TEN NEWS NUGGETS POR ALL OF VOUS:
Todd Sickafoose's Tiny Resistors and the Jeff Gauthier Goatette's House of Return both drop this Tuesday, June 10th! Check out John Kelman's review of Tiny Resistors and Troy Collins' review of House of Return at All About Jazz. Jeff Gauthier will celebrate House of Return's release with a special night of music at the Palmer Room in West L.A. on June 26th. The performance will be filmed, so get there early to get yer mug in the frame!
On the heels of Crypto's triumphant weeklong stint at NYC's Jazz Standard, drummer Scott "Pops" Amendola has just released Live in NYC, six tracks recorded on the eve of April 25th, 2008 and featuring Jenny Scheinman, "Gnarls" Cline and special guest Charlie Hunter (whose spooky 7-string guitar is a highlight of "Buffalo Bird Woman"). It's available for download here.
Down in the heart and lungs of L.A. jazz, Leimert Park, World Stage Stories has added on an extra special night with the formidable bassoonist/bassist/accordionist Jesse Sharps, formerly of Horace Tapscott's Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra. This is a rare treat: Jesse lives in Germany and rarely ever comes back to L.A., so see him while you can and bask in the man's deep wisdom and intense, sonorous voice -- not to mention his scary chops. Sharps will be sitting down to talk with hosts Jeff Winston and Chet Hanley on the night of June 13, 2008, at 8pm. Suggested donation is $10. Hella bargain! Jesse will also accompany the young bassist Nick Rosen tonight at Cafe Metropol in an esoteric ensemble that incudes Katisse Buckingham on woodwinds, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson on viola and piano and Tony Austin on drums.
Jesse Sharps is also the main image on the cover of Leimert Park: The Story of A Village In South Central L.A., a recently released documentary DVD by first-time filmmaker Jeannette Lindsay. It's a terrific film (read a review of it here by an incisive and very studly young writer) and worth a place in any jazz collectors', uh, collection.
Speaking of tonight (as in: "Why didn't I find out about this sooner?"), there will be a Tribute to John and Alice Coltrane at the Coltrane Estate in Woodland Hills (7pm-12am). It's a fundraiser for the Coltrane Foundation, so be prepared to part with some dinero. But the lineup is simply unbeatable: Azar Lawrence on sax, the killer Nate Morgan on piano, Jeff Littleton on bass and Roy McCurdy on drums. Undoubtedly there will be many surprise guests; so far Ravi and Oran Coltrane have been confirmed, as well as Mr. Bennie Maupin, whose new album Early Reflections was just released on Cryptogramophone. For more details, call (818) 226-9991. (We'll be featuring another one of our "famous" Downbeast Interviews with Mr. Maupin, so we'll definitely ask him how it all went. Stay tuned!)
Next week will be Eric Dolphy's 80th Birthday. Trombonist Phil Ranelin, whose successful lobbying convinced the city and county of Los Angeles to declare June 20 Eric Dolphy Day, will be honoring the virtuoso from South L.A. at the Brasserie Lounge of the LAX Crowne Plaza Hotel (5985 W. Century Blvd.; 310-642-7500). As our pal Brick Wahl of the L.A. Weekly mused: "But they really should have a parade." Aye-men!
We were lamenting having to drive downtown to that impossible-to-park-at Laemmle Theater across from the World Trade Center to see the Ferus Gallery doc The Cool School -- but Lo, PBS's Independent Lens will be running the film (check local listings). Our interest in Ferus stems from the scholarship of Seattle University's Ken Allan, who also has been doing research into L.A.'s infamous art gallery (curated by Ed Keinholz and Walter Hopps) and how the worlds or avant-garde art and jazz intermingled with similar agendas in the late 1950s.
We were out and about last week and came across a mysterious flyer for something called Make Music Pasadena ("A Fête De La Musique Event"). We were just about to ask: "What the hell is this?" when Pitchfork Media answered our question.
We were at the Greek Theatre last night, listening to Bonnie Raitt and Richard Thompson dueting on a stunning version of the latter's "The Dimming of the Day", when we caught a banner for the L.A Jazz & Music Festival on July 26, 2008. We haven't been able to find any info on what this is or who is playing. Anybody out there know? Pitchfork, I'm looking in your direction...
Through the grapevine we've heard rumblings about a group photo being planned of L.A.'s jazz elite at UCLA's Royce Hall, apparently to happen on July 31 to commemorate the birthday of Kenny Burrell. It's being organized by trumpeter Bobby Rodriguez -- who like Burrell is on the UCLA faculty -- in the spirit of Art Kane's famous Great Day in Harlem photograph. Shot in 1958 for Esquire and featuring 58 jazz masters from Lester Young and Thelonius Monk to Art Blakey and Mary Lou Williams on a Harlem staircase, the photo later became the subject of a book and a documentary film. True to such Herculean endeavours -- who on Earth would brave trying to get that many jazz musicians to show up at the same time? -- there's already been some grousings and grumblings about the overall concept of the L.A. photograph. Apparently, the organizers are aiming for all-inclusiveness -- meaning, Kenny G would be standing next to Vinny G. What would those two have to say to each other? Would Vinny's nose start to bleed? Of course, This Music We Love is based on all-inclusiveness, so it is a fitting notion. But the very jagged and Balkanized tapestry of L.A. jazz virtually assures that there will be some very strange company present indeed -- unlike the 1958 photo, many may have never even met each other until the Great Day comes. Another complaint, which I overheard from a purist fan, was about the chosen location of a college campus: "Jazz belongs in the street, not the Ivory Tower!" Hopefully, the final product will be an epoch-defining mixture of both -- although we do tend favor The Street 'round these parts...
