainment dol
lar.”
Jazz artists have to be more than just musi
cians to start this competition, he said.
“Once one asks John Doe public to lay down
his money in an entertainment venue, you’d
better be an entertainer, not just a musician,” he
said.
Monk said he was tired of people thinking
jazz had to be associated with hazy, dimly lit
rooms the size of a cardboard box. A more
theatrical appearance is his goal.
“It’s this stereotype pumped through the
media and movies that’s the reason we have a
hard time,” he said. “We need sophisticated
music and highly positive endeavors to use the
best lighting and sound systems possible."
1 also a much wider variety of age groups.
“You have the gray hairs, the kids and
a mixture of appearances,” Burton said.
Burton said some people thought this
wasn’t fair, because they believed jazz
should remain predominantly black.
“Some people protest it’s losing its
roots,” he said. “Unfortunately with
music, it keeps revolving as it reflects
society and its times.”
Burton said jazz was moving onto the
international scene as it filtered into Ja
pan and Europe, previously unexposed
to jazz mdsic.
On his fifth trip to Lincoln, Burton
will be performing with jazz vocalist
Rebecca Parris. Parris and Burton re
cently recorded a release called “It’s
Another Day.”
Once Burton heard Parris sing, he
decided he wanted to do a record with
her.
The kickoff to Burton and Parris’
U.S. tour will begin at the Lied Center
for Performing Arts this Saturday at 8
p.m. Student tickets are $8.
