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LUTHER COLLEGE > Happenings > Luther News > Jason Mraz to perform Nov. 17 at Luther College Regents Center |
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Contact: Jerry Johnson, Director of Public Information, 563/387-1865 Oct. 31, 2003 Jason Mraz to perform Nov. 17 at Luther College
Tickets for "An Evening with Jason Mraz" are now on sale for
$25 at the Luther College Box Office, telephone (563) 387-1357, open Monday
through Friday, 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. All tickets are general admission. Since the release of his debut album, "Waiting For My Rocket To
Come," Mraz has literally rocketed from the coffee shop music scene
in San Diego to national acclaim. His intimate, coffee shop-style performances
on tour - combined with his outstanding talent as a songwriter, acoustic
guitar player, singer and performer - have drawn standing-room crowds
across the country. Critics and writers have used a full music dictionary of terms trying
to describe Mraz's style of music - world, folk, trippy, jazzy - but all
agree he has a sound that is winning a huge audience following. His original sound and style took shape in the coffee shops of San Diego
where he hooked up with drummer Toca Rivera. Rivera's djembe style percussion
and charismatic stage presence added to the excitement of Mraz's live
performances. "I met him at an open mike," says Mraz, whose name means "frost"
in Czechoslovakian. "I fell in love with everything he was doing.
It was so simple. His whole thing he had going on was kind of the opposite
to me. It was everything I was looking for in a band." In 2002, Mraz and Rivera moved to Los Angeles and began performing at
venues all over California and then the nation. Mraz, who is originally from Mechanicsville, Va., did not start to play
guitar until he was 18. He made his first start in music performance in
the mid-90s in New York City where he "did a short stint in New York's
American Musical and Dramatic Academy" before turning his full attention
to his guitar playing and songwriting. Mraz credits elements of his style to the influence of a wide range of
singers/songwriters everyone from Dave Matthews to Sade to Beck to Bjork
to Toca Rivera. But beyond the music, it is the un-checked exuberance
of his performing style that make Mraz's live shows the most talked about
in years. "I said to myself, 'if I'm going to pursue this as a career, I want
to inject some humor in this, get some poetry into the songs and make
sure the audience stays interested.' I remember I saw Dave Matthews when
I was still in high school, and I was just struck by how lively he came
across. "When I got to San Diego, it wasn't like I knew exactly what I was going to do, but through the countless shows, I found out it was more fun to keep the audience engaged," he said. |
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