By far one of the greatest opening sequences of any film ever made is Woody Allen’sManhattan. Yes, it’s the photography, the voice-over narration, the shots of New York City at its finest, but more than anything, it’s George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” The undertow of buzzing clarinet and twinkling piano, combined with the slow, celebratory build of the entire orchestra induces a simultaneous feeling of hopeful anticipation and relaxed confidence. In Gershwin’s own words: “I heard it as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America, of our vast melting pot, of our unduplicated national pep, of our blues, our metropolitan madness.”
No, no. Too expected. Too pretentious. Calls too much attention to the movie. Try it again.
By far one of the best pieces of music to completely and flawlessly capture the essence of an entire season is “Summertime,” by George Gershwin. Originally conceived for the ‘folk-opera,’ Porgy and Bess, the aria—which has been covered more times than “Blackbird”—manages to somehow smell like summer. You need an iced tea when you hear it. And what better time, what better place than the Hollywood Bowl…
No. Just get to the point, Josh. You’re supposed to be giving away tickets. That’s all people care about. Just do your job.
To win two tickets to this summertime rhapsody of sorts, all you have to do is enter your first name, last name, and e-mail address into the form below,and you will automatically be entered into the running for this concert, as well as our next three ticket giveaways.
I guess that’s good enough. Why make a blog longer than it needs to be? Why even write these things? God, it’s hot out… I wish I could play the piano…
Jazz remains one of the few indigenous, American art forms, in that nothing quite like it ever existed before Buddy Bolden and Jelly Roll Morton started mixing up ragtime with the blues in an early 1900’s city called New Orleans. And to understand the history of jazz, as well as its incredible influence on our culture, is to understand the history of America and American music from slavery on up. Simply put, no artist you listen to today could exist without jazz. Which is why the genre makes its sudden flares of resurgence from time to time, and why you can still walk into most hip coffee shops around the city—notably, the Downbeat Café on Alvarado—and find a slick laptop-er or two subconsciously tapping their heels to the likes of Duke Ellington or Count Basie.
This Wednesday, July 28th at 8:00 PM at the Hollywood Bowl, jazz proves its not dead with the internationally renowned Count Basie Orchestra—still going after eighty years. Known for popularizing the Kansas City-style of big band jazz, as well as initiating some of the greatest artists in history (including Billy Holiday, Jo Jones, and Charlie Parker), Basie, himself, passed away in 1984, but his band plays on under different direction and with a regenerating cast of musicians. The current Orchestra doesn’t strictly adhere to its Kansas City roots (i.e. rhythmic riffs under improvised solos), but instead incoporates more of the East coast, neo-classisist style of big band jazz, with complex arrangements by director Bill Hughes.
That’s not to say, however, that such Count classics as “One O’Clock Jump” or “April in Paris” won’t be bouncing through the Bowl on Wednesday—along with the Dave Holland Big Band, the Dave Douglas Big Band, and yes, maybe you. Due to the overwhelming response of our last giveaways, FineArtsLA.com is once again raffling off two tickets to the Hollywood Bowl to see the Count Basie Orchestra live at 8:00 PM. Just enter your first and last name into the form below, as well as your e-mail address, and you are automatically entered into the running to win not just Wednesday night’s tickets, but also the next three FineArtsLA.com giveaways. So brush up on your two-step, and dust off those dancing shoes; even if you don’t win our contest, you can still buy tickets here.
The best thing about A Chorus Line—and there’s a lot of good things—is that there’s a moment every ten minutes or so when chills run up your spine. You know these chills, too. They are the chills of recognition, chills of connection. They are the cells inside your body racing alongside your bones, like an excited dog, at the mere thought of meeting something or someone like them.
A Chorus Line—which opened at the Pantages Theatre this past Tuesday, and runs for two weeks only until June 13th—comes loaded with history. Michael Bennett’s visionary piece, since 1975, has been a staple of Broadway, off-Broadway, and high-school productions alike. It has won numerous prizes, including the Tony and Pulitzer Prize for Best Musical. It spawned an awful film adaptation, and a wonderful documentary. In 2006, the show was revived on Broadway by the original co-choreographer, Bob Avian. It broke all sorts of box office records. And the cousin of Avian’s revival still tours today, occasionally to Los Angeles for brief, two-week runs.
