Posts Tagged ‘Hollywood Bowl’

We’re sure that there are other men named Gustavo in the world, but right now there’s one in particular that Fine Arts LA welcomes to our fair city with open arms and baited breath.  Mr. Gustavo Dudamel officially (finally) began his post this week as the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s new Music Director.  That he started his tenure with a free concert for 18,000 people at the Hollywood Bowl says volumes about the kind of attitude he has toward classical music, the people who love it, and the people who almost love it.

At 28 years old, he’s wise beyond his years, but not so much so that he can’t understand the challenges that face him in his mission to reconnect with people his own age via classical music. A primary reason that younger generations are less and less interested in classical music is because of the misconception that it’s your grandparents’ music or that it’s only for rich people.  Gustavo has arrived to prove his adage that “classical music is cool” and who better to send the message than a young man who came up in Venezuela, learning music in El Sistema.  He believes, like we do, in the importance of the social parts of the arts and culture.

He’s also been welcomed with open arms because he stands as a significant Latin American figure in classical music, an industry largely consisting of hefty Italians and blonde divas.  His curly hair a departure from Esa Pekka Salonen’s cool coif, Gustavo has come to break away from any kind of elitist view of classical music in this city.  He thinks of himself as less a genius and more a man who’s mastered the art of studying and research.  Without studying, he’s said, he wouldn’t be anywhere near where he is today, which is to say that he’s pretty much role model material.

At a recent press conference, he easily waved off the question of whether or not he thinks he’s too young to tackle any composers or complex works.  Apparent in the unconventional season he’s planned for 2009/2010 at Disney Hall, his confidence will be instrumental in accomplishing his goals with the LA Phil.  With a Fellowship Program recognizing talented, young individuals in music from around the world alongside his Youth Orchestra Los Angeles, he’s already gotten serious about not only including the children, but socializing and honoring their achievements in music.

Another part of our future with Gustavo will include many technological advances.  His free Bienvenido Gustavo concert was streamed live on the internet yesterday and can still be found online (until tomorrow morning).  Also on the LA Phil’s website, you’ll find an interactive (and genuinely addictive) game called Bravo Gustavo.   Deborah Borda and her team at the LA Phil have imported an intelligent, vivacious guy who’s here to tell us what he knows – and it’s the kind of stuff that we want to know, too.   Los Angeles and its classical music scene will never be the same.  We welcome him, his adorable dimples, and the changes he brings!

Click here to take a listen to the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel.

You’ll be hard pressed to find a culture more bent on celebrating every moment than Indian culture.  Think back to pretty much any Bollywood movie and you’ll remember the minute the man simply lays eyes on his love interest, the entire city seems to break into song.  The jubilee only heightens with every step he takes closer to closing the deal – when her father gives his blessing, for example, the entire family suddenly emerges to sing about destiny and overcoming the trials of love and marriage.  Their music can be best described as just as colorful as a Holi Festival. 

Malkit Singh, a singer so popular you can consider him (alongside Ravi Shankar) a musical ambassador to India, knows just how to celebrate with his rhythmic, gyrating, exotic sounds and a stage full of beautiful, sari-covered women dancing to the beat.  Tomorrow night at the Hollywood Bowl, transport yourself into a world of curries and bindis with their India Calling featuring performances by Malkit Singh , Ravi Shankar and his daughter Anoushka, Rhythm of Rajasthan, and Kailash Kher’s Kailasa as well as a performance by Yogen’s Bollywood Step Dance Troupe.  The infectious, hypnotic sounds of celebration will have you on your feet learning to bhangra in no time.  They say, the rule of thumb to picking it up quick is: with one hand you pat the dog, while with the other you screw in a light bulb.  Best of luck!

India Calling! is tomorrow night, Sunday, September 20, 2009 at 7:00pm at the Hollywood Bowl.  For more information, please call (323) 850-2000 or click here.  

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.  

Here! Have a listen:

What do you get when you cross Langston Hughes with The Roots and vocalist de’Adre Aziza? Ask your mama.  What are the twelve moods of jazz? Ask your mama.  Where can you hear an intricate score accompanying quotes said by greats like Louis Armstrong and Bill Bojangles? Ask your mama. 

