Results for "Los Angeles"

A New Jazz Opera From Kabir Sehgal And Marie Incontrera, 'Angela's Ring,' Explores The European Debt Crisis

March 13, 2021

The mere thought of a jazz opera based on the European debt crisis might be enough to send potential listeners running for the exits, but Angela's Ring, a new work co-composed by bassist Kabir Sehgal and pianist Marie Incontrera, is an entertaining and enlightening view of recent history perfectly set to a unique hybrid genre. Uniting ...

Los Angeles Guitar Quartet

Active since: 1980

The Grammy Award-winning LAGQ is one of the most multifaceted groups in any genre. The LAGQ is comprised of four uniquely accomplished musicians bringing a new energy to the concert stage with programs ranging from Bluegrass to Bach. They consistently play to sold-out houses world-wide. Their inventive, critically acclaimed transcriptions of concert masterworks provide a fresh look at the music of the past, while their interpretations of works from the contemporary and world-music realms continually break new ground. Programs including Latin, African, Far East, Irish, Folk and American Classics transport listeners around the world in a single concert experience

That Slow Boat to China: How American Jazz Steamed Into Asia

by Arthur R George
March 3, 2021

A kind of jazz was already waiting in Asia when American players arrived in the 1920s, close to a hundred years ago. However, it was imitative and incomplete, lacked authenticity and live performers from the U.S. Those ingredients became imported by musicians who had played with the likes of Joseph “King" Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Earl Hines, ...

Amber Weekes

Born: July 9, 1962

American jazz recording artist Amber Weekes has given the world a special and unique gift:  her voice.  Her producer Mark Cargill described it as “a voice from Heaven,” and hears “harps, violins, trumpets on a cloud of velvet whenever she begins to sing.”

Weekes is rising to the pinnacle of her career with the upcoming 2024 release of “A Lady with a Song – Amber Weekes Celebrates Nancy Wilson,” an homage to the legendary jazz singer and fellow storyteller.

Weekes, raised in Los Angeles, says she was “born singing” in her parents’ musical household.  At four, she stepped onto her first stage, the living room coffee table in her childhood home.  The daughter of singers from Harlem, Weekes’ home oozed with the sounds of Frank Sinatra, Nancy Wilson, Barbara Streisand, Diahann Carroll, The Beatles, Leontyne Price, Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Brown, Jr., and Ray Charles.  Generations earlier, her grandparents, Wilfred and Nettie Weekes, served musical giants Lena Horne, Duke Ellington, Billy Strahorn and many others inside Weekes’ Luncheonette in the Sugar Hill section of Harlem.  These famous patrons left their musical mark on the family.  It was just a matter of time that Weekes would step into and fully claim her musical inheritance. 

Dennis Mitcheltree

Born: September 25, 1964

Saxophonist/composer Dennis Mitcheltree’s new recording, his sixth as a leader, Golden Rule, is one brimming with humanity. The music celebrates family, lost friends, his major inspirations (including tenor giants John Coltrane, Joe Henderson, and others), and speaks directly to our shared journey through life, and the imperative to treat each other with love, respect, trust and dignity – in short – to treat others as you wish to be treated. The music on Golden Rule is a reflection of that notion. It also swings like mad and engages the listener with nine wonderfully crafted compositions from Mitcheltree.

Andrea Balestra: A Rich Sicilian Odyssey

by Jim Worsley
February 17, 2021

Guitarist Andrea Balestra makes a cerebral investment with every note he plays and with all of his compositions. A lot of guitarists like to jam. Balestra isn't one of them. Substance is preferred over droning speed. His highly intensified music is born of traditional Italian music...being from Sicily perhaps a factor...a deep integration of blues, a ...

Vocalist/Lyricist Mark Winkler Teams With Pianist David Benoit For 'Old Friends'

February 12, 2021

Singer, lyricist Mark Winkler and pianist, composer David Benoit have teamed up to record an album that pays homage to their 37 years of friendship. Old Friends is a collection of some of the artists’ favorites songs by some of their favorite composers, as well as three original tunes, newly rendered in an affable collaboration by ...

Vocalist/Songwriter Bruce Brown Weaves Witty Narratives Over Soulful Jazz On 'Death Of Expertise'

February 8, 2021

When Bruce Brown lived in Los Angeles, he enjoyed a whirlwind of what he calls “live furniture background gigs,” countless casuals, and hipper engagements, like singing and playing piano in the lobby of the L.A. Biltmore Hotel. While doing this, he decided to take a leap of faith and pursue his longtime dream of songwriting full ...

Maki Mae Releases Astonishing Winter Album Of Jazz Standards

February 2, 2021

There is something quite special about music with the power to tell story and engaging people in a whole new way. This is definitely the case of Seasonal Songbook, an intimate and melodically excellent recent release by Maki Mae. This release has 13 songs, treading the audience to nearly 50 minutes of outstanding music. There is ...

Pedro Boschi

Born: September 10, 1982

Pedro’s music reflects the colors and sounds of the Mata Atlântica. His compositions are a unique synthesis of rich imagination and some magic. Pedro’s music is not only influenced by musicians such as Jobim and Hermeto Pascoal, but heavily influenced by literature and poetry. His musicality and great creativity make his compositions somewhat poetic chronicles full of metaphors of the Brazilian collective imagination. The sounds of the forest and rivers, the ocean and the birds are always there, even when not in the most conventional way. His music approaches harmony and melody in such an imaginative way, each song creates its own universe