‘Beautiful Sun’ will shine on the Lane Countv Fairgrounds
BeauSoleil, a Louisiana
French cajun band, will
perform on March 15
By Carl Yeh
Freelance Editor
The beautiful sun came out for
students this past week, and it will
come again — Louisiana French
style.
BeauSoleil, the Grammy-win
ning cajun band whose name
means “beautiful sun,” will per
form at the Wheeler Pavilion at the
Lane County Fairgrounds on Sun
day, March 15 at 7:30 p.m.
“If you’re going to present cajun
music, you couldn’t do it without
BeauSoleil,” said Jim Ralph, presi
dent of the Oregon Festival of
American Music, a local organiza
tion that presents American music
concerts during the year.
Cajun music is the music tradi
tionally played by the Louisiana
French people, Ralph said. The in
struments of a traditional cajun
band are a diatonic accordion, a
fiddle, a guitar and a triangle
(known as a petit fer, or “small
iron”).
But BeauSoleil is not your regu
lar cajun band, Ralph said. Beau
Soleil has also incorporated ele
ments of zydeco and New Orleans
jazz into their songs, Ralph said.
The primary person behind the
COURTESY PHOTO
Al Tharp, David Doucet, Tommy Alessi, Jimmy Breaux, Billy Ware and Michael Doucet are BeanSoleil.
combination of styles is the band’s
lead member, Michael Doucet.
Bom in Louisiana, Doucet’s musi
cal past is rooted in cajun music,
but he cares a lot about zydeco,
Ralph said.
“On top of being comfortable
with all of these styles, he writes a
lot of pieces which are cajun, but
they are heavily influenced by zy
deco and jazz,” Ralph said. "All
those influences come in, and you
get a much more eclectic sound.”
Ralph describes zydeco music as
“more sassy” while introducing a
rhythm and blues sound to cajun
music. Meanwhile, New Orleans
jazz is a combination of marching
band sounds, some ragtime and
some Latin American elements,
Ralph said.
Although cajun music is now in
temationally popular, it was not al
ways that way, Ralph said. "(Cajun
music] was considered to be low
class music when Doucet got start
ed in it [in the 1960’s],” he said.
“Lots of Cajuns wanted to distance
themselves from it.”
Doucet himself spent years
tracking down the artists who
wrote and sang on the first Cajun
records, listening to their old mu
sic and immersing himself in what
was then a little-known history.
Part of the Oregon Festival of
American Music’s goal is to expose
people to new or different kinds of
music, Ralph said. "[We] introduce
people who may be more comfort
able with classical music or jazz to
explore some new stuff,” he said.
Ralph also said he believes his
work has paid off. “People who
were just straight symphony buffs
were saying, ‘Thank you, thank
you’ for introducing us to [cajun
music],” he said.
People also dance to cajun and
zydeco music — in fact, it is al
most required, Ralph said. Where
as jazz is essentially “listen mu
sic,” cajun and zydeco is “dance
music,” he said.
“There are a lot of people on the
West Coast who are into zydeco
and cajun music,” Ralph said. “Lo
cally, we have some really good ca
jun and zydeco dance instructors,
including Deb Seeck.”
Seeck will be coming from
Salem to instruct people in a ca
jun/zydeco dance lesson. The les
son will be offered to all ticket
holders at 6:30 p.m. at the Wheeler
Pavilion.
Tickets are $16.50 in advance
and $17.50 at the door. For more
information, call the Oregon Festi
val of Music at 687-6526.
An ‘Incident’ to occur at the EMU Ballroom on St. Patrick’s Dav
By Cart Yah
Freelance Editor
Star Trek has its prime directive — and so
does The String Cheese Incident, a Colorado
band which will be performing at the EMU
Ballroom on Tuesday, March 17. The musi
cal group lists the following prime directive
in their press release: “To make people laugh
and experience unearthly joy while shoving
a sacrilegious mix of bluegrass, Calypso, Sal
sa, Afro Pop, Funk, Rock and Jazz down their
tender throats.”
The group, whose concerts are known as
“incidents” (referring to the spontaneity of
the event), formed at the “precise moment
all the planets in the solar system aligned,”
said Sara Kelly Jones, the band’s publicist.
This cosmic event was “just indicative of
the fact that some things that happen are
meant to happen,” Jones said. “This group of
people coming from backgrounds as diverse
as they are — all the pieces fit into place. ”
As indicated by the group’s prime direc
tive, the band mixes many different types of
music. “The music is unique because the pri
mary foundation of the music is bluegrass,”
Jones said.
Jonathan Zwickel, national music coordi
nator for the UO Cultural Forum which is
hosting the group, said, “Their song struc
tures are pretty novel. They are definitely
rooted in bluegrass, but they toss in a little
funk and jazz.”
Jones said diversity also exists with each
member of the band “if you look at every
body’s backgrounds.” She gave as examples
group member Michael Travis, who special
izes in Latin percussion, and Michael Kang,
who plays the mandolin and violin.
“Kang was trained classically,” Jones said.
“What you hear that sounds like an electric
guitar is actually Kang’s electric mandolin,”
she said.
Jones said she thinks this mixture of di
verse talent is what makes this band unique:
“It’s really hard to get guys who come from
so many backgrounds and mix their talents
into something completely different," she
said. "So many bands are built around the
guitar player and the whole band follows
suit. This is a purely collaborative effort
from five guys with totally different back
grounds."
Zwickel added that he thought The String
Cheese Incident “is the kind of band that has
an appeal in Eugene.” The band has not been
in Eugene in a while, but “the last time they
were here was at the Country Fair, and they
had huge turnout,” he said.
Jones said dancing often takes place at the
group’s concerts, where the band passes hula
hoops to the crowd. “It’s definitely a dancing
event,” she said.
“You’re not going to walk away from
the show without a goofy grin on your
face.”
The String Cheese Incident will perform in
the EMU Ballroom on Tuesday, March 17 at
7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 for students and
$12 for the general public. Tickets can be
purchased at the EMU Ticket Office. For
more information, call 346-4363.
-poppi*/^
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