“If someone told me as a kid I’d be playing with these guys, I wouldn’t have believed it” So beamed drummer Carl Allen, no lightweight of his own, as he summed up the feeling of the energy emitted from the…
Category: Concert Reviews
Jazz Bakery’s “Moveable Feast” Presents: The Bill Laurance Project 03.21.16
If jazz is going to get a foothold in the present generation’s ipod, it is not going to be through mindless and endless cacophonic solos, but through the type of accessible yet swinging music delivered by bands like Snarky Puppy.…
Luciana Souza@The Broad Stage 03.18.16
Vocalist Luciana Souza demonstrated at The Broad Stage that Brazilian music can be presented in many hues. Up to now, most of her recordings have been of the softer pastels in watercolors with quiet chords delivered by the Romero Lubambo …
Stewart Copeland & God: Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ (1925)@The Valley Performing Arts Center 03.16.16
If you’ve had trouble getting into the Easter season this year, a trip to the Valley Performing Arts Center this past Wednesday evening would have cured your doldrums. Even Stewart Copeland, the famed drummer who composed the music for the…
Rosanne Cash w/ John Leventhal@The Broad Stage 03.12.16
One of the chief people forget about jazz is that it is a verb, as in the phrase “to jazz things up.” The current state of this genre is that it is being ignored by a large segment of the…
Hamilton Price Quartet@The Blue Whale 03.11.16
Taking some time off from being in the Military Service, bassist Hamilton Price got back in his civilian clothes and teamed up with all stars Billy Childs/p, Walter Smith III/ts and Jonathan Pinson/dr for a swinging mix of original inspirations…
Lisa Hilton@Pepperdine 03.04.15
On the throes of her latest album Nocturnal, pianist Lisa Hilton delivered material from the quartet recording and brought it down to its essence in an intimate solo performance at Pepperdine’s Wengler Center for the Arts. Seated at the piano…
Jeff Lorber Fusion@The Baked Potato 02.27.16
There’s a reason that keyboardist Jeff Lorber calls his band “fusion” and not “smooth.” While his music has been unfairly associated with ‘smooth jazz’ due to his one-time having Kenny G in his band, the fact is that Lorber has been…
Jersey Boys@Civics Arts Plaza 02.23.16
The Thousand Oaks production of Jersey Boys took the audience back to the last period of American pop music that was completely joyous. The musical story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons was delivered in an energetic 2 ½…
Gregory Porter and Dianne Reeves @ Disney Concert Hall 02.20.16
Two Grammy winners got together for a soul fest at Disney Hall, mixing past present and future. The hip team of Peter Martin/key, Romero Lubambo/g, Reginald Veal/b and Terreon Gully/dr got the Disney Hall into the mood for soul with…