Music Picks: Janet Jackson, John Escreet Quartet, DJ Quik, Charles Bradley

Charles Bradley

Location Info

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El Rey Theatre

5515 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: Mid-Wilshire/ Hancock Park

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The Troubadour

9081 Santa Monica Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: West Hollywood

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Hollywood Bowl

2301 N. Highland Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90068

Category: Music Venues

Region: Out of Town

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Roxy Theatre

9009 Sunset Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: West Hollywood

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The Echoplex

1154 Glendale Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90026

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: Out of Town

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House of Blues Sunset Strip

8430 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90069

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: Out of Town

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More About

• Charlie Haden
• Young Jeezy
• John Williams
• Hip-Hop and Rap
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media

GETTY MUSEUM

A late-blooming soul man, the raspy-voiced 62-year-old released his heartbreaking and highly autobiographical debut in January through Dunham, a sublabel of Daptone Records — a label with a reputation as a cultural institution responsible for curating the neo-soul revival of recent years — operated by Menahan Street Band founder/guitarist Thomas Brenneck (also of the Budos Band). Bradley sang in a James Brown tribute act in hole-in-the-wall Brooklyn clubs until Daptone owner Gabriel Roth discovered him and forced him into the studio to record No Time for Dreaming, a culmination of Bradley's lifelong musicianship. Six decades of pent-up emotion pour into these tracks and his vocals echo the delivery of soul icon Otis Redding. One of the best Daptone releases to date. —Lainna Fader

Dntel

THE ECHOPLEX

Dntel is one of the many electro-pop projects spearheaded by Jimmy Tamborello, who's almost certainly best known to folks outside L.A.'s beat scene as half of the Postal Service. Two years before that duo's 2003 debut, Give Up, became a left-field commercial hit, Dntel's Life Is Full of Possibilities (with a foreshadowing Ben Gibbard cameo) lit a smaller-scale fire among Pitchfork-perusing indie types; in October Sub Pop plans to issue a two-disc 10th-anniversary edition of the album with all kinds of bonus material. At tonight's show — which concludes a North American trek with local digi-soul dreamers the One AM Radio and Geotic (aka Will Wiesenfeld of Baths) — you can expect to hear ditties from Life, as well as from Dntel's 2010 After Parties EPs. —Mikael Wood

Also playing:

BRIAN WILSON at the Canyon Club; TRIBUTE TO COCTEAU TWINS at the Smell; THE DODOS at the Autry; COSMIC HARP at Levitt Pavilion (MacArthur Park); R. STEVIE MOORE at the Satellite; AZALIA SNAIL, DAN WEST at Taix; GOLDEN STATE at Hotel Café; ALLAN HOLDSWORTH at the Baked Potato; ANNA MJOLL at Vibrato; THOM ROTELLA with THE JOHN HEARD TRIO at Charlie O's; JOHN ALTMAN with THE MARK STEVENS TRIO at Desert Rose.

sun 8/28

Serge Gainsbourg Tribute

HOLLYWOOD BOWL

It's fitting that it will take a sizable galaxy of musical stars to pay homage to Serge Gainsbourg, given the late French singer's enormous influence on a wide variety of music styles, from pop chansons and jazz to reggae and electronica. Beck, who has often cited the composer/multi-instrumentalist/poet/actor as a major influence on his own eclectic oeuvre, leads the charge