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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 2, 1985)
Taj Mahal, legendary blues, jazz, folk and rock artist, brings his Southern, West African and Caribbean musical styles and renowned showmanship to Eugene Friday at 8 p.m. in the WOW Hall. Mahal has expanded his role of a musician to that of a musicologist, sharing panels and leading discussions about the history of blues or explaining how African elements were transform ed in the Western Hemisphere. He conducts workshops worldwide and often recalls the curiosity of the saxophone players in Kenya and the Maori musicians of New Zealand who came to his workshops with guitars and asked questions about blues and jazz. Recalling his own background, Mahal says his father was a com poser/arranger who had an archival record collection of jazz, blues and big band classics. He admits to removing a significant amount of vinyl from his father’s collection. Mahal’s mother was a gospel singer who tried to get her son interested in classical piano. Unable to resist the boogie-woogie desire in fingers that were supposed to be playing Photo courtmy of Folklore Production* Inc. .• Beethoven, the lessons did not: last long. He admits his mother was similarly dissatisfied when he latched onto a guitar and began bending notes. “She was a sophisticated lady," he says, “and she wasn’t too interested in me howling the blues. So 1 had to go underground.” Mahal began to record for CBS and quickly became the only young black musician who focused on his area Of the blues. He played both guitar and banjo, adding more and more in struments to those he used in perfor mance, including kalimba, conch shell and flute. As he expanded his area of musical interest, not only did he add instruments to his sound, he worked on developing a style that could touch a variety of African-derived musics. Tickets for the concert are $8 in ad vance and $9 the day of the show and are available at the EMU Main Desk. All ages are welcome and adult refreshments are available with iden tification. WOW Hall is located at 291 W. 8th Ave. in Eugene: By Michael Duncan Students hold class in a greenhouse Turning green thumbs into greenbacks By Lori Steinhauer Of the Emerald With more than 100 plant varieties flourishing on the top floor of Lawrence Hall, the greenhouse there may resemble a South American jungle at various times during the year. But Lora Schiltgen, a land scape architecture graduate teaching fellow who manages the greenhouse, has rooted a system to weed out the plant overtaken room. By pruning the plants, repotting the clippings and selling them at lower-than competitive prices, Schiltgen and other landscape architec ture students can maintain a self-supporting training ground to identify and grow plants from around the world. Voluptuous greens from 50 cents to $5 sidetracked many students on their way to and from classes past the greenhouse plant sale by Lawrence Hall Wednesday. The sale was the first to be held out doors in a year and a half of greenhouse sales, which previously have been in the lob by outside of Room 177 Lawrence Hall. The plant sales have brought anywhere from $125 to $475 for replenishing supplies, seeds and plants, and for making ma jor improvements on the greenhouse and the landscape architecture department’s urban farm, behind Oregon West Fitness on Franklin Boulevard. The sales have allowed the greenhouse to maintain finan cial independence from the landscape architecture depart ment and is used mainly for landscape architecture students, Schiltgen says. The urban farm provides hands-on gardening experience for both non-majors and majors of land scape architecture. Schiltgen encourages students to visit the greenhouse, whether they want to learn more about plants, buy plants or volunteer help. She says art students often wander in for a vitalizing change from the halls of Lawrence, which she says can be “dreary at times.” The greenhouse was designed and built by Professor Emeritus Mac Ruff, who has brought back seeds from as far away as New Coffee Bean of the Month Mexican $£65 Good through month of May KINKO’S 860 E. 13th • 344-7894 Pace 8 Lnks lo bv Lora Schiltgen, manager of the greenhouse atop Lawrence Hall, tempts ferry DieOwlm atTplant sale Wednesday with some of the greens that she and fellow landscape students cultivated. Guinea. Many of the starters Ruff contributed now enhance the University’s landscape. “A lot of what you see on campus is due to Mac Ruff,” Schiltgen says. Enthusiasm for the greenhouse faltered when Ruff retired. But he and Schiltgen re juvenated the room when Ruff returned to the University to teach a class two years ago. * * ★ Cantonese Cuisine The fantastic taste is truly unique. ★ Szechuan Cuisine Hot or mild served just how you like it. JADE PALACE Nice Atmosphere Serving Fine Wine and Beer 906 W. 7th Ave., 344-9523 '/% block past Sunny Station Schiltgen says another plant sale will be held this spring, probably late May. Sales are held “whenever the greenhouse seems to lie bursting at the seams," she says. PROVO'S ALL YOU CAN EAT SPAGHETTI FEED • *2.95 includes french bread, soup or salad served 7 days a week. 4pm to closing 854 E. 13th • (Next to Kinko's) 342-2241 W_ n