University Daily Kansan / Thursday, December 3, 1987
Arts/Entertainment
7
Local couple encourages aspiring blues musicians
Lonnie Ray doesn't know if he owes his success as a guitarist to talent, lurk or hard work. But whatever the cause may be, he said he felt fortunate to be able to help and influence local musicians.
By JULIE REHM
Special to the Kansan
Ray and his wife, Debbie Fugent,
who plays bass, hold a blues jam two
Wednesdays a month at the Jazzhaus,
92$^{16}$ Massachusetts St. Musicians who are interested in playing
blues may add their names and the
instruments they play to a list at
the evening, from 9:30 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Ray will call each one to the stage to play
Ray has been jamming at the Jazzhaus for the past $1\frac{1}{2}$ years. According to Rick McNeely, owner of the Jazzhaus, the jam sessions have been consistently popular.
On some songs, Ray and Fugett play with the guest jammers; on other songs only guest jammers play. Ray sometimes allows guest bands to perform a few numbers.
"He's the MC and the house rhythm section where lots of musicians of varying talent play." McNeely said of Ray. "She fabulous
Ray, who also holds blues jams in Kansas City area clubs two or three nights a week, said some of the other blues jams in the area didn't allow as many different players to perform. Ray said he tried to give for every musician to get a chance to jam. Ray said he tried to fit as many in as possible.
— he's a natural. I would never book a regular show that often."
Fugett said she had seen a lot of improvement in many of their regular guest iammers.
"Sometimes they only get to do one or two numbers," Ray said. "Even if they're not so good, they deserve a chance to be up there. It's hard to get up there and play with a bunch of strangers."
Mickey Sparks, Lawrence resident, said he'd been playing harmo
"People get a chance to get up there and actually play in front of a crowd," she said. "I think it's really educational for everyone involved."
Lonnie Ray sings at his blues jam at the Jazzhaus, $ 926^{1/2} $ Massachusetts St.
nica at Ray's blues jam for more than a year.
I've improved 100 percent," he said. "The reason why is because I've been playing with better players."
Playing in the blues jam helps amateur musicians get over the nervousness of playing in front of a crowd, Sparks said. It also helps them learn how to use microphones and amplifiers and gives them a chance to perform with a variety of people.
"I imagine everyone wants to play all night, but Lonnie does a tremendous job of allocating time." Sparks he's also great, a great guitar player.
"At most basks you have to play Top 40, but at the Jazzhaus you can play whatever you want." Kennedy said.
Curtis Kennedy, Lawrence resident, said he had played guitar at all of Ray's blues jams at the Jazzhaus. He credited Ray with giving him the opportunity to play blues in public
"There are a lot of musicians who are thankful to Lonnie Ray and the Jazzhaus for putting on the blues jam, if you are not in a band, it makes them more valuable doing more than just sitting around in your room all the time," he said.
"That's where everyone said you had to go to make it," Ray said.
Ray and Fuguet, who both grew up in Lawrence, moved to Los Angeles in the early 1970s so Ray could play in a rock 'n' roll band.
While in Los Angeles, Ray sometimes played in country and western jams. Then he and Fugett traveled to Chicago, where they participated in blues jams at the Kingston Mines Club and the B.L.U.E S Club. That is how Ray got the idea for having a blues jam of his own, he said.
"I like the freedom of expression that blues allows," Ray said. "You can put yourself into it and play what you feel. Most blues is based on 12 bars. It's what you put into those 12 bars that makes it unique."
After more than a decade of touring with bands, Ray and Fugent returned to Lawrence two years ago. Ray said that although he enjoyed playing in Kansas City because of its blues and jazz history, he appreciated the enthusiasm of the Lawrence audiences and musicians.
"Never have I seen a town of this size anywhere that has as much
culture as Lawrence," Ray said. "A lot of younger people here are really into the blues."
Many local blues fans regularly attend the jams. Genelle Dennenny, Lawrence resident, said she had missed only a few jams in the past 115 years.
