Wichita State University - Parnassus Yearbook (Wichita, KS)

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Moses Allison. You don't have to be a schizo to appreciate or play jazz, but it does seem to help. Jazz is known as the soul-searching sound and is perhaps be- coming one of the most requested styles of music in Wichita. KMUW plays 23 hours of jazz a week. The music depart- ment of W.S.U. offers one formal con- cert in the spring and several informal concerts throughout the school year. Rock and Roll is a conglomeration of all styles of music. It has been ampli- fied, equalized and synthesized. Itusedto be that all you needed to be a rock star was a couple of guitars, amplifiers and a new song. Today, however, rock stars are indulging their fantasies with extra- vagant stage settings, costumes and the- atrics to hold the attention of their audiences. Rock must be the most pro- gressive sound of all the music we listen to today. flihe. nostalgic surge has also found a place in the rock industry with the return of Neil Sedaka, Elvis and the Beach Boys. 2 7!Seventies

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Music Music is part of the college culture, from the country sound of Waylon Jen- nings to the hard acid rock of the Rolling Stones. On the college campuses of the 2O's, jazz was the music and the Charleston was the dance. In the 30's and 40's the big bands of Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller and Harry James were the rage and the dance was the boogie-Woogie The 50's came in with the sound of rock and roll and the twist was the dance. The 60's introduced the sound of hard rock and everyone was doing the Go-Go dance. To look at the music of the 7O's, just look at the music of the preceding years. The nostalgic era has arrived with the comeback of country and western, bluegrass, classical, jazz and rock and roll. The dance of the 70's is that of self-expression. The country and western sound was brought back by Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter, Willie Nelson, Charlie Rich and Jerry Jeff Walker. Most people imagine country and western music to be analo- gous with cowboys on horseback, Tex- ans, tumbleweeds and cattle drives. This is a fallacy, in truth this music is derived from the western swing introduced by Bob Wills and the Light Crust Dough Boys and the ballads of the Hollywood screen cowboys. Artists like Kris Kristof- ferson and Waylon Jennings brought the modern look and sound to the country music scene with their refusal to con- form to the Nashville establishment. Bluegrass is another style of music that is experiencing a rise in popularity. Such groups as Country Gazette have restylized the sound of bluegrass with modern amplification. Jerry Garcia of Grateful Dead and Vassar Clements have been caught up in this new sound. At W.S.U. bluegrass has taken a surge in popularity with the arrival of the Amaz- ing Rhythm Aces and their progressive sound. Earl Scruggs, one of the fathers of modern bluegrass, described the inspi- ration for the music as Americana, Life 26!Seven ties . . yesterday, today and tomorrow. Purest of what this earth has to offer and unaffected by the passing of time. Earthy and spontaneous, uncomplicated, and rooted in the U.S. folk music tradi- tion. Bluegrass is confined to four instruments, guitar, mandolin, fiddle and banjo, which provides it with a charac- teristic sound. The classical music sound is one that'll never die out as a craze. Itls finding new popularity each year and more W.S.U. students are majoring in the classics with hopes of finding positions with major symphony orchestras around the nation. The major works of composers are being amplified, and a faster beat is being added, giving them the sounds of modern times. One example of this is Beethoven's Fifth Symphony by the Walter Murphy Band. The audience for the classics has arisen sense of self-awareness from the be-your-own-person fad which arose in the late sixties and early seventies. The fad helped release people, somewhat, from their peer group pressures, thus allowing them to enjoy the classics which were previously considered square. Jazz is coming back with artists like Maynard Ferguson and the old timer,

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Smoking Criminals. Dirty, desperate, hippie freaks with long matted hair, who do nothing but sit around in sweatshirts and sandals plotting hideous crimes to support S100 a day MARIJUANA habits. This is the attitude many people had about marijuana as late as 1976 in the never-never land of Kansas. Thousands of writers spent countless hours trying to convince the public mar- ijuana isn't the Killer Weed legends tell it to be. NORML Cthe National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Lawsb has produced hundreds of pamphlets trying to inform people marijuana isn't deadly, isn't addictive and that there are no hard facts stating conclusively marijuana is more harmful to the body than a can of 3.2 beer. Even the National Institute on Drug Abuse released a statement which was published Feb. 12th in the Wichita Eagle, stating: Research con- ducted since last year's report failed to support the concern that chronic mari- juana use leads to genetic damage, lower fertility rates or more serious impotence problems. But no one listens. Instead, they prefer to listen to ex- perts like former Wichita Police Cheif Floyd Hannon who made statements 28!Seventies such as: You're going to get every damn bum in here CWichitaJ like Berke- ley and Ann Arbor did because of the laxity of the laws. Hannon also did a good song-and-dance about the age old problem of marijuana leading to other social problems: and when they get blown out of their minds they get in a car and have accidents or go out and commit crimes. We have the cases to prove it. Hannon, of course, failed to mention any specific cases that occurred in Wichi- ta or anywhere else. But in Kansas the word of a police- man, any policeman, is better than fact. After all, what do doctors know? You can never be too sure about those col- lege graduates. They have no idea what the real world is like. So it's no wonder that when Dr. Keith Green announced in May, 1976, that he'd developed a form of liquid marijuana that was proven successful in relieving an eye disease, glaucoma, many people shuddered. Although his mari- juana eye-drops were considered by re- searchers to be Has good or better then any anti-glaucoma medication currently available, serveral people said flatly they'd rather go blind than get hooked on that stuff. Terrific.