“O-zo-mat-li!”
The courtyard stretching from the Knight Library to the Lillis Business Complex echoed with more than 1,000 voices chiming in to chant the band’s name.
Students and community members Saturday night attended the free concert featuring Ozomatli, a Grammy Award-winning band that mixes latin stylings with hip-hop vibes. The band defies classification in a musical genre, with elements that range from Native American to Spanish in origin.
The concert marked the end to months of controversy surrounding its $26,000 price tag. Roughly $10,000 from student group sponsors and $16,000 from students’ surplus incidental fees funded the event.
Last spring, the Student Senate voted to pay $16,000 to bring the band to campus after journalism student Trevor Atkins raised donations from groups and lobbied for the event. Senators had originally voted to pay $20,000 for the concert, but ASUO President Jared Axelrod vetoed that proposition, saying community members shouldn’t be admitted for free and that the ASUO should charge for tickets.
Junior Stephen Harris said he felt the cost was worthwhile.
“There are a lot of things my student fees pay for that I don’t participate in,” he said. “I thought it was the best free concert I’ve been to.”
Atkins, who conceived of bringing the band to campus as a way to build community among freshmen and others, introduced the band.
Freshman Kiana White said the music appealed to a lot of people.
“I think it’s really cool,” she said. “We’re all poor college students, and we would not have gotten to go otherwise.”
White said she did not meet anyone new, however.
The band did several things throughout the concert in attempts to foster unity. During a rendition of “Lean on Me,” band members shook hands with people in the crowd. At 10:30 p.m., band members abandoned the stage to about 20 crowd members, moving some drums and brass to the center of the throng and playing the “Hokey Pokey.”
Instrumentalists continued to play as they led fans to
the opposite end of the courtyard, where they set up a drum circle of sorts, playing favorites such as the theme from “Sesame Street.”
Harris said he thought the concert had a good vibe.
“Everybody was pretty much in the same spot in their enjoyment of the music,” he said. “Everybody was buddy-buddy with each other.”
Prior to the event, summer Senate President Sara Hamilton said student government decided to try something new to facilitate “the feeling of inclusiveness from going to a concert with someone.”
Ozomatli is a 10-member band that won a Grammy Award for its 2004 album “Street Signs.” The band has a new album in the works called “Don’t Mess,” set to be released in January, 2007.
Ozomatli released its second album on Sept. 11, 2001, at a time when most U.S. bands were pulling their releases and canceling concerts. The band’s Web site states that the group chose to expand its music after Sept. 11 to incorporate African and Middle Eastern stylings, which could be heard Saturday.