LAST DAY TO GET DISCOUNT FOR THE ANGEL CITY JAZZ FESTIVAL!
Hey Angel City Jazz Festival Fans, Today is the last day to get $5 off our already low ticket prices. After August 30th prices go up to $35 (from $30) for adult tickets. Students are just $12!!
The Festival is next (Labor Day) weekend, Sept 6-7 at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre. There will be food, drink, crafts, and live painting. Go to http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.angelcityjazz.com and click on Buy Tickets.
Come hear Dave Douglas, Benny Maupin and Dolphyana, The Nels Cline Singers with Jeff Parker, Billy Childs, Larry Goldings, Wayne Horvitz, Satoko Fujii and many more.
UPDATE (9/02/09): Whoops! Looks like we missed a couple of ACJF '09 promotional appearances. There was Bennie Maupin's guest shot on KPFK 90.7-FM's Global Village Monday with Maggie LePique. (You can listen to the 8/31/09 podcast here.)
Jesse Sharps also stopped by the KPFK studios of RISE with Mark Maxwell. (Check out the audio archive of the show here.)
But that's not all: Tonight at 6pm on KXLU, ACJF co-organizers Jeff Gauthier and Rocco Somazzi will be guests on Jazz Journey with Eddie B. Tomorrow morning, in addition to Larry Karush's appearance listed below, pianist Billy Childs will stopping by KPFK at Noon for a live studio performance. Finally, on Saturday at 12pm, Rocco and organist Larry Goldings will pop by KJAZZ's The JazzCat with Leroy Downs. Leroy will (coincidentally) be repeating his duties as Master of Ceremonies for both days of the festival. Let's hear it for L.A. Jazz DJs for their support!
Greg Burk's Live Picks of the Week (Sept. 4-10):
Sun.-Mon. Sept. 6-7 -- Before last year’s Angel City Jazz Fest, Los Angeles had not hosted a wide-scale progressive jazz festival drawing from beyond local environs in something like a quarter of a century. What an embarrassment -- cities less than a tenth of our size such as Portland and San Francisco constantly kick our ass in this category with conclaves far larger than L.A. has ever mustered. Equally embarrassing was the response to the event by the media, which virtually ignored it. (LA Times improved its record this year via Chris Barton’s online interview with festival promoters Rocco Somazzi and Jeff Gauthier.) There ought to be a sign at the city limits that says NOW ENTERING HICK TOWN: NO WILD JAZZ OR PRO FOOTBALL. Despite his personal challenges, Somazzi has not given up, and he and Cryptogramophone’s Gauthier are acting as a pair of bolt cutters in a nation of artistic shackles....Damn, this is gonna be fun." (GB)
Don Heckman's Live Picks of the Week (Sept. 1-6)
"Highlight: Sept. 6 – 7. (Sun. & Mon.) Angel City Jazz Festival. The second installment of this adventurous Festival now takes place in the airy outdoor setting of the Ford Amphitheatre. And the line-up is an impressive collection of some of the contemporary jazz world’s most cutting edge artists and ensembles. The line up includes Dave Douglas & Brass Ecstasy, Bennie Maupin and Dolphyana, Billy Childs Jazz Chamber Ensemble, Alex Cline’s Band of the Moment, Larry Goldings Trio, Wayne Horvitz’s Gravitas Quartet. Larry Karush, Dwight Trible, Satoko Fuji and more. Ford Amphitheatre. Angel City Jazz Festival. (323) 461-3673." (DH)
Brick Wahl's Live Picks of the Week (Sept. 3-9)
"FESTIVALS OF NATIONS: Three big jazz festivals in the area this weekend, each completely different. Way different describes the Angel City Jazz Festival at the Ford Amphitheatre. The whole point of this event is to collect all kinds of creative-for-creative’s-sake jazz in one place — hours of it. And they’ve certainly assembled two days of brilliant stuff. Sunday’s headliner is trumpeter Dave Douglas & Brass Ecstasy (trombone, French horn, tuba and drums). Their Spirit Moves (on Greenleaf) is a glorious mix of a nearly New Orleans–style classic jazz — hence the tuba — and some strikingly expressive pieces with melodies that really stick with you in their odd way; the semi-oddball mix of horns blending beautifully. And Douglas blows a beautiful trumpet. Also on the bill is saxist Jesse Sharp’s stunning collective known as The Gathering (with saxist Kamasi Washington and violinist Miguel Atwood-Ferguson). Just wait till Dwight Trible joins them, his voice soaring and filling the whole place. Pianist Billy Childs’ Jazz Chamber Ensemble (with harpist Carole Robbins and saxist Bob Sheppard), the Satoko Fujii Quartet with trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, pianist Larry Karush, and the clarinet fronted trio Plays Monk fill out the rest of the day. Top of the Monday’s bill is brilliant reedman Bennie Maupin & Dolphyana, an all-star band — flutist Nestor Torres (filling in for an ill James Newton), vibist Jay Hoggard, bassist Darek Oles and drummer Billy Hart — performing newly discovered compositions by the great Eric Dolphy. Wow. Also, drummer Alex Cline’s Band of the Moment ought to be playing material from his striking Continuation; Larry Goldings has the great NYC guitarist Peter Bernstein in his organ trio; The Nels Cline Singers pair Nels with Jeff Parker of Tortoise, doing who knows what, pianist Motoko Honda improvises with butoh master Oguri, and the Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet feature the often radical trumpeter Ron Miles. Incredible lineup in one of our favorite outdoor venues. See www.angelcityjazzfestival.com for prices (not bad at all) and details." (BW)
From L.A. Weekly's Music Picks (Sept.4-10): "Angel City Jazz Festival at John Anson Ford Amphitheatre: It’s billed as “L.A.’s Only Alternative, Non-Commercial Jazz Festival,” and you really ought to be grateful for the progressive plateful of heavy hitters shreddin’ the boards for your new thing–seeking pleasure. This is a chance to experience the very best in the more modernist spheres of jazz-aligned new music. Certain highlights are Tortoise guitarist Jeff Parker’s jam with the Nels Cline Singers, featuring superax from Wilco guitarist Nels (and not a singer in sight); Nels’ bro, drummer-composer extraordinaire Alex Cline, brings his Band of the Moment; revered nu-jazz trumpeter Dave Douglas debuts his alternatively arranged Brass Ecstasy; woodwind player/composer Bennie Maupin and an all-star crew present Dolphyana, West Coast premieres of newly discovered compositions by Eric Dolphy. Also, pianist Wayne Horvitz’s extraordinary Gravitas Quartet, pianist Motoko Honda and butoh master Oguri, the Gathering, featuring woodwind player Jesse Sharps and vocalist Dwight Trible, and many others. Also Mon." (John Payne)
From Flavorpill-Los Angeles: "Get Labor Day started a bit later: Ford Amphitheatre's two-day jazz festival gets cooking at 4pm. Double Grammy-nominated jazz trumpeter and composer Dave Douglas (along with five-piece band, Brass Ecstasy) headlines the fest in support of his debut disc, Spirit Moves, an original outing that also features arrangements of classics by the likes of Otis Redding, Hank Williams, and Rufus Wainwright. Also on the bill: jazz pianist Larry Karush, Thelonious Monk devotees Plays Monk, and the Nels Cline Singers with Jeff Parker." (Julian Hooper)
Dave Douglas
RE-UPDATE (9/05/09): Check out this interview with ACJF co-organizers Rocco Somazzi and Jeff Gauthier on the L.A. Times' Pop & Hiss blog!
