Results tagged “jazz”

Two interesting sales going on today: Flutter in Pasadena hosts a Minnie Rose, Christopher Fischer, Eze Sur Mer and Tag Jeans Trunk Show today from 11 am-5 pm. And various showrooms at the California Market Center Downtown are opening their doors to the public today for pre-holiday sample sale shopping.

The sound of Melody Gardot's voice feels like a swath of dramatic black and white, evoking images of film noir and mint juleps. In describing her demeanor and jazz-tinged music, words such as vamp, moxie, sass, and verve can't help but emerge. However, Gardot's easy delivery has been hard won. Six years ago, when her involvement with music was more of a flirtation, she was struck by a Jeep Cherokee while riding her bike.

UCLA Live presents Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis tonight at 8 pm at Royce Hall. Under Music Director Wynton Marsalis, the 15-piece resident orchestra at Jazz at Lincoln Center in NYC will perform rare historic compositions to modern jazz, including compositions and arrangements by members of the band. Tickets: $38-$85. ($15 UCLA students).

September 15th is a special day for many Latin Americans that call L.A. home. On that fateful day in 1821, the Spanish were told they were no longer welcome in Central America. Various other countries, including Mexico, followed suit in the days that followed and today, that call to Independence is widely celebrated throughout the L.A. area.

There’s a launch party and reading at Skylight Books of Peter Gadol’s brand-new novel Silver Lake, set in...Silver Lake. In his seventh book, Gadol chronicles two architects’ happy life together, and how that happiness is shattered by a peculiar, yet attractive, stranger. The reading begins at 7:30 pm. Free.

There’s an opening reception tonight for Bryan Cunningham’s Wander Lost exhibit at La Luz de Jesus Gallery starting at 8 pm. His inspiration for the art was born out of a road trip across America. He got sick of seeing gentrified towns with megastores and chain restaurants, so he got off the freeways and took forgotten roads with “mom & pop diners, picturesque motels and backyard shrines (to anonymous deities) that gave an indigenous face back to the road.”

Rogue Theater presents Shorts & Sweets tonight at 10:30 pm. It’s an evening of four world premiere one-act plays with three servings of sweets (cookies, cupcakes etc.) that keep to the plays’ themes. On the program are: Keeping Pace by Robin Rothstein, Weedwhaker Tuesday by Amanda Mauer, Free by Craig Pospisil and I Hate L.A. by John Pollono. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 10:30 pm until Aug. 22. Tickets are $15.

Buzzworks Theater Company presents “Angst! A Radical Night of 80s Oddities” tonight at 8 pm at the Renberg Theatre at The Village at Ed Gould Plaza. The company will reinvent favorite 80s classics for the stage. The local indie-pop band, Populuxe, will be covering the biggest hits of the decade with celebrity guest singers. Audience members will be invited to mix and mingle with the stars at a post-show cocktail reception. Tickets are $25 and will help benefit the company.

LAist is stoked about the three-day style and design event Dwell on Design, taking place today, tomorrow, and Sunday. Exhibits, panels, and special events are taking place all over town, and while we're most excited about some of the on stage speakers and panels this weekend and tomorrow night's movie & mobile food event, things get underway today at the Convention Center for the Dwell on Design Exhibition, open to Trade and Dwell Conference Plus ticket holders only until 8 p.m.

Neko Case at the Greek Theatre on Friday and the 31st Annual Playboy Jazz Festival Saturday and Sunday at the Hollywood Bowl reminded us of how much we appreciate the summer outdoor concert season.

Before Live Aid, Farm Aid & Chef Aid came The Secret Policemen's Ball - which made the mold for the benefit concert, broke it, taped it back together, and ran with it. With a wealth of British comedy (including The Pythons, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry & Rowan Atkinson) and musical virtuosos (Pete Townshend, Sting, Eric Clapton & Phil Collins in then-unheard-of "unplugged" performances) donating their talents for Amnesty International, the show & tie-in albums, films & tapes, became a phenomenon

The LA Convention Center opened its doors about an hour ago for the official start of the E3 Expo, the huge gaming trade show. It runs today until 6 pm and continues tomorrow and Thursday. Game debuts include Shaun White: World Stage, Halo: Reach and The Beatles: Rock Band. Search for #e3 on Twitter if you need the play-by-play.

This week the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association announced the Hollywood Bowl 2009 Summer season. Board members, the press, and LA Philharmonic/Hollywood Bowl staff gathered on the stage at the Bowl to find out what is on the schedule this summer. The highlights are many.

Tonight marks the February installment of Mindshare LA, a monthly evening of “enlightened debauchery,” that celebrates innovations in scholarship, culture, technology and entrepreneurship in LA. This month’s topic celebrates lurrve and Valentine’s Day and includes topics “Return of the Bromance: Victorian Intimacy in the 21st Century” with Ph.D. Candidate Patrick Randolph of U.C. Riverside's English department; “The Reach for Shamanic Media” with multimedia artist David Wexler (VJ Strangeloop); “The Neurophysiology of Attraction” with U.C. Irvine Social Psychology scholar Sena Koleva; “Poledancing for Fitness sponsored by exercise studio Sheila Kelly's S-Factor”; and “How the Brain Processes Emotion” with Ph.D. Candidate Moran Cerf of CalTech's Computation and Neural Systems department. An open bar and jazz accompany the learning, too. Tickets are $25.