But for all the bombast, A Chorus Line is best when it sticks to its roots—the loose grouping of Broadway dancers that Michael Bennett brought together in 1974 at the Nickolaus Exercise Center to tell their stories on tape. The show often veers from this core focus, unable to restrain from bits of bravado, much like the character Cassie (Rebecca Riker) does when told by her ex-boyfriend/director Zach (Derek Hanson) to stick to the choreography. These hardly un-enjoyable departures, however, only allow for the true moments—when Paul (Nicky Venditti) has his monologue, when Sheila (Ashley Yeater) starts to sing “At the Ballet,” and of course when Diana (Selina Verastegui) leads the cast in “What I Did For Love”—to shine all the brighter.
As far as this particular production goes, it’s pretty much what you would expect, which, when talking about A Chorus Line, is a good thing. Because you expect to be thrilled, and to be sad, and be privy to that oh-so rare sight in musical theatre: honesty on stage. Without a doubt, actor Andy Mills, who plays the show-stealing character of Mike, steals the show. Mills is so good-looking he stands out from the mezzanine, and his dancing is so flawless you find yourself using him as the bar for other dancers. I also enjoyed Derek Hanson, who’s interpretation of Zach—the fictional director that remains in the shadows for most of the show—was complex enough to support the facets of the for-sure Michael Bennett stand-in character. Other notables include Rebecca Riker, Ashley Yeater, Donald C. Shorter, and Nathan Lucrezio.
A Chorus Line is a musical that kind of begs to be updated or adapted. I’d love to hear one of the dancers talk about bulimia, for instance. Or have a character make a comment on gay marriage, or the economy. But seeing the show live, and with such an excellent cast makes me realize this is not the way to go. Every line and every step of Bennett’s masterwork holds up, and though it wouldn’t exactly be sacrilege to change a few things to make it more topical, there’s really no need to change what still gives me those chills up my spine.
A Chorus Line runs until June 13th at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. For more information, please call 323-468-1770, or visit www.broadwayla.org.
Capturing the magic of the jazz age can’t have been too hard. From Duke Ellington at the piano to Frank Sinatra on stage, cigarette firmly in hand, it’s easy to see the je ne sais quoi that was ubiquitous in the days of bow ties and soul singers. To read articles about jazz legends, to listen to their music, and to see photographs of their personal moments, we can catch a glimpse of the spirit of the music; the pain and the passion that made the jazz age so spectacular.
Not that you’ve ever needed a new reason to fall in love with Frank Sinatra or Billie Holiday, but on view now at Fahey/Klein Gallery are two exhibits by legendary photographers who got a chance to capture musical icons from jazz greats like Miles Davis to rock stars like Mick Jagger. In the big gallery space, you’ll find a plethora of black and white images that make you wish you’d worn your white gloves and perhaps a broach. One image that stands out among the rest is the one above, of Frank Sinatra in silhouette on stage in a smoky room – the photo is large and the effect washes over you.
In the smaller room, find brightly colored, bold, and fantastical images of Jimi Hendrix on his knees on stage, the Allman Brothers sitting with their equipment outside a venue, and a young Santana in his element. The photos in this room look like stories in and of themselves; if they were taken during indifferent moments, they surely created stories after having been captured. The represented jazz photographers are such household names as Herman Leonard, William Gottlieb, and William Claxton with rock and roll photographs hailing from the lens of Jim Marshall.
If you’ve ever wondered what getting someone under your skin or what Billie’s “Stormy Blues” actually looks like, this exhibit is for you. Walking through the exhibit, you may spontaneously feel like you hear a saxophone playing faintly or Ella Fitzgerald’s sultry voice. You may wish the room suddenly became darker or filled with smoke and whispered stories about the scene at Musso and Frank’s or the old Dominick’s. Good thing this exhibit’s a little easier to get into.
“Legends of Jazz Photography” and Jim Marshall’s “Trust” are on view at Fahey/Klein Gallery now through May 15, 2010. For more information, please call (323) 934-2250 orclick here.
Anyone who’s spent even a small amount of time on the African continent has a good idea of what people mean when they use the phrase “African nostalgia.” Even if you haven’t traveled there, it’s easy to get a back-to-our-roots sense from the culture, art, music, and design available to us in the US. Everything from HBO’s “No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency” to Youssou Ndour’s documentary I Bring What I Love shows this simple side of life, but not in a melancholy way. Instead, we see this beautiful, rhythmic, traditional lifestyle in which tribal differences are as often respected as they are fought over. A primary part of what we know, culturally, about the continent is the music of Angelique Kidjo – a singer who hails from Benin and whose voice sooths as it entices.
