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The Guarneri Underground ().

Take a trip around

musical world Saturday

The "perfect festival band" is coming to McKenzie Theatre on the campus of Eastern Oregon University.

The Guarneri Underground will make "a danceable upbeat musical trip around the world" starting at 8 p.m. Saturday, June 21. Their infectious blend of Afro-Celtic-Flamenco violin world music has made them a favorite with festival and concert series audiences across the Northwest.

Tickets are $10, $8 for students, and are available at Sunflower Books and at the EOU Bookstore.

Lead singer Beth Quist guides her four-octave voice through everything from east Indian and Celtic music to American folk and rock. Violinist Jeffrey Sick plays his custom-made electric six-string violin while wandering through the audience.

It was an opportunity in 1989 to play a Guarneri violin — valued at over $550,000 — that prompted Sick to name the group for the master violin-maker.

Eric Jaeger found his own calling on the guitar at the age of five. After performing and recording extensively as a rock and roll, hip hop and heavy metal guitarist, he found inspiration in the discipline and technical virtuosity of Flamenco. Since studying with Benito Palacios and Marcos Camona, Jaeger has become one of the top-selling world music guitarists in the Northwest. He is co-leader of Children of the Revolution.

Mohammad Shaibu was born in Ghana, West Africa, and worked with the best West African performers, including Fela Kuti, I.K. Dairo and the Nigerian all-Stars. His intense talking-drum work, his solid, authentic African Djembe playing and his uniquely African approach to the guitar add exotic rhythms and colors to the already heady mix of the Guarneri Underground sound.

TJ Morris, drummer, has his roots in R&B. His invented drum kit with both Western and world percussion instruments is so cool it was recently featured in Modern Drummer Magazine. He sounds like a whole drum section all by himself — and sings, too. He is a founding member of the Seattle group Maya Soleil.

Lennox Holness on bass is a native of Jamaica. He has performed throughout Europe and America for two decades.

"If variety is the spice of life," says Sick, "then that makes us some serious spice merchants."

The latest CD "Wander This World" broke the top 15 on the New World Radio charts. Their other recordings are "Captive" and "New World." All are available in through New Leaf Distribution, at www.MusicSteps.com and through their Web site at www.guarneriunderground.com.

The band will also play in concert for the boys at the River Bend youth prison at Hilgard Sunday at 11 a.m.

Electric violinist Jeffrey Sick gave Free Time a piece of his mind:

Who are your electric violin heroes?

The biggest hero of 'em all has to be Jean Luc Ponty. As far as I know he's the only truly commercially successful original violin-driven act in the late 20th century. And he's a great player. He made a record with some African musicians a while back that was very influential in my development of the Guarneri Underground.

I guess I should also talk about Itzhak Perlman, Eddie Jobson, Mark O'Connor, Shankar, Jerry Goodman, Mark Wood, Stephane Grappelli and Joe Venuti too. They were all amazing players that I looked up to while I was figuring this thing out.

But if you really want to know who my influences are, as a player and front man, it would be Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy, Jimmy Buffet and James Brown. In that order. I hope you find that intriguing. ... We do put on a pretty incredible stage show.

One thing that I always wanted to do was prove that there is a role for violin outside of the typical country/classical thing — so I put together a band with amazing musicians that can play any kind of music from just about any part of the planet so I could take the audience on a trip through a greater variety of musical styles than you'd be likely to hear in a whole year worth of concerts, and tying the whole package together with a bow. A violin bow, that is ...

And if there's one thing that I learned from Jimmy Buffet and James Brown — an audience that has a really good time tells everyone they know to come back and see you the next time you're in town. Prepare to be shown a good time.

Is your trip to the Hilgard Youth Facility remotely related to Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison experience?

Actually, my trip to Hilgard is part of a community outreach ethic I have always had. Whenever I tour, I try my best, whenever possible, to take the band, or myself out to schools, or wherever, to help bring music and a good message to the kids.

I got my start as a street musician in New York City.

Now I'm an award-winning producer with a resume that includes playing in a Broadway show, and major motion picture soundtracks. If I could do it, anyone could — all you need is the dream, and the dedication.