2010 Angel City Jazz Festival

Details

Parent Category: Other Festivals

Category: Music

Published on Sunday, 08 August 2010 21:43

Written by Brad Balfour

L.A.'s only non-commercial jazz and new-music festival is a weeklong celebration at six venues, combining music, film, art, dance, poetry and food with two world premieres. The 2010 Angel City Jazz Festival's featured artists include The John Abercrombie Quartet, Nels Cline's DIRTY BABY, The Ravi Coltrane / Ralph Alessi Quintet, Henry Grimes and Friends, Wadada Leo Smith's Golden Quartet with Vijay Iyer, Myra Melford's Trio, The Sons of Champignon (Tim Berne, Jim Black and Nels Cline) and many others.

The festival is produced by Angel City Arts in association with the L.A. County Arts Commission, LACMA, CalArts,  L.A. Filmforum, Cryptogramophone Records and the Jazz Bakery.

For more information please visit angelcityjazz.com or call Rocco Somazzi at 323-573-2110.

Saturday, October 2nd - 8:00 PM at Walt Disney Concert Hall's REDCAT Theater
Henry Grimes & Friends with Dwight Trible / John Beasley Duo.
Henry Grimes was an A-list jazz bassist in the '50s and '60s who worked with everyone from Benny Goodman to Albert Ayler.  Then he disappeared. For almost 33 years he lived the life of a day laborer in Los Angeles. This is Henry's first major performance in L.A. since his re-emergence onto the jazz scene in 2003. Henry's friends performing this evening include trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, woodwind player Vinny Golia, pianist Ben Rosenbloom and drummer-percussionist Alex Cline.Expect some special guests.

Dwight Trible and John Beasley explore the outer reaches of musical invention. Dwight Trible is a singer who has collaborated with Pharoah Sanders, Charles Lloyd, Billy Childs and Horace Tapscott. Pianist John Beasley is a prodigious performer and composer who has worked with Miles Davis, Steely Dan, Freddie Hubbard, Bennie Maupin, Christian McBride and James Brown. 

REDCAT is located at Walt Disney Concert Hall, 631 W. Second St., L.A.; (213) 237-2800. Produced in association with CalArts.

Sunday, October 3rd - 5:00 PM at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre.
The centerpiece of the festival is a daylong outdoor event with five of the world's most creative jazz ensembles: Ravi Coltrane / Ralph Alessi Quintet, Wadada Leo Smith's Golden Quartet with Vijay Iyer, Sons of Champignon, Vinny Golia Sextet and Kneebody. Nestled in the Hollywood Hills, the Ford Amphitheatre is one of L.A.'s hidden treasures -- a glorious place to hear music with the entire family.

The Ford Amphitheatre is located at 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, LA; (323) 461-3673. This event is produced in association with the L.A. County Arts Commission. For Tickets: http://fordtheatres.org/en/events/details/id/113

Ravi Coltrane / Ralph Alessi Quintet
Born in NYC, the second son of John and Alice, Ravi was raised in L.A. and studied at CalArts before moving back to New York, where he has worked extensively with M-BASE guru Steve Coleman. In addition to leading his own group, Ravi has recently performed with McCoy Tyner, Pharoah Sanders, Carlos Santana, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, John McLaughlin, Michael Brecker, George Duke, Stanley Clarke, Branford Marsalis, Jacky Terrasson and many others. Joining him is frequent collaborator and influential NYC-based trumpeter Ralph Alessi.

Wadada Leo Smith's Golden Quartet with Vijay Iyer
Lauded as "one of the most vital musicians on the planet" by Coda, Wadada Leo Smith is one of the most visionary, boldly original and artistically important figures in contemporary American jazz and free music, and one of the great trumpet players of our time. As a composer, improviser, performer, music theorist/writer and educator, Smith has devoted a lifetime to navigating the emotional heart, spiritual soul, social significance and physical structure of jazz, integrating free, composed and world music to create new music of infinite possibility and nuance.

