By Barb Churchill
Staff Reporter
One can never get enough jazz or blues in
Lincoln.
At least, that is what Ed Love, director of the
Nebraska Jazz Orchestra, which organized this
year’s Prairie Jazz and Blues Festival, believes.
People familiar with the Prairie Jazz and Blues
Festival will notice a couple changes this year,
Love said.
“Blues" has been added to the title for the first
time, he said.
“Lincoln is a well-known blues town, and has
many blues acts,” Love said. “We want to tap into
that market.”
In addition, the NJO relocated the Prairie Jazz
and Blues Festival to the Hillcrest Country Club
We were trying to offer a
wide variety of music for
people to listen to.”
- Ed Love, NJO director
because the city-owned Pinewood Bowl just was
n’t working as a location, he said.
“It’s an experiment to see if a wider variety of
people will come out,” Love said. “(At Hillcrest),
there is a wider variety of food and beverages to
choose from, including Budweiser.”
Having beer available at a concert isn’t an
automatic ticket to success, but it does seem to
help bring in a larger audience, Love said.
KZUM assistant manager and free-lance jazz
writer Tom Ineck said he believes having many
different jazz and blues events in town really helps
promote the music.
“Larry Boehmer (owner of the Zoo Bar) has
educated people about the blues, and Jazz in June
has educated people about jazz. This helps keep
the music alive,” Ineck said.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln jazz instructor
Dave Sharp, who also arranges and occasionally
directs the NJO, was singled out for praise by
Ineck, who called Sharp “an excellent teacher of
jazz.”
“(Sharp helps) promote jazz at UNL (because
he brings) jazz to a younger audience. It would be
a pity if no one was (doing that),” Ineck said.
Boehmer said he thinks jazz in Lincoln is
somewhat interdependent.
“Jazz in June has certainly grown, and that’s a
plus for (every jazz event) in Lincoln. Anytime
you have 1,500-2,000 for a jazz event, that
expands the market,” Boehmer said.
Acts performing at the Prairie Jazz and Blues
Festival include vocalist Annette Murrell, the
blues-based big band the Fabtones, the Ed Love
Quartet and the NJO.
“We were trying to offer a
wide variety of music for peo
ple to listen to,” Love said.
And variety they shall have,
as Murrell is highly-regarded for both her blues
and jazz singing, the Fabtones are known for
their 60’s oriented rhythm-and-blues based
sound, the Ed Love quartet will play straight
ahead improvisational jazz, and the NJO will
play blues-based arrangements in the style of the
Buddy Rich big band, Love said.
One fim song the NJO is planning to perform is
Bob Florence’s “Big Band Treasure Chest.” This
tune has many short themes interwoven from such
standards as the Count Basie Band’s “One O’clock
Jump” and the famed Doc Severinson-penned
“Here’s Johnny! (The Tonight Show Theme)”, as
well as many short blues solos, Love said.
The Prairie Jazz and Blues Festival will be held
on Sunday, June 14 from 4 p.m. until 9 p.m. at the
Hillcrest Country Club, located at 8901 O Street.
Ticket prices are $10 for adults, seniors $9, stu
dents $5, family (maximum of two adults plus any
amount of children) $22, and children under five
free.
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