Langston Hughes knew something we should all know – Mama knows best!  His collaboration with composer Laura Karpman, “Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz,” is a seriously exciting concert that encompasses music, film, and spoken word with such guests as The Roots, conductor George Manahan, famed soprano Jessye Norman, Nnenna Freelon, and de’Adre Aziza.  Within about 90-minutes, the concert weaves its way through jazz, German song, Latin music, Middle-Eastern styles, and Afro-Cuban sounds for your listening pleasure.  It was inspired by Hughes’ unparalleled career and his experiences with music and the people that love and make it across the globe.  Started in 1961, this visual, auditory, emotional, enticing poetry-cycle was well before its time, melding the sounds and senses of both fine arts and street talk.  It’s really the sort of project you can never say enough about – there’s always some intention or meaning that you’ve run out of time (or words?) for. 

To get a taste of what Langston Hughes’ mother must have taught him, “Ask Your Mama” is coming to the Hollywood Bowl tomorrow night! 

Following Mr. Hughes and his crazy, visual, musical poem project is a triptych of classic jazz, if you will, on Wednesday, September 2.  Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, and Lenny White are heading to the Bowl for a musical conversation on all kinds of jazz from acoustic to electric and back again.  Their performance comes with guests artists you may have heard of like Chaka Khan, Jean Luc Ponty, and John Scofield. 

Don’t worry: mama would approve if you bought tickets to both concerts.  Jazz she liked; it’s that darn rock’n’roll she thought was just noise. 

“Ask Your Mama” is on at the Hollywood Bowl tomorrow night (Sunday, August 30) at 7:30pm.  Corea, Clarke, and White are performing at the Hollywood Bowl on Wednesday, September 2 at 8:00pm.  For more information, please call (323) 852-2000 or click here.  

I’ve got nothing to say about the controversial, taboo subject of the moment: religion.  This is Fine Arts LA, not Bill Maher’s personal blog.  Having said that, there are times when mass or other religious services are perhaps less than invigorating.  I went to Catholic school and suffered through plenty of boring sermons that would have been improved tenfold by a little soul.  If you are of a like mind, I personally recommend heading to the House of Blues on a Sunday morning for their crazy Gospel Brunch.  If Sunday mornings aren’t your thing, then I recommend heading to the Hollywood Bowl on Wednesday night to hear the sounds of the ever soulful Patti LaBelle.

Performing songs from her recent The Gospel According to Patti LaBelle, she’ll have you waving your hands in the air and praising whatever higher power you please.  She toured churches across America to promote the release of the album and now she’s headed to the musical “church” where every Angeleno worships – the Bowl.  With songs like “Walk Around Heaven,” “More Than (He Loves You),” and “My Everything,” Patti’s got a big thing for her higher power and has a loud enough voice to make any staunch atheist start having second thoughts.  Working with music legends like Jheryl Busby, Shirley Caesar, and the late James R. “Budd” Ellison, LaBelle recruited great talents to help revisit her gospel roots.

A force to be reckoned with, LaBelle will be “Hallelujah”-ing for any and all available worshipers on Wednesday evening.  Grab a bottle of wine (the blood, right?), some snacks, and settle in for the most entertaining and truly invigorating kind of gospel around.  I have personally always worshiped the Hollywood Bowl anyway, so if the shoe fits….

Patti LaBelle will be performing at the Hollywood Bowl on Wednesday, August 19 at 8pm.  For more information, please call (323) 850-2000 or click here. 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the child prodigy who was the toast of Viennese society before the age of ten, was a quick study – needless to say.  It is rumored that it took him less than thirty minutes to master his first piece of music, which was a scherzo by Georg Christoph Wagenseil.

Just less than one hundred years later in Russia, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was breaking it to his family that rather than working as a civil servant, he’d chosen to attend the St. Petersburg Conservatory and pursue a career in music.  He composed the music for Swan Lake in his thirties and continued to create some of the world’s most emotive, personal classical music.

