Academy of Rock benefits from Berman gift

By Tom Ineck 

LINCOLN, Neb.—Butch Berman understood the importance of music as a stabilizing force in his own life. As his words quoted above indicate, he also saw music’s potential for good in the lives of others, especially troubled youth.

Butch would be pleased to know that his Berman Music Foundation has donated $1,000 and many of his own instruments and musical equipment to Lincoln‘s Academy of Rock program. About 140 students from kindergarten through high school currently are enrolled in the program, which is headquartered at the Northeast Family Center, with citywide outreach.

Donated instruments include a Fender electric bass, an upright bass, a Yamaha electric piano, an Epiphone acoustic guitar, a conga drum, maracas and a tambourine. Among the equipment donated are various amps, speakers, foot pedals, music stands, microphones and guitar cords. It all came from Butch’s basement music room, where visiting musicians often would jam after a BMF-sponsored performance elsewhere in town.

The $1,000 BMF grant paid for additional acoustic guitars and small guitar amps for the academy’s practice rooms.

“Now we can serve more kids per class, and there are never any kids who have to sit around at practice,” said Jason Schmit, director of the academy. “They’re always working on something, and that’s directly because of the donation. We don’t get donations like this very often. It’s been huge for us.”

Gifts of a single guitar or a set of drums are not uncommon, but the size and diversity of the Berman collection is unprecedented, Schmit said. The Northeast Family Center operates on a budget of $655,835 for the current fiscal year, of which the Academy of Rock receives $144,600.

Schmit began the Academy of Rock several years ago, while working with after-school programs for middle-school students at the YMCA. The kids would gather in a room and “hang out,” he said, but there were no activities to inspire them.

“We felt like it wasn’t really targeting the kids who needed it most. We started to set up very specific, special-interest clubs that the kids could be a part of, where the kids would do everything from cooking and creating their own little ‘café’ to filmmaking and comic book writing and flag football and fashion design.”

When some of the students indicated an interest in rock music, Schmit approached Doug Fenton at Dietze Music House, who helped launch the rock academy. The rest was up to Schmit, program coordinator Bob Okamoto, other staff and, of course, the kids.

“They’re looking for something to do,” Schmit explained. “They want to start bands. They want to play rock ‘n’ roll. Let’s give them a positive place to do it, with good mentorship and get them playing music.”

Beginning with just eight kids, the Academy of Rock grew to 45 by the end of the first year. Schmit left Lincoln for Portland, Ore., where he set up similar after-school clubs, but he liked the idea of a program solely devoted to music. The Northeast Family Center gave him the opportunity to return to Lincoln as director of the Academy of Rock.

The academy now has programs citywide, meeting at Mickle, Irving and Dawes middle schools, Brownell Elementary School, Willard Community Center, and Campus Life North (The Edge). After-school sessions run from 3-5 p.m. and evening sessions from 5-7 p.m. The young musicians also meet for Saturday practice sessions.

“Each month there is a different genre of music that we study,” Schmit said. “The staff selects one song that they have to play. If they can get through it, the kids get to pick a song that they want to do. Then they get to perform them live around town.” These public performances include gigs at Ribfest, the Nebraska State Fair and popular Lincoln music clubs.

Understandably, most of the young rock wannabes want to play punk, metal or classic rock, but they are also introduced to the blues, country, pop and hip-hop styles. Weeklong summer camps are even more diversified.

The more advanced musicians write and perform their own songs.

“We work with them, going through the trials and tribulations of being in a band, and try to get them to the point where they can have a great musical product but they’re also smart in business and promoting themselves,” Schmit said. “We get them to the point where they’re ready to go out and do their own thing.” Among the many original bands that have emerged from the Academy of Rock are Silent Havok, The Story Killers, Learning to Fall and Dodging Bullets. Successful “graduates” of the academy include the bands Valley of the Impaled and Exit 48.

A special projects class produces newsletters and T-shirts for the shows and learns how to run the sound system and lighting that is essential for the total rock experience.

