Articles by Char Ham

Central Avenue Jazz Festival

by Char Ham
March 12, 2004

Any jazz fan is familiar of the influence of the Harlem Renaissance of the 20's, as it was a cultural center for intellectual thought, art, and music. That too, occurred in Central Avenue in Los Angeles, from the 20's to the 50's. The Central Avenue scene was created from laws restricting African-Americans where they could live or run businesses. Despite the hardships, it was a robust community, and the area's most well known venue was the Hotel Dunbar considered top ...

Central Avenue Sounds

by Char Ham
March 8, 2004

by Clora Bryant, William Green, Buddy Collette University of California Press (1998) ISBN 0520211898

Almost any jazz fan points as his or her mecca New York or historically, Kansas City and New Orleans. There is a fourth locus of jazz, Central Avenue section of Los Angeles which was a jazz mecca from the 1920's to 1950's as well. It was a training ground for Lionel Hampton, Charles Brown, Buddy Collette, and Charles Mingus but also a ...

Olivia Revueltas Trio: Angel of Scissors

by Char Ham
September 23, 2002

Sophomore albums for artists can be both a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that name recognition from the first album helps establish the artist, and is instrumental in propelling sales for that second effort. The curse is the challenge is working up to at least the level of the debut album. More difficult is the artist had the luxury of years to garner the songs and ideas for the first album, but any subsequent albums, that time is ...

Olivia Revueltas: 'Round Midnight in L.A.

by Char Ham
March 1, 2001

Perhaps it is too easy to be complacent and live on the safe side, such as investing stocks and bonds in well established companies, and listening to elevator jazz for background music while working on the computer at the office. However, true jazz has an greater purpose -- to make the listener feel aural nourishment and participate in the listening experience like a daring adventure. Revueltas is such a jazz musician, and although new to the U.S. (sans her hometown ...

Kadri Gopalnath/James Newton/P. Srinivasan: Southern Brothers

by Char Ham
July 1, 2000

In a fastly widening global prospective, we must remind ourselves that us humans have more in common than being divided by differences in culture, race or ethnicity. “Southern Brothers" well emplifies this, first with its title, referring to Southern India, where Gopalnath and Srinivasan are from, and for Newton, where he spent his summers with his grandparents in the American South. Both geographical areas have rich musical cultures. It is surprising for Western audiences to learn that the music of ...

Dr. L. Subramaniam and Larry Coryell: From the Ashes

by Char Ham
July 1, 2000

For many of us Westerners, the introduction to Indian music was through sitarist Ravi Shankar whose work was promoted by the Beatles' George Harrison or John Coltrane's exploration of combining Indian music and jazz. The musical meeting of East and West is still largely unexplored territory but the Water Lily Acoustics label, run by Kavi Alexander, is writing new chapters in world music. The term, Indian music is rather generic and is recognized by two classical styles, Hindustrani and Karnatak. ...