The keyboardist flew in from Los Angeles, the drummer from New York City. They came to Omaha to join an all-star show in the epicenter of North Omaha’s jazz revival.
Several of the musicians on stage shared one thing in common: They discovered a passion for music in Omaha, then headed elsewhere to find a career. These were not necessarily cases of the so-called “brain drain” that continues to plague Nebraska. Across the country, artists often head for larger coastal cities to earn a living and, hopefully, make it big.
“You have to be a bit of a bubble to take things as seriously as we have, to be where we are, and to progress and develop. It’s not the norm in Omaha,” said David A. Hawkins, the drummer who flew in from New York, where he gigs with Branford Marsalis and others.
Some of Nebraska’s recent crop of exported musicians trained under Dana Murray, the executive director of North Omaha Music & Arts, which hosted the all-star jam back in March. When Murray advises aspiring artists to consider living elsewhere, he speaks from experience. He followed the same path in the ’90s, playing with jazz heavyweights in New York City and across the world. His more recent work in North Omaha gives his protégés, like Hawkins, another reason to come back when they can.
“The community definitely exists, and it obviously starts with our roots in Omaha and with Dana,” said Hawkins, who moved to New York in 2024. “One thing he made sure to instill in all of us was the community, the brotherhood. It’s even more familial than it is community.”
Hawkins is just one of the more recent members of that family. A decade before him, members of the popular Omaha band the Jazzwholes began heading east, starting with drummer Matt Arbeiter. Bass player Seth Ondracek, guitarist Andrew Bailie and keyboardist Nick Semrad followed. Ondracek still works as a musician in New York, while Semrad, who plays with the band Empire of the Sun, relocated to L.A. Bailie and Arbeiter have since come back home but remain connected to music.
All the former Jazzwholes, and other Nebraska musicians who moved away in search of careers, said they discovered many advantages to being in bigger cities. They also found comfort connecting with fellow Nebraskans there on a similar journey.
“I thought I was serious, but when I got to New York, then I realized what it took to be serious about music,” Arbeiter said. “It was a whole other level of talent and hustling and promoting yourself, figuring out how to make a living.”
For Ondracek, learning what it takes to be a working musician was only part of the education. Equally important: having a community — “which is, I think, overlooked a lot in the arts world because you really can’t do it on your own. You’ve gotta find your tribe,” he said.
Murray’s disciples extend beyond the Jazzwholes and Hawkins. There’s Tom Jorgensen, who plays in the orchestra pit at Broadway shows, and Grace Rock, who currently is enrolled at Juilliard.
“She’s going to do great things,” Murray says of Rock.
And there are Nebraskans making a name for themselves in the music world who fall outside the Murray tree — artists like Deah Love Harriott. She was a church and musical theater fixture in Lincoln and fronted a touring gospel group before relocating to New York in 2008. There, she’s minister of worship and fine arts at historic Bethany Baptist Church.
Despite not having worked with Murray in Nebraska, their worlds overlapped. Murray protégé Semrad played for Harriott back in Nebraska. When he, too, moved to New York, the pair reconnected.
“I immediately hired him to play at my church, where he was the white boy playing Black music,” Harriott said. “He was such a great student. I showed him how to get around church music.”
That connection and building up his knowledge of gospel music opened more doors, eventually landing Semrad a role playing with Cory Henry and the Funk Apostles. He brought along Bailie.
“Everything was who you know. … Any time an artist Nick was playing with said, ‘I need a guitarist,’ Nick would be like, ‘I’ve got your guy,’” said Bailie, who now works with Murray at NOMA.
Harriott and Murray are far from the first Nebraskans to take their musical talents to the East or West Coasts in pursuit of a career. Before them came Wynonie Harris, Preston Love Sr., Buddy Miles, Victor Lewis, Calvin Keys and Dave Stryker, among others.
Some homegrown talents make it without going to New York or L.A. And moving to bigger cities presents its own challenges, particularly concerning affordability. One think tank in New York concluded that the city had lost more than 4% of its resident artists since 2019, with affordability being a main culprit. News stories in other music hubs, like Austin and Nashville, have warned about an exodus of musicians due to rising costs.
Still, maximizing potential usually requires leaving one’s comfort zone for a proving ground like NYC. That allure was enough for Semrad. “I’m pretty competitive,” he said. “I wanted to go where the biggest challenge is, and at that time I believed the best players were coming out of New York, so I decided to go test myself there.”
Murray isn’t quick to advise aspiring musicians to leave town. It takes a certain kind of musician, with a certain drive, a certain mentality.
“You can’t BS the process,” he said. “If you want it, then these are the things you do. There’s a lot of people unwilling to dedicate themselves to that level of excellence. That’s what separates great from good, and good from mediocre.”
Ondracek said “the work ethic of the Midwest is helpful” there. Harriott agrees.
“Those of us from Nebraska bring a different kind of energy, and we have a different kind of pedigree,” she said.” We are very focused. We have humility. We just show up and do it.”
Having heeded Murray’s advice, Arbeiter is a believer in leaving Omaha to push oneself “to the next level musically.” And when those musicians come back to town occasionally, like Hawkins and Semrad did back in March, it allows aspiring musicians in Omaha to gain some insight into what it takes to cut it in New York or L.A, he said.
“It makes that move not seem so scary or foreign or impossible,” Arbeiter said.
All who have made that transition agree, though, that leaving Nebraska isn’t for everyone, nor is it necessary for success. “There’s multiple versions of the right story,” Semrad said.
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