Now, over one hundred years after Tchaikovsky’s death in the year 2009, we’ve got a decision to make.  Mozart versus Tchaikovsky.  This week, the Los Angeles Philharmonic presents two evenings of Mozart and two of Tchaikovsky and unless you’re oddly in favor of stacked parking, I have a feeling you’re not going to both.  The “Mozart Under the Stars” concert includes a host of familiar favorites: The Marriage of Figaro Overture , his Piano Concerto No. 23, and lastly his Symphony No. 40 – as well as an appearance by pianist Louis Lortie.  Then, the “Tchaikovsky Spectacular” (which includes fireworks – an easy choice for pyromaniacs) features his Battle of Poltava from Mazeppa, Piano Concerto No. 1 , the Lilac Fairy Introduction from Sleeping Beauty, the Romeo and Juliet duet, and last, but definitely not least, his infamous 1812 Overture .  The Tchaikovsky extravaganza also includes performances by soprano Wendy Bryn Harmer, pianist Mihaela Ursuleasa, and the USC Trojan Marching Band.

The Hollywood Bowl’s evening with Mozart will almost be like visiting a familiar friend – the recognizable sounds of his overture, a bottle of wine, and the rare ability to see a sky full of stars in Los Angeles County.  On the other hand, the all-Tchaikovsky, all-fireworks spectacle will sound and feel like graduation day mixed with the 4th of July all over again.  It all depends on how much pomp and circumstance you’re after.

“Mozart Under the Stars” will be held on Tuesday, August 11 and Thursday, August 13 at 8:00pm at the Hollywood Bowl.  “Tchaikovsky Spectacular” will be held on Friday, August 14 and Saturday, August 15 at 8:30pm at the Hollywood Bowl.  For more information, please call (323) 850-2000 or click here.

It’s the dawning of a new age… and everyone seems to be very aware of it.  Gustavo Dudamel is coming and citizens of Los Angeles (as well as the entire Fine Arts LA team) couldn’t be more excited!  Tickets to his free community concert, “Bienvenido Gustavo!” at the Hollywood Bowl on October 3rd sold out in just one hour and twenty minutes – faster than any Madonna concert in recent memory.  While we can’t condone getting tickets from a scalper (although, we may know a guy) we can encourage checking for tickets two to three weeks before the event.  If your passion for Gustavo Dudamel is so strong that you’re willing to shell out some dollars for what would have otherwise been a free concert, there are many on sale at StubHub, Ticket Solutions, or Empire Tickets.  We do find that tickets somehow magically appear closer to the date of quick sellers like this.  

In case you hadn’t heard about his free concert, the lineup includes a number of local youth ensembles, Cuban pianist Alfredo Rodriguez, Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Herbie Hancock, and Taj Mahal.  The gates open at 3pm and into the evening you’ll be exposed to the wonders of such music as Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.  The main wonder, however, will be the wild, curly mop atop the head of the LA Phil’s new Music Director.  Bienvenido, Gustavo! 

For more information on the Bienvedio Gustavo concert, taking place October 3 at the Hollywood Bowl at 3pm, please click here.  If you were one of the lucky (clever) few who snagged a free ticket by standing in line at the Bowl, please send us your stories! 

This weekend at the Hollywood Bowl, luck’s not necessarily a lady; it’s a parking spot.  I’m no gambler, but I’d be willing to bet that if you show up later than 6:00 PM on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday (even though showtime’s not until 8:30 PM and 7:30 PM on Sunday) to see the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra’s rendition of Frank Losesser’s classic Guys and Dolls, there won’t be a spot for miles.

From conductor Kevin Sites and director Richard Jay Alexander, the same dapper gents who sent the songs of Les Miserables soaring into the hills last summer—and with the help of Tony-award winning choreographer Donna McKechnie—Guys and Dolls promises to be a star-studded event.  Jessica Biel assumes the role of the innocent missionary Sarah Brown, Scott Bakula shoots for Nathan Detroit, Brian Stokes Mitchell—living up to his nickname as Broadway’s “last-leading man”—plays Sky Masterson, and as Arvide Abernathy, the always lovable yet consistently overlooked Beau Bridges.  Oh, and don’t forget Brando and Sinatra, whose ghosts are sure to be hovering in the mist, shooting craps and snapping along to all the loveable numbers they once called their own. 

Needless to say, this weekend might be the time to try out that old LA public transportation system.  Or who knows?  Luck might be on your side.

The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra’s production of Guys and Dolls opens its curtains at 8:30 PM on Friday, July 31st and Saturday, August 1st, then at 7:30 PM on Sunday, August 2nd.  Please call (323) 850-2000 or click here for more information.  

