U O C U LT U R A L F O R U M P R E S E N T S
BY BRETT CAMPBELL
Azuquita
A
all night latin dance party!
Live performances with guitarist Jessie Marquez, The Eugene Flamenco
Ensemble, and Jose Cruz & the Salseros Dance Co. Late night with Hanif.
Sat., Nov. 8th • 8:30pm • vet's club ballroom
1626 W ILLAMETTE • ALL AGES • FULL BAR
$10-12 SS • $7 UO S TUDENTS
FOR
21+
AMATEUR
WET & WILD
WET
T-SHIRT
CONTEST
Door Prizes,
$200 1st
$100 2nd
$50 3rd
$25 4th
Hourly Hot Body
Giveaways,
DVDs, Shirts,
&
OIL
WRESTLING
Hats & Hot Body
THURSDAY
Merchandise
NOVEMBER 13TH
2165 W. 11TH AVENUE
❤ EUGENE ❤ 683-6021
Monday - Friday 12-2 Saturday & Sunday 2-2 www.hot body.com
28 NOVEMBER 6, 2003
Fine folk and world music spectacular.
BENEFIT FOR THE
Willamette Valley
Folk Festival
CASH PRIZES
Songwriting Legend
& Fiddle Fireball
W
hen the great folk songwriters
point to their idols, many of them
are likely to be from Texas:
Willie Nelson, Doug Sahm and Kris
Kristofferson to Lyle Lovett, Nanci Griffith,
James McMurtry, Steve Earle and more.
Texans have a knack for writing songs that
tell great stories. I lived there for many years
and heard most of those songwriters perform
live, and when you’d ask them who they idol-
ized, two lesser-known Texas names always
popped up: the late, great Townes Van Zandt
— and his friend Guy Clark, who comes to
the Shedd on Saturday, Nov. 15.
Clark came to national attention in the
1970s after his buddy Jerry Jeff Walker first
covered his “Desperadoes Waiting for a
Train” and “L.A. Freeway.” Clark has lived
in Nashville for years now, and is so es-
teemed among the musicians there it’s no sur-
prise to see names like Tim O’Brien and
Gillian Welch on his new album.
A consummate craftsman of songwriting,
Clark can spin a tale about subjects as mun-
dane as mud, Indian-head pennies, or home-
grown tomatoes, or as consequential as
homelessness and true love. With precise im-
agery, word economy, memorable tunes and a
warm, low-key delivery, Clark’s songs repre-
sent the best of the American folk songwrit-
ing tradition.
The Shedd also hosts the great Cape
Breton fiddle master Natalie MacMaster
on Wednesday, Nov. 12. Drawing on some of
the oldest surviving Scots music in the old
tradition of her remote Canadian home,
MacMaster brings in more contemporary and
diverse influences. Anyone who saw the
charismatic fiddler’s previous visit here a
couple years ago will also remember her
electrifying, foot-stomping playing style.
But the audience-friendly antics shouldn’t
overshadow her undeniable skill: as with
Clark, you can tell how good the 30-year-old
virtuoso is by seeing who she’s played with:
Her new bluegrass-oriented album boasts fel-
low fiddler Darol Anger, boss bassist Edgar
Meyer, bodacious banjoist Bela Fleck and
mandolin master Sam Bush, and she’s per-
formed with everyone from Pavarotti to Paul
Simon, Alison Kraus to Carlos Santana. This
show will be a lot of fun.
Another great world music tradition
comes from the Roma people, and on
Monday, Nov. 10, one of the world’s finest
Gypsy music groups, the Yuri Yunakov
Ensemble, plays music from Bulgaria,
Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey at the Hult
Center’s Soreng Theatre.
Musicologists marvel at their easy han-
dling of fiendishly complex rhythms,
jazzers go slack jawed at their impressive
improvisatory skills and often blistering
tempos, and everyone responds to the
haunting melodies of this “wedding
music,” so called because it’s used in various
traditional ceremonies in the Balkans. But
this superb group also amalgamates jazz and
rock influences into a danceable, irresistible
brew. Should be one of the best world music
shows of the year.
Natalie MacMaster plays The Shedd,
Wednesday, Nov. 12.
A flood of fine music hits the UO’s Beall
Hall this month, starting Thursday, Nov. 6
when UO harp professor Laura Zaerr
brings a delicious program of music for flute,
harp, and Baroque bassoon, along with con-
temporary music for Celtic harp, including
originals and traditional Irish pieces.
I’m looking forward to the finale: the
world premiere of “Golden Apples of the
Sun” by the much-esteemed retired UO pro-
fessor Hal Owen. Scored for pedal harp, so-
prano, and tenor, it is based on poetry by
Yeats and medieval Irish texts.
On Tuesday, Nov. 11, the fine UO faculty
trumpeter Steve Dunn is joined by pianist
Mary Elizabeth Parker, soprano Ann
Tedards, and the UO’s Renaissance music
group Collegium Musicum playing music
by Jolivet, California composer Halsey
Stevens and more. On Thursday, Nov. 13, the
school’s Chamber Music Series brings
the acclaimed Amelia Piano Trio to Beall.
Along with works by Beethoven and
Mendelssohn, they’ll play an attractive trio
by a great American composer now finally
getting his due at 80th birthday concerts in
New York: Ned Rorem.
For something even more avant garde,
check out Future Music Oregon on
Saturday, Nov. 15, featuring electro acoustic
music by Brandeis University composer Eric
Chasalow and the UO’s Jeff Stolet. On
Sunday, Nov. 16 the Oregon String
Quartet plays music by Beethoven, Haydn
and American composer Livingston
Gearhart. And the biggest classical name of
the season arrives at Beall on Monday,
Nov. 17, when 1981 Van Cliburn
Competition winner André-Michel Schub
gives a solo piano recital of music by
Scarlatti, Beethoven, Schumann and Grieg.
Schub has won too many awards to name,
and played with most of the world’s finest
classical ensembles and players, so piano
fans won’t want to miss this one.
ew