"I like the whole blues atmosphere and the spontaneity of the crowd," Dennenny said. "Lonne Ray has good trigger action. He triggers the
When Ray was 13 years old, he was sent to the Boys' industrial School in Topeka. There he began playing the guitar.
"I got sent there because I liked to skip school a lot," Ray said. "When I realized the element I was in, I thought that playing the guitar would help me keep my sanity. I had my first gig there and when I got my first standing ovation, I was hooked. I got out of there in six months.
"If it wasn't for the guitar, I'd probably either be dead or be in prison."
Ray said his main musical influences were Wes Montgomery, Otis Redding, Muddy Waters and B.B. King.
"I never tried to copy them," Ray said. "I just tried to feel what they were feeling. That's what I like most about the blues."
Ray said it wasn't easy for him to choose the lifestyle he leads. He said he had worked many different jobs, including factory and construction work, but they never satisfied him
"I was always ending up in jobs that tended to endanger my fingers," Rav said half-jokingly.
"It was a tough decision for me to accept being a musician. There are no guarantees. The profits can be great if you make it, but most people
Ray said although he sometimes had "twinges of wondering what it would be like to live like a regular person," he was satisfied with being a blues guitarist.
"I think everybody pays a price for what they do in life," he said. "Debbie and I love what we do — we have to."
Fugett said, "We do this for pleasure, certainly not for money. I love it, and I can't think of anything else I'd rather be doing."
Ray said with a smile, "I just never want to take myself too seriously."
'A Christmas Carol' to unfold next week on Liberty Hall stage
By BRIAN BARESCH
Staff writer
Charles Dickens himself will take the stage next week when the Seem-To-Be Players present "A Christmas Carol" at Liberty Hall, 642 Massachusetts St.
Judy Wright, director of the play, said the character of the Christmas classic's author would be in the play as narrator, speaking many of Dickens' original words as he helps the plot along.
"A Christmas Carol," written in
old miser,
Ebenezer
Scrooge, whose
life is transformed one
Christmas Eve
when several
spirits visit him
during the night.
Tim Harrison, Overland Park senior, explains how computers and synthesizers are used to create musical sounds.
F i r s t
Scrooge's late business partner, Marley, then the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet to Come show Scrooge haunting images. The
The Seem-To-Be Players are a professional children's theater troupe based in Lawrence. Averill, who writes the music for the troupe's plays and also writes many of the scripts it performs, said the troupe performed four times a year.
spirits had been invoked after Scrooge grudgingly gave Bob Cratcht, his assistant, Christmas day off without pay.
"This is the most interesting one we came across," he said. "The script is really true to the beauty of the language."
"A Christmas Carol" is
Performances are scheduled for Dec. 10, and 11 at 7:30 p.m., Dec. 12 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and Dec. 13 at 2 p.m. Tickets are available at Liberty Hall and the Lawrence North and Massachusetts streets.
Wright and Ric Averill, artistic director of the Seem-To-Be Players, chose the script from among several adaptations. The version they chose, adapted by Barbara Held, is held at the Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and by the Missouri Repertory Theatre in Kansas City, Mo.
Averill said the addition of Dickens as narrator allowed the script to be true to the original story.
for the entire community rather than stricty for strictly adult age. The cast of 37 includes actors ranging in age from 5 to 60.
"It if goes as well as we hope we'll definitely do it again," he said.
The set for the play, designed by Lawrence
'This is the most interesting one
Averill said he hoped to make the play a Christmas tradition.
Also, the set's brown coloring will convey the feeling of old books and photographs. Averill said that the collection was a gift from 18th century London.
custinent Craig Willis, is simple and open to accommodate the many settings where the action takes place. Willis said props such as a ladder, a ladder for the actors' costumes would convey the setting of each scene.
KU student turns sounds into business
"It shows bright characters in the midst of drab, sometimes oppressive surroundings," Averill said.
By KIRK ADAMS
Staff writer
Students like to make money. If it's not one thing, it's another.
One student is doing it by forming a corporation that sells sounds.