Many of the students are on need-based scholarships, but enrollment is open to all. Those who are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches through Lincoln Public Schools automatically qualify for a reduced rate at the academy.

“Most of our kids are disadvantaged in the fact that they feel kind of like they’re outcasts in their own schools,” Schmit said. “It’s not based on money.”

On hearing Butch’s comment about Charlie Starkweather, Schmit agreed.

“Exactly,” he said. “I’ve heard people say, ‘If that kid hadn’t gotten involved, I don’t know what would have happened.’ They’re able to focus. We have some kids that have written some pretty creepy things, but they’re writing about it, getting it out of their systems.”

That’s a concept that Butch Berman would understand perfectly.

For more information on the Academy of Rock program, go to www.academyofrock.org.

The following is a list of upcoming Academy of Rock performances:

Friday, Jan. 9 – Duggan’s
440 S. 11^TH St., original bands concert, 5:45-9 p.m., admission $5

Thursday, Jan. 15 – Hot Topic
26 Gateway Mall, acoustic show for two original bands TBA, 6-8 p.m., admission free

Saturday, Jan 24 – Campus Life North
6400 Cornhusker Highway, Invisible Children Snow Ball Formal, original bands TBA, 8-11 p.m., admission TBA

Saturday, Jan. 31 – Box Awesome
815 O St., opening for Harptallica, JediRadio, Dodging Bullets, Silent Havok, 6–9 p.m., admission TBA

Friday, Feb. 13 – Knickerbockers
901 O St., original bands concert, 5:45-9 p.m., admission $5

Friday, Feb. 27 – Campus Life North
6400 Cornhusker Highway, core program concert, 7-10 p.m., admission $3

Friday, March 13 – Box Awesome
815 O St., original bands concert, 5:45-9 p.m., admission $5

Friday, March 27 – Campus Life North
6400 Cornhusker Highway, core program concert, 7-10 p.m., admission $3

Friday, April 17 – Sidewinders
17^th & O streets, original bands concert, 5:45-9 p.m., admission $5

Friday, April 24 – Campus Life North
6400 Cornhusker Highway, core program concert, 7-10 p.m., admission $3

Saturday, May 30 – Campus Life North
6400 Cornhusker Highway, core and original final concert, 6-10 p.m., admission $3

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LINCOLN, Neb.—The Nebraska Jazz Orchestra continues its 2008-2009 concert season, featuring nationally-known guest instrumentalists, popular big-band favorites and new arrangements. Guest artists for the remainder of the season include multi-talented woodwind performer Mike Tomaro; world-class percussionist Dana Hall; and one of L.A.’s most highly sought and award-winning trumpet players, Wayne Bergeron.

General admission tickets for individual concerts may be purchased in advance or at the door for each concert. Ticket prices are $20 for adults $20 and $10 for students. Concert times and locations are listed below.

Pre-concert dinners are held before each concert at a cost of $22 per person. For tickets or dinner reservations please contact the Nebraska Jazz Orchestra business office at (402) 477-8446 or njo@artsincorporated.org.

The remaining concerts in the 2008-2009 NJO season:

“Learning From the Master,” Thursday, Jan. 22, 7:30 p.m., Cornhusker Marriott, 333 S. 13th St. Young talent will be featured along with Mike Tomaro, multi-talented woodwind performer, composer, arranger, and director of jazz studies at Duquesne University. Tomaro will perform with the NJO and the 2009 Young Lions All-Star Band.

"It’s Not Rocket Science,” Tuesday, March 24, 7:30 p.m., Cornhusker Marriott, 333 S. 13th St. With a degree in aerospace engineering, Dana Hall now leads a number of his own groups and performs with the Chicago Jazz Ensemble. Included in this concert will be a local jazz ensemble as part of the “Jazz 101” program. 

“Plays Well with Others,” Tuesday, May 19, 7:30 p.m., Cornhusker Marriott, 333 S. 13th St. This concert will feature one of L.A.'s most highly sought and award-winning trumpet players, Wayne Bergeron, and the winner of the 2009 NJO Young Jazz Artist Competition.