Sons of Champignon - Tim Berne, Nels Cline & Jim Black
Formerly known as BBC, the ironically named Sons of Champignon is an improvising trio comprising three of the most influential instrumentalists of our time: saxophonist Tim Berne, guitarist Nels Cline and drummer Jim Black.  Described by Black as "rocking acoustic/electronic improv," The Sons of Champignon will light it up with committed freewheeling improvisations.

Vinny Golia Sextet
The recordings of multi-woodwind performer Golia have been consistently picked by critics and readers of music journals for their yearly "ten best" lists. As a composer,  Vinny Golia fuses the rich heritage of jazz, contemporary classical and world music into his own unique compositions. As a bandleader, Golia has presented his music to concert audiences in Europe, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

Kneebody
Kneebody flies above the label zone, crafting postmodern instrumental music that jukes convention and genre. If the group's intricate compositions had to be filed away in a record bin, chances are they would rest in the jazz corner, but the Los Angeles/NYC quintet touches on post-rock, classical and avant-garde forms as often as it flirts with swing. Last year's Low Electrical Worker found the band stretching out in odd meters with equally odd instruments, getting loud, having a blast -- and maybe even reinventing music a little in the process.

Monday, October 4th - 7:00 & 9:00 PM at Royal/T in Culver City
Music, Dance, Food & Improvisation with Myra Melford Trio, Oguri, bassist Mark Dresser and Chef Paul Canales. This benefit for Angel City Arts features Myra Melford's Trio with Stomu Takeishi and Alex Cline, Japanese butoh dancer Oguri, bassist Mark Dresser and Chef Paul Canales of Oliveto Restaurant. Taste food inspired by music, which is simultaneously interpreted in dance. Enjoy a four-course meal with wine and music.

There will also be an art auction with proceeds donated to Angel City Arts. Royal/T, 8910 Washington Blvd, Culver City - (310) 559-6300

Thursday, October 7th - 7:30 PM at LACMA's Bing Theater - DIRTY BABY
Nels Cline, Ed Ruscha and David Breskin. Experience the world premiere of Nels Cline & David Breskin's visionary recontextualization of legendary L.A. artist Ed Ruscha's "censor strip" paintings.  DIRTY BABY is the gloriously unruly mutt born of a synaesthetic mating of pictures, music and poetry.  For this special event based on their new book, Cline leads two prestigious ensembles in a performance of his compositions, Breskin reads his ghazals, and Ruscha's Silhouettes and Cityscapes are projected for good measure.

Afterward, Ed, Nels and db sign DIRTY BABY. LACMA - Bing Theater - 5905 Wilshire Blvd.; (323) 857-6000. Produced in association with LACMA and Cryptogramophone Records.

Friday, October 8th - 8:00 PM at the Barnsdall Gallery Theater in Hollywood
Creative Music & Film:  World premiere of The Reach of Resonance, plus a solo piano set by Motoko Honda.  A chainsaw orchestra, a singing dog, a man who chews on amplified glass, a string quartet written for barbed-wire fences, a woman who creates counterpoint from dot-matrix printers -- these are a few of the creative endeavors explored by filmmaker Steven Elkins.

A Q&A with the filmmaker follows.  Motoko Honda is a pianist/ composer/ improviser who creates structured improvisations intended to extend beyond rhythm, melody and harmony to affect the skin, organs and minds of the listener.

Barnsdall Gallery Theater - 4800 Hollywood Blvd.; (323) 644-6272. Produced in association with L.A. Filmforum.

Saturday, October 9th - 8:00 & 9:30 PM - Musicians Institute Theater in Hollywood
The John Abercrombie Quartet. Throughout a career spanning more than 40 years and nearly 50 albums, John Abercrombie has established himself as one the masters of jazz guitar. Favoring unusual sounds and nontraditional ensembles, Abercrombie is a restless experimenter, working firmly in the jazz tradition while pushing the boundaries of meter and harmony.

Performing in Abercrombie's quartet are violinist Mark Feldman, bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Joey Baron.

Musicians Institute Theater - 6752 Hollywood Blvd.; (310) 271-9039. Produced in association with the Jazz Bakery.

2010 Angel City Jazz Festival
October 2nd through 9th
PO Box 2968  Venice, CA  90294
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
310-287-1918

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