With formal jazz music training from the CIM in Paris, Kidjo performed last March at USC’s Bovard Auditorium and has worked with some of music’s greatest performers including Carlos Santana, Ziggy Marley, and Peter Garbiel on her recent album Djin Djin. Her music will, we have no doubt, be of the strength and soul that it will fill the Walt Disney Concert Hall on Sunday evening (February 28) during her solo performance. To make sure that we’re all on the same page with this brand of “African nostalgia,” we’re giving away tickets for Kidjo’s Sunday evening performance!
This is, indeed, an Extra! Extra! giveaway – a reluctant one, since we wanted to keep this tickets for our greedy little selves. Just keep in mind that by entering into this giveaway, you’re automatically entered into the next three we agree to giveaway. All we need is your first name, last name, and your email address and voila – you’ll feel like you’re picking through markets in Dakar in no time.
(Click hereif the nostalgia is all too much and you’d rather buy your own tickets.)
The way you start off a new year is very important to the way the new year ends up going for you. At least that’s what they say. Put their theory into practice with some of January’s most promising arts events in our fair city – would you like your 2010 to look a little more Bond-like? Would you rather it looked a little more experimental than your 2009? It’s so tempting to answer those questions with: there’s an app for that, but really your city has got what it takes to kick off your new year just the way you’d like.
Mr. Bond
Friday, January 1 is not likely to be your most shining and perky day. That doesn’t mean you can’t start on a sleek, technologically advanced, Bond-like bend – from 7:30pm at the Egyptian Theatre there’s a double feature of Dr. No and You Only Live Twice. You may not be at your sharpest on Friday, but you’ll soon make a better Bond than Mr. Connery. If you’re less than interested in leaving your house that day, worry not. Saturday evening (January 2) from 7:00pm, they’ll be screening Goldfinger and Thunderball – if you don’t have a love/hate relationship with villains after a weekend like that, you’re not cut out to be the next Mr. Bond. And that’s no way to start a new year.
Please click here for the Egyptian Theatre’s full January 2010 calendar.
Barely There
At Sam Lee Gallery, just near Dodger Stadium, you’ll find local artist Jeff Gambill’s exhibit “Barely There,” on through January 23. His paintings have this generally zen, colorful feeling that convey the transient, transitional message he’s going for. Fresh from a trip to Japan, you’ll definitely see an East Asian influence in each of his works. They don’t scream out at you, but they definitely make you want to look closer. And what better message than looking closer at something that doesn’t shock and awe for a new year? Time to delve a little deeper, kids.
The Sam Lee Gallery is located at 990 N. Hill Street #190. Please call (323) 227-0275 or click here for more information.
New Year, New Music
It’s so easy to fall into an all-Mozart (or all-Beyonce) rut. Take some time in January 2010 to break out of it. It may not last the whole year, but at least you can say you tried. On Saturday, January 16 at the First Presbyterian Church in Santa Monica,Jacaranda invites you to discover Thomas Ades, Benjamin Britten, Peter Maxwell Davies, George Benjamin, and others. The concert, called Licorice and Rosin (“licorice” is a slang term for clarinet and rosin is a solid form of resin used on string instruments), will present some of Britain’s more exciting contemporary music from the last twenty-five years.
If a church is the last place you’d like to be, Monday Evening Concerts at the Zipper Concert Hall at the Colburn School kicks off 2010 on January 11 at 8:00pm with a concert called “Mostly Californian.” Featuring compositions by Clint McCallum, Luciano Chessa, Michael Pisaro, and others, you will hear sounds of contemporary California. (No, that doesn’t include woeful cries for our current economic situation.) The composers in question present lyrical, theatrical works that won’t sound like anything else you’ve heard before.
Please click here for more information about Jacaranda. Alternatively, click here for information about Monday Evening Concerts.
Soundtrack for a Revolution
The Grammy Museum just celebrated their first birthday – still haven’t been? Monday, January 11 at 7:00pm they’re presenting Reel to Reel: Soundtrack for a Revolution, a documentary that looks at the American civil rights movement and the unparalleled soundtrack that went along with it. Filled with archive footage, interviews with civil rights leaders, and a soundtrack of freedom songs sung by modern day R&B, Hip Hop, and Soul legends like Joss Stone, Wyclef Jean, The Roots, and John Legend. Monday’s screening will be followed by a panel discussion chock full of everyone you’d like to get advice from for a soulful 2010 – Danny Glover, filmmakers Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman, producer Dylan Nelson, and music producer Corey Smyth.