He was one of the best and most exciting and respected jazz drummers to grace our ears. Louie Bellson fell breaking his hip in early November, which was followed by complications with Parkinson's disease--he died on Valentines Day at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center . "Tenative plans are for an L.A. area funeral, followed by funeral and burial in Moline, Illinois, his boyhood home," his website announced.

Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, the creators and stars of the “Adult Swim” series, Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! will be at the Virgin Megastore at Hollywood & Highland tonight at 7 pm for their season 2 DVD release. The DVD features all 10 episodes from the second season along with hilarious bonus features including a blooper reel, extended scenes and live footage from both the Awesome-Con 2008 fan event and Tim and Eric Awesome Tour 2008!

NY-based comedian Kumail Nanjiani performs his one man show "Unpronounceable" tonight at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. Directed by The Aristrocrats’ director Paul Provenza, "Unpronounceable" chronicles Kumail’s Muslim upbringing in Pakistan and his move to Grinnell, Iowa, for college.

Haden's played with jazz legends like Art Pepper, Hampton Hawes and Dexter Gordon and he's the namesake of Haden's Quartet West, which includes Broadbent. (But Broadbent's no slouch either, having worked with Chet Baker and has written arrangements for Natalie Cole.)

Grammy-winning jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard died today at Sherman Oaks Hospital after suffering a heart attack late last month. It was just a few months ago that he was on stage, still playing despite health problems in recent years. His last concert was in June in New York at an album release party for his final album--"On The Real Side."

Before he was old enough to rent a car, trumpeter Christian Scott had garnered a Grammy nomination, played alongside Prince, appeared on the big screen with George Clooney and earned countless accolades from fellow musicians, industry heavyweights and members of the media alike. The 25 year-old New Orleans native who has been called "the new voice in jazz trumpet" and "a young talent on the rise" recently released his third album Live at Newport. Recorded at the renowned Newport Jazz Festival, Scott masterfully performs new material along with songs from his sophomore album Anthem and Grammy nominated debut Rewind That. Scott, who is in town for a series of shows at the Catalina Jazz Club tonight through Saturday, took some time to speak with LAist.

Jazz pianist John Osnes, 55, was walking across the street last week on November 23rd when an SUV driven by 34-year-old David Jassy crossed/edged/drifted into crosswalk as it came to a stop. Osnes, known as a "stickler for pedestrian rights," struck the vehicle with his hands, prompting Jassy to exit his vehicle and punch him, knocking Osnes' glasses off. As he went to pick them up, Jassy kicked him in the head.

After a long summer of great concerts over at the Greek Amphitheatre in Griffith Park, this Sunday, November 16, is the venue's last for 2008. And what a great way to end it with jazz greats including local jazz pianist Brad Mehldau. The night will also feature the amazing McCoy Tyner Trio and the Ellis Marsalis Quintet. LAist is giving away a handful of pairs of tickets away (you can also buy tickets here not to mention a pre-show wine and cheese meet and greet with the artists).

Jazz musician and Hollywood composer Neal Hefti died Saturday in Toluca Lake at 85, the New York Times reports. Hefti, who also played trumpet, had his biggest influence in jazz arrangements and compositions, but in pop culture, his theme for the original Batman TV show is probably the most well known: "Oddly enough, his most famous tune is among his least musically interesting, even if it was somehow brilliantly apt: the jauntily arch and repetitive theme for the television series 'Batman. Mr. Hefti said that the show was so campy it took him weeks to come up with a suitable melody. It won him his only Grammy."

Thelonious Dub is a Glendale-based instrumental trio that plays a jammy mishmash of jazz, reggae and pop, often featuring covers of Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, and Charles Mingus – in between their original compositions and a few other surprises. “T-Dub” draws inspiration from groups and artists like Bill Frisell, John Scofield, Massive Attack, Thievery Corporation and Sly & Robbie.

A new youth arts center in Watts run by the city's Department of Cultural Affairs will have its grand opening later this month during a weekend when two festivals will be happening. Named after the famous jazz musician and past local resident, the Charles Mingus Youth Arts Center will expand space for youth arts programs. The new building, which is next to the Watts Towers Arts Center, will bring more classroom space expanding the department's educational classes that give children a safe and creative atmosphere for individual expression with guidance and direction from professional artists.

       

Today 'til around 10:30pm, the Barnsdall Art Park in Hollywood is the home of the Angel City Jazz Festival. Featuring various jazz acts from around town and indeed around the country, this event is featuring artists running the spectrum like The Alan Pasqua Quartet, Motoko Honda, Andy Milne's Dapp Theory, Option 3, the Nels Cline Quintet and many others. Tickets are $25, VIP (which includes backstage passes and choice seats), parking is either the parking lot (and the trail up to the grounds) or the street. Get out and enjoy some great jazz music this Labor Day evening! Here's a little of what we saw earlier today...

One of the best spaces for cutting edge jazz in Los Angeles is Rocco Somazzi's lineups at Cafe Metropol in downtown's Arts District. Today he brings his tastes up to Hollywood for today's Angel City Jazz Festival.

One wouldn't really expect to go to the LACMA to go see great classical music, but during the season every Sunday at 6 there is a free concert of some great mid-career musicians or student virtuosos, broadcasted on 88.5 KCSN. Today we have violinist Hahn-Bin and pianist John Blacklow performing the Mozart and Franck violin sonatas.