Results for "Los Angeles"

Eddie Wakes

From Walt Disney, to the Oscar Award-winning film "La La Land", Eddie has enjoyed an impressive trek throughout the Entertainment world! There were three tributaries that converged into a big river in the American heartland where Eddie Wakes was born. Like the great Mississippi, inherent streams of Big Band Jazz, 'Blues Shout' (Joe Turner), Country, Folk and Rock music merged with his parents’ deep Southern traditions of Gospel, Blues and Soul music from the post 2nd World War era. Eddie was baptized in these churning waters. Music education was ambitious in the Midwest! The hallways of learning were always filled with the sounds of solo and choral arrangements by great composers of every era & genre

Dave Scheffler

Born: November 23, 1956

Dave Scheffler is a pianist/keyboardist, composer and producer living in Joshua Tree, California.  The son of an aerospace engineer who worked on the Saturn rocket at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama in the 1960s, Scheffler grew up predominantly in Charlotte, North Carolina. After high school, he played keyboards in a local fusion band called Spectrum, which opened for such names as Ramsey Lewis, Hubert Laws and the Dregs (formerly the Dixie Dregs), before attending the prestigious Berklee School of Music in Boston, where he graduated with honors.  

Relocating to Los Angeles in the md-’80s, he found work in the commercial music world – arranging, producing, and recording a diverse range of artists encompassing R&B, hip-hop, pop and world music. His successful production music library, Drama King, licenses music worldwide. Since moving to the otherworldly desertscape of Joshua Tree in 2014, Scheffler has returned to his jazz roots, channeling this meditative existence into an album of original compositions influenced by the cool modal jazz of the late ’50s/early ’60s (Miles Davis, Bill Evans) and fusion greats of the ’70s (Weather Report, Return to Forever), and on into the solo work of Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter. His modal approach to melody and harmony compositions falls under the rubric of 21st Century Modern Jazz.

Dave Slonaker

Dave Slonaker is a film and TV orchestrator, arranger, and composer and leader of the Dave Slonaker Big Band. His album, Intrada, featuring his compositions and arrangements, received a 2013 GRAMMY® nomination for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album. 

In his work as a film and TV orchestrator, arranger, and composer, he has orchestrated and arranged for many Hollywood composers including John Addison, David Bell, Steve Bramson, Bruce Broughton, Danny Elfman, Joel McNeely, Alan Silvestri, Larry Rosenthal, and many others. Film credits include orchestration for many popular films including Oz the Great and Powerful, Alice in Wonderland, Spider-Man, Air Force One. He has also orchestrated, arranged, and composed music for TV and animation including Jag, Murder, She Wrote, and the Tiny Toons Adventures cartoon series. 

Vinny Golia

Born: March 1, 1946

As a composer Vinny Golia fuses the rich heritage of Jazz, contemporary classical and world music into his own unique compositions. Also a bandleader, Golia has presented his music to concert audiences in Europe, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the United States in ensembles varying dramatically in size and instrumentation. Mr. Golia has won numerous awards as a composer, including grants from The National Endowment of the Arts, The Lila Wallace Commissioning Program, The California Arts Council, Meet the Composer,Clausen Foundation of the Arts, Funds for U.S. Artists and the American Composers Forum. In 1982 he created the on-going 50 piece Vinny Golia Large Ensemble to perform his compositions for chamber orchestra and jazz ensembles.

Lisa Andrea Torres

Offering a versatile repertoire in English, Portuguese and Spanish; jazz vocalist Lisa Andrea Torres a San Francisco Bay Area native now based in Los Angeles, has been performing in California, Miami, Brazil, Japan, Korea, China, Thailand, the Philippines, and Mexico for the past 25 years, five of which were spent in Rio and São Paulo, Brazil. Expressing warmth and versatility, Lisa’s vocal style and musical arrangements combine elements of contemporary jazz, Latin jazz, and Brazilian bossa nova and samba. During and while living/performing in Brazil and Miami for over thirteen years, she began singing on the Asia circuit doing 4 month-contracts in nightclubs and hotels.

Nate Smith: A Drummer's Life

by Mark Robbins
August 8, 2022

Nate Smith can't sit down! After headlining with two of his bands at the 2022 Newport Jazz Festival, The Fearless Flyers and Nate Smith + Kinfolk he is off to New York for a one week run at the Blue Note followed by Los Angeles, Europe and then back to the United States where he is ...

Valerie Monroe

Born: April 11

It all started with Jazz music for Valerie. She began singing at the age of 19. Valerie sang in front of her first audience trying to win scholarship money for college. From that point on she was bitten by the performance bug. Being introduced to jazz first, Valerie developed her talent by listening to such artists as Sarah Vaughn, Dinah Washington, Nancy Wilson and Nina Simone. Valerie has performed in various arenas with a wide array of artists such as Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio Spurs performing the National Anthem, opening for Jazz Greats Dizzy Gillespie and Mel Torme and Comedian Redd Foxx in Las Vegas

George Michael, A Life

by C. Michael Bailey
July 30, 2022

George Michael: A Life James Gavin 528 Pages ISBN-13: # 978-1419747946 Harry N. Abrams 2022 Music biographer, James Gavin, summed up his approach to picking biography subjects during his discussion* with Jamie Brickouse in Interview magazine: “With all that I write, my antennae vibrate from miles away ...

Milen Kirov

Described as a “pianist with superhuman coordination,” Dr. Milen Kirov is an award-winning Bulgarian- American performer, composer, and educator with an inimitable artistic voice and celebrated creative output. His career redefines the role of the performer-composer in 21st century by transcending genres, labels, and artistic boundaries. Combining his Bulgarian music heritage and concert pianist background with contemporary composition, jazz, world music, and improvisation, Dr. Kirov has carved a thriving career as a unique and respected artist.

Milen Kirov has won awards from the Bulgarian National Radio Composition Competition; Bulgarian National Music Competition “Sv

Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band at The Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival

by Manny Hebron
July 9, 2022

Summer is officially here which means the Hollywood Bowl plays host to elite artists from all music genres. The Hollywood Bowl also celebrates its centenary having opened in 1922. The annual festival, formerly the Playboy Jazz Festival, celebrated its 42nd year at the Bowl the weekend of June 25-26, 2022. With Arsenio Hall hosting ...