We imagine that a great many of you, dear readers, have guests in town for the holidays. If you’re lucky enough to have them staying at your house, you’ll appreciate this little listing of places to send them so that they can experience all the art and culture that LA has to offer. (Remind them that Woody Allen was wrong when he said it was only frozen yogurt and right turns on red…)
Bergamot Station
A healthy sized collection of art galleries in Santa Monica, Bergamot Station does actually have something for every walk of life. Your sister-in-law prefers installations while your uncle is a photography nut? Send them west of the 405 to this once dilapidated train station for a day filled with some of LA’s most innovative galleries. They’ve even got a café, salon, and vintage clothing shop on site, so let them know they could be occupied for hours!
Bergamot Station is located at 2525 Michigan Ave in Santa Monica. Please call (310) 828-4001 or click here for more information.
Annenberg Space for Photography
Your guests will surely appreciate a jaunt to Annenberg Space for Photography’s latest exhibit: SPORT: Iooss and Leifer. Read our take on it here. It’s a spectacular collection that chronicles the recent history of sports including inspiring snaps of Serena Williams and Mohammad Ali. They have no excuse to come back before grabbing a bite at the little café downstairs and then maybe catching a movie across the street at the Century City shopping center – drop a hint about your favorite shops in the mall.
The Annenberg Space for Photography is located at 2000 Avenue of the Stars #10 in Century City. Call (213) 403-3000 for more information or click here.
Walt Disney Concert Hall
If you’ve got guests over New Year’s Eve, grab a couple seats to see Big Bad Voodoo Daddy take advantage of the unparalleled acoustics at Disney Hall. There’s a show at 7:00pm and one at 10:30pm – we’d recommend a quick bite either before or after the performance at Kendall’s Brasserie across the street at the Dorothy Chandler to help ring in the New Year!
Walt Disney Concert Hall is located at 111 South Grand Ave. in Downtown LA. Please call (323) 850-2000 or click here for more information.
Getty Villa in Malibu
There is no better place to remind your guests that you live in paradise than the Getty Villa in Malibu. It’s free to view the ancient Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiques and objets d’art, you’ve just got to make a reservation beforehand for parking. On view now at the Villa is an exhibition called “Reconstructing Identity: A Statue of a God from Dresden.” Once you’ve gotten your fill of the gorgeous views and Roman-inspired architecture, head a bit farther down PCH to Cross Creek Road, where you’ll find Taverna Tony’s (delicious Greek food) and some dangerous shopping.
The Getty Villa is located at 17985 Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. Please call (310) 440-7300 or click here for more information.
If you still haven’t felt the holiday spirit this year, you’re a little late on the uptake. The weather isn’t helping much – listening to “White Christmas” as you peel off your unnecessary scarf, for example, doesn’t encourage drinking hot chocolate and singing carols. Well, where the weather disappoints (in a way), our fair city’s art scene comes to the rescue.
The quintessential ballet experience known far and wide as The Nutcracker is upon us again and Los Angeles Ballet’s production will be on view at Royce Hall and Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center in the coming weeks. Click here to check out our behind the scenes look at what goes into such a magical production as theirs with Sugar Plum Fairies, Snow Flakes, Fighting Mice, and Princes to delight your child’s (and your inner child’s) every whim.
Musically, there’s nowhere that does the holiday season like the LA Philharmonic. On Sunday, December 20, you can warm up those vocal chords for a Messiah Sing-Along with the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Then on Tuesday, December 22 at 8:00pm, they’re presenting Holidays with Sweet Honey in the Rock – aka not your mama’s holiday songs, followed by Preservation Hall Jazz Band’s A Creole Christmas on Wednesday, December 23 at 8:00pm. Those are also, not your mama’s holiday songs. Unless your mama is Creole. If you’re at a loss for what to do on New Year’s Eve, spend it with the Big Bad Voodoo Daddy at Disney Hall.
Not everything that puts you in the holiday spirit has to scream Santa Claus, little elves, and red ribbons. There are some films that put a smile on your face regardless of the time of year and two of them are on view at the Egyptian Theatre on Saturday, December 26 – maybe to take your mind off the family dysfunction from the night before. Singin’ In The Rain and An American in Paris make up the double feature starting at 7:30pm.
Did we mention that Christmas can also be funny? The Largo at the Coronet has an All Star comedy show on Monday, December 21 at 9pm benefiting St. Jude’s Christmas Charity. It can also be whimsical if you get yourself to Royal/T in Culver City. Now through December 31, their Winter Wonderland pop up shop
Everyone answers the question the same way. “So, what kind of music do you listen to?” A little bit of everything, except country… right? Well, whether or not you’re hiding Carrie Underwood on your iPod, have you ever mentioned your penchant for “eclectic post-jazz?”