The NJO season also includes a popular annual event, a Valentines Day dinner and dance on Saturday, Feb. 14, at 6 p.m. at the Cornhusker Marriott. The concert features Big Band classics and is not included with season membership.

The Nebraska Jazz Orchestra strives to provide accessible venues and programs to visitors of all abilities. Contact the business office at (402) 477-8446 regarding services available.

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Editor’s Note: Don Holmquist was the drummer in Butch Berman's final band, The Cronin Brothers. Formed in 2004, the Cronins were also the longest-running band that Butch was ever in, a considerable accomplishment in a professional music career that spanned 44 years and more than 20 bands. Don lives in Lincoln, Neb.

By Don Holmquist

LINCOLN, Neb.—It has been almost a year now since I lost a brother to the hereafter. I did not lose him in life because Butch lived it to the fullest and his love, creativity and enthusiasm live on.

Butch Berman and I were brothers in music and in a band. Butch always referred to his band mates as brothers. We could talk for hours about music, spirituality, psychology, recovery, health, sojourns, love, life and loss. We were not always in agreement, but that was perfectly fine with Butch. He appeared to welcome conflicting perspectives and, in fact, almost thrived on conflict. There were times when I wondered if we would ever be able to mend the fence after he would reel off one of his infamous acerbic “insight”-oriented e-mails, but we always did. We tossed around barbs much like many siblings toss around the football. But in the end, we knew it was just a game. We agreed that our conflict was just a function of two alpha males jockeying for a position that wasn’t there.

This publication’s esteemed editor gave me some perspective on my conflicts with Butch. He tells a story about a time Butch was hanging with an old friend. He looked over at the guy and said something like, “You know, I think that you are one of the only people that I have never been mad at... and that bothers me.”

Butch had such a zeal for his own ideas that very few people ever had the gumption (or alpha audacity) to contradict what sometimes seemed to be distorted thinking. He had an incredible ability to think in another dimension. And he didn’t understand why people seemed to follow and agree with his thinking, but then disagreed behind his back. He would ask me, “Why wouldn’t people tell me that they don’t agree with me?” I would reply, “Butch, you’re a difficult person to have an argument with.” He told me on more than one occasion that it was the confrontational honesty that he admired in our relationship. That honesty strengthened our bond. And I learned that despite our different views, there was magic imbedded in his thinking.

Butch had an insatiable thirst for everything decadent and wonderful. In this too, we were brothers. In fact, each of our unbridled searches for altered states led to the name of our band. In 1993, in need of some help, I called him about a “therapeutic health spa” that he had been to. I wondered whether he thought that it was worth it and asked about his experience. He replied, naturally thinking I was wondering about the amenities, “Oh man, they have great food—and did you know that Eric Clapton was just there?!” Well, of course, that was all I needed to hear. I lived in the same place Butch (and Eric Clapton) had, the Cronin unit.

That shared experience gave us a bond and a band name. When our band formed, it became the Cronin Brothers. In the Cronin spirit, Butch strove to be “au natural” during many periods of his life and he did an exceptional job in his attempts. His band mantra reflected this perspective. He would say, “The Cronin Brothers, it’s a state of mind.”

In those last weeks, he didn’t waver from that. I found out about Butch’s last health battle over the phone. He rang me up and said, “Hey, guess what I did over the weekend?” I asked, “What’d you do this weekend?”, to which he replied, “I had brain surgery.” I thought to myself, “Oh man, Butch, you have had a multitude of creative ways of looking at things in the past, but this is a new one!” He literally had undergone a cranial exploration with a biopsy. “Wow,” I wondered, “What’d they see in there?” I told him that I had always wanted to look inside his head to see from whence his funky ideas emanated.