Yes, he sells sounds — not exactly music, but programs of sounds for synthesizers and keyboards to change the way those instruments make noise.
Tim Harrison, Overland Park senior, formed Van Parnison Corp. in October. He spends three or four hours a day in his room in Naismith Hall programming sounds. He turns in his chair from keyboard to computer terminal to evoke different noises.
Harrison uses his Commodore 128 computer to make the programs that allow him to create games.
"All the computer does is help edit things," he said. "It doesn't actually make sounds at all."
"If I program it like a violin, it will sound like a violin," he said.
"I can see the way the wave forms and graphs out. That's something you can't do on the synthesizer. It makes it a lot easier."
Harrison plans to buy an IBM computer by January so that his work will be compatible with more of his customers' computers.
One way Harrison manipulates the sounds is making the attack, or the way that the musical note begins, faster or slower.
He said that he got most of his business from correspondence.
"We've had a lot of people that will write in or call on," he said.
A former keyboard player for the jazz group Weather Report is one customer. Harrison made the keyboardist chair sounds, a jazz brass instrument in an orchestra hit. His instruments in an orchestra playing simultaneously.
He said he also made a sound for a former member of the Spencer Davis Group — Steve Winwood's old band. Between a marimba and vibraphone,
Harrison said those were three of the hardest sounds to create.
Other customers have requested funky sounds, sounds that seem as if they were being played backwards, and a program that would allow the computer to pressing more pressure on the piano keys instead of using a control knob to do
so. The program allows the keyboard dist to keep both hands on the keyboard.
Harrison uses his computer to help program different sounds by manipulating the number of carriers, or waves for which the synthesizer will produce a sound, in relation to the number of modulating waves. Modulating waves affect the way carriers sound but produce no sound of their own. The wave bank has several aspects that can be manipulated, such as frequency and tone. The waves blend together in various ways to create the sound.
Harrison said that his company was small compared to some of the competition, but he said he was trying to appeal to consumers as a firm that was concerned with quality of products, not quantity.
"They have maybe like 5,000 sounds, which is fairly ridiculous. It takes me maybe two to ten hours to make a sound," he said. He said that his company had about 500 sounds.
Harrison does not have any official employees but refers to his company as "we" because his parents and friends help support the company. His parents pick up his mail at his business address in Overland Park, and friends help with office work.
"I like to refer to it as 'we', 'because it kind of keeps me out of a little bit," Harrison said. "I don't really like full credit for what's on going."
He said he also asked lawyers and electrical experts for help when he needed it.
Van Parrision's biggest cost is advertising.
"We spend, right now, about a $100 a month on advertising, which is fairly cheap," he said.
"I think we could make a profit by
Harrison is advertising in Keyboard magazine a package of 32 sounds ready to be programmed into a Yamaha DX7 keyboard/synthesizer for $15. He also sells a 96-sound package for a Yamaha FBO1 synthesizer for $20. He has been selling the DX7 package for about two months and the FBO1 package for about two weeks. he said he had received eight or nine orders for the FBO1.
Later, Harrison plans to sell sound packages for the Yamaha TX812 synthesizer and the Yamaha DX100 and DX21 keyboards.
Harrison also buys software and internal hardware for his computer. He said he didn't consider instruments to be part of his cost because he owned many of them.
the end of the year," he said.
He said that business had been getting better and that he almost made a profit the second month. He hasn't taken any salary yet, because he has reinvested all of his profits in the company.
"I don't think it's a get-rich-quick scheme, that's for sure."
Although his business is small, other companies seem to be taking him seriously. Harrison has signed a contract with Midi Music, a musical instrument digital interface company in Swindon, England, which he will try to market products for. Harrison sold Midi Music the rights to sell his sounds in return for royalties.
He also is negotiating with firms in Norway and West Germany.
Harrison said that he might try digital sound sampling in the future. He explained digital sound sampling as recording sounds from the natural environment and programming keyboards to reproduce those sounds. He said that in digital sound sampling, keyboards could be given sounds that usually could not be made on an instrument.