It’s not uncommon to feel that summer hasn’t truly begun until sultry Brazilian sounds fill your ears – to be clear: not pickup lines in Portuguese, but the soft, rhythmic tones of bossa nova, samba, and Brazilian jazz.  Here to start your summer, then, are Sergio Mendes, Eddie Palmieri, and Poncho Sanchez performing Wednesday night at the Hollywood Bowl.  You’ll have a Panama hat on and a beer in hand in no time.

There’s little one can say about Sergio Mendes without sounding repetitive or like a suck-up.  While living in Los Angeles in 1968, Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66 created songs like “Mais Que Nada” and “The Look of Love” that reached the ears of an entire nation and did nothing to wean us off of our addiction to all things Brazilian.  On his solo albums Arara and Brasieleiro, Mendes musically reminisced about his Brazilian roots with strong rhythms, gorgeous melodies, and an irresistible beat. 

Born in Harlem in 1936, Eddie Palmieri is one of the most celebrated Latin pianists of our time.  Marrying his Puerto Rican background and style with jazz, R&B, and salsa, Palmieri has a sound all his own. He’s got a more New York Latin vibe than the soft, sweet Carribean tones of, say, Mendes.  If you enjoyed the music in 2005’s Mad Hot Ballroom, Palmieri is your next musical step. 

Lastly, a Southern Californian native who has mastered Afro-Cuban Latin jazz – Poncho Sanchez.  If you’ve never heard his name, Google or iTunes search for him immediately. Following in the footsteps of Tito Puente and Machito, Sanchez is one of the most acclaimed Afro-Cuban drummers of his time.  His slow, sticky beats will get even Mendes’ and Palmieri’s hips moving.  Latin people say there are two kinds of people in this world: people who are Latin and people who want to be Latin.  While I’m pretty sure every nationality has that saying, it may ring even more true on Wednesday night. 

Sergio Mendes, Eddie Palmieri, and Poncho Sanchez will perform Wednesday, July 8 at the Hollywood Bowl at 8:00pm.  For more information, please call (323) 850-2000 or click here.  

If you haven’t bought your tickets yet for the Hollywood Bowl’s Opening Night tomorrow evening to watch Josh Groban and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame, you’re a little late.  The major consolation prize for missing out on such a spectacular evening (including performances by Frederica von Stade, Trisha Yearwood, and Angelique Kidjo), is that it is the official kick-off to the Hollywood Bowl 2009 season! 

You’re surely already very familiar with the layout of the Bowl and its parking lot surrounds, so this Sunday we recommend scouting out your favorite parking spot for the first time this summer to catch “KCRW”s World Festival.  This year, “KCRW” brings you Femi Kuti & the Positive Force, Santigold, and Raphael Saadiq who are all known for their incredibly soulful and rhythmic sounds.  Femi Kuti, son of Nigerian musical legend Fela Kuti, is a world-renowned Afrobeat and jazz musician who has worked with everyone from Motown to Mos Def.  His music is energetic and pulls influences from around the world without ever forgetting his Nigerian roots. 

Santigold, an American who hails from Philadelphia, has a sound that reminds us of M.I.A mixed with club beats, 80s pop music sounds, and a whole slew of other influences from indie rock to island sounds. Then there’s Raphael Saadiq.  He’s a contemporary throwback to the artists we listen to now nostalgically; he adds a modern rhythm to sounds that otherwise would only be harkening back to soul music of the 1960s and 70s. Listening to his music is like remembering the Temptations, Al Green, and the Four Tops like you knew them when.  Seems like Femi Kuti, Santigold, and Raphael Saadiq are the ones you need to know now. 

“KCRW”s World Festival at the Hollywood Bowl is Sunday, June 21 at 7:00pm.  Throughout the Bowl’s season, there will be a number of other “KCRW” World Festival concerts to check out.  For more information, please call (323) 850-2000 or visit their website. 

We’d like to recommend a few great takeout spots for your delicious Hollywood Bowl picnic! In Century City, Clementine’s has Hollywood Bowl specific menus to choose from. In West Hollywood, the ever-popular Joan’s on Third knows how to pack a picnic basket.  And on Melrose Ave. near Fairfax, Froma has the whole “cheese, sandwiches, wine, cupcakes” thing down.