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UNL to be in key for Kees
By Jeff Korbelik
Friday, Mar 26, 2004 - 12:00:19 am CST
Composer/musician Randall Snyder likes to believe Weldon Kees is alive and well.
And that he will be in the audience tonight when the University of Nebraska-Lincoln School of Music presents "Too Cool to Care: Weldon Kees With a San Francisco Beat."
Born in Beatrice in 1914, Kees is best known as a poet. But he also was an art critic, photographer, filmmaker, painter, musician and composer.
In 1955, Kees reportedly committed suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
But writer Pete Hamill claimed to have spotted him years later in a cafe in Mexico City.
"My fantasy is he did not drown and is alive and in Lincoln, and he will come to the concert and make his first public appearance in 50 years," said Snyder, UNLcomposer-in-residence, who has arranged Kees' music for tonight's special event.
One can only hope.
But even without a living Kees, the evening should be entertaining and educational.
The School of Music is sponsoring "Too Cool" in order to help raise $35,000 for the UNL libraries to purchase original sheet music manuscripts of Kees and his collaborator, Bob Helm, from an antiquarian book dealer in Berkeley, Calif.
Giacomo Oliva, dean of the Hixson-Lied College of Fine & Performing Arts, UNLfaculty and students will perform songs from the collection.
The program also will include lectures by Robert Knoll, emeritus professor of English, and Dan Siedell, Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery curator.
The songs are a mix of jazz, blues and ragtime with titles like "I Like a Picture With a Chase at the End" and "Don't Drink the Foam on Your Beer, Baby."
"Kees is well-known as a writer , but not so much as a composer," Snyder said. "I think people will find these funny, witty and urbane. There's a little bit of Cole Porter to them."
UNLmusic professor Alisa Belflower will sing "Daybreak Blues," a number about a woman whose man has walked out on her.
She and Snyder both said Kees' music was not elaborately written, featuring only melodies and bar chords.
"At first, I wasn't sure what the musical style should be," Belflower said. "They have very quickly become obvious. They have a jazz swing and a core blues sound to them."
Katherine Walter, chair of Digital Initiatives and Special Collections at the University Libraries, stumbled upon the collection 233 pages of unpublished sheet music and notes regarding lyrics and poetry while on a trip to California in May 2002.
Friends had recommended she check out the Berkeley book dealer because he had good stock.
Did he ever.
When the dealer learned Walter was from Nebraska and knew of Kees, he showed her his collection.
"We have a lot of (Kees) first editions, but no archival material," Walter said. "I felt it to be a gap in our collection."
Kees has enjoyed a renaissance of sorts, especially in Nebraska.
The University of Nebraska Press recently published James Reidel's biography "Vanished Act: The Life and Art of Weldon Kees," as well as books containing his letters, essays, short stories and poetry.
The art show, "Weldon Kees from the Permanent Collection," is currently on display at the Sheldon through April 25.
Reach Jeff Korbelik at 473-7213 or jkorbelik@;journalstar.com.
If you go
What: "Too Cool to Care: Weldon Kees With a San Francisco Beat"
Where: Kimball Recital Hall, 11th and R streets
When: 7:30 tonight
Admission: $15, $10 senior citizens, $5 students
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