His magical, positive state of mind carried him through his illness, along with the support of his wonderful wife and friends. I vividly remember him saying, “I’ll beat this thing, I’ll show those bastards!” He had an uncanny knack for surrounding himself with people that made him feel good, which I always admired. And he made others feel good, too—thousands, even, with his music and support of music.

I feel very blessed to have been initiated into Butch’s music fraternity. In his world, anyone who had anything to do with music was part of the fraternity, and he realized that you don’t have to like everyone in your fraternity, but you are brothers nonetheless.

The Cronin Brothers was Butch’s last band. We played our last gig about a month before his last breath. With all of the ups and downs we had throughout the years, I’m grateful that the very last words I said to him were, “I love you, buddy.” He was just as I love to remember him, sitting at the piano with his guitar around his neck. As I departed our sacred practice room that night, I didn’t know that would be the last verbal communication I would have with him.  

Although those were my last words, they were not the last of our communication. Butch still speaks to us often. I often find people saying, “Butch would...”, as if he were in the room reminding us. Just the other day, my mother and I were driving past the turnoff to his house and, in near perfect unison, we uttered “Hi, Butch.” Thanks for the memories, brother, past, present, and future.

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By Tom Ineck

Master conguero, composer and bandleader Norman Hedman, a longtime friend and consultant of the Berman Music Foundation, died Sept. 29 in New York City after a struggle of many months with acute myeloid leukemia and pneumonia. He was 63.

BMF founder the late Butch Berman was a tireless advocate for Hedman and his band, Tropique. The foundation was the executive producer of several CDs by Hedman's rhythmically-charged tropical jazz group, including "One Step Closer" in 1999, "Taken By Surprise" in 2000 and "Garden of Forbidden Fruit" in 2006. The BMF also helped to fund flutist-singer Andrienne Wilson's "She's Dangerous," a 1998 release on which Hedman played a prominent role as co-producer and percussionist.

Over the years, the BMF brought Norman Hedman's Tropique to Lincoln, Neb., for several performances, including Jazz in June appearances in 1997 and 2003, and a concert in March 2001 opening for Jerry Gonzalez and the Fort Apache Band at the Lied Center for Performing Arts. The foundation also brought the band to the Kansas City International Jazz Festival in June 1999 and the Topeka Jazz Festival in 2005, when Butch Berman was the event's music director.

Born July 17, 1945, in Jamaica, the West Indies, Hedman began playing the congas as a young teenager growing up in Brooklyn, after he retrieved a drum from a neighborhood garbage can. Blending the irresistible beats of the Caribbean with the American sounds of jazz, funk, soul, and rhythm 'n' blues, his diversity later would land him gigs with The Spinners, Daryl Hall, The Main Ingredient, New Kids on the Block, Chico Freeman and Alicia Keys, among many others. 

Before pursuing a career in music, Hedman graduated from Brooklyn College with a business major in marketing. But after leaving the Army he worked as a studio musician for several decades, primarily in pop music, before forming Tropique in 1995. He performed on five number one hits and three movie soundtracks. He was preparing to accompany Keys on her 2008 world tour when he was diagnosed with cancer.

In April, representatives of the Berman Music Foundation traveled to New York to attend a benefit for Hedman at the Jazz Standard. Hedman was too ill to attend the event, which raised more than $7,500 toward his medical expenses. For an account of that event, click here.

Hedman is survived by his wife of 36 years, Michelline, his mother Ruby, son Norjon, and daughter Misha; brother Tony; sister Barbara Codrington and two grandchildren, Norjon Hedman and Taija Law.

A funeral Mass was celebrated Oct. 3 at Holy Cross Church in Manhattan, followed by burial at Calverton Cemetery in Long Island. In lieu of flowers, tax deductible donations may be sent to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, P.O. Box 27106, New York, NY 10087. Please include your full name and address, and specify that the gift is in memory of Norman Hedman in support of leukemia research. Ask them to notify the Hedman family at 484 W. 43rd St., Apt 3-S, New York, NY 10036. Checks should be made payable to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Editor's Note: Thanks to Dawn DeBlaze for providing some of the information for this story.

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