John Hollenbeck and his Claudia Quintet are betting they’ll be able to change your tune. The New York-based band experiments with what we’ve thus far known as jazz, but not in an extremely esoteric way – their rhythms and sounds are playful, complex, and really get you thinking. Since hearing them will undoubtedly give you a whole new genre to brag about (“I mostly love traditional Ghanaian drumming”), we’ve got some tickets to give away! Performing at REDCAT on Wednesday, October 28 at 8:30pm, Claudia Quintet includes Hollenbeck himself, Drew Gress on double bass, Maat Moran on “vibes,” Ted Reichman on accordian, and on the clarinet and tenor sax, Chris Speed. They’ll be joined by guest pianist Gary Versace as well as a couple of curious and lucky Fine Arts LA readers!
Here are some Extra! Extra! details you’ll want to remember: by entering into this raffle, you’ll automatically be entered into the next three raffles we’ve got hidden behind our backs. All we need is your first name, last name, and email address and voila – your eclectic musical taste speaks volumes about your open-mindedness.
(Click hereif you don’t want to risk it and would rather just buy your own tickets.)
It’s very rare that you find a native Angeleno.Whenever I meet someone and tell them that I was born and raised here, I get a cocked eyebrow almost as if to say “are you sure?”In the same way that when I finally meet another native, we instantly share a common bond, like we’ve suffered the ups and downs of the city together.As much as we natives joke about tourists on Hollywood Blvd. and Midwest transplants coming here to be a star, it is those people who (for better or worse) create the cultural makeup of the city and often; its those transplants that seem more at home here than us natives.
Case in point, Pink Martini.Hailing from Portland, Oregon, the “little orchestra” of eleven musicians has an old-Hollywood vibe that you’re hard pressed to find outside places like Musso & Franks.Their worldly, lounge-y, Hollywood-in-the-70s feel fits so perfectly in this city that it seems unfair that we can’t claim them as ours!Returning to the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday, September 19, Pink Martini brings with them a Copacabana style and a classical technique.If you’re unfamiliar with the Martini, listen extra careful for songs like “Let’s Never Stop Falling in Love,” “Dansez-vous,” and “Donde Estas, Yolanda?”.It makes you wonder how long one has to live in LA to be considered a local.They’ve been performing with the LA Philharmonic for nearly ten years now… How much longer before we can just pretend they’re one of us?
Pink Martini performs at the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday, September 19 at 8pm.For more information or tickets, please call (323) 850-2000 or click here.
By far one of the greatest opening sequences of any film ever made is Woody Allen’s Manhattan. Yes, it’s the photography, the voice-over narration, the shots of New York City at its finest, but more than anything, it’s George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” The undertow of buzzing clarinet and twinkling piano, combined with the slow, celebratory build of the entire orchestra induces a simultaneous feeling of hopeful anticipation and relaxed confidence. In Gershwin’s own words: “I heard it as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America, of our vast melting pot, of our unduplicated national pep, of our blues, our metropolitan madness.”
Capturing the magic of the jazz age can’t have been too hard. From Duke Ellington at the piano to Frank Sinatra on stage, cigarette firmly in hand, it’s easy to see the je ne sais quoi that was ubiquitous in the days of bow ties and soul singers. To read articles about jazz legends, to listen to their music, and to see photographs of their personal moments, we can catch a glimpse of the spirit of the music; the pain and the passion that made the jazz age so spectacular.
Anyone who’s spent even a small amount of time on the African continent has a good idea of what people mean when they use the phrase “African nostalgia.” Even if you haven’t traveled there, it’s easy to get a back-to-our-roots sense from the culture, art, music, and design available to us in the US. Everything from HBO’s 
The way you start off a new year is very important to the way the new year ends up going for you. At least that’s what they say. Put their theory into practice with some of January’s most promising arts events in our fair city – would you like your 2010 to look a little more Bond-like? Would you rather it looked a little more experimental than your 2009? It’s so tempting to answer those questions with: there’s an app for that, but really your city has got what it takes to kick off your new year just the way you’d like.
Everyone answers the question the same way. “So, what kind of music do you listen to?” A little bit of everything, except country… right? Well, whether or not you’re hiding Carrie Underwood on your iPod, have you ever mentioned your penchant for “eclectic post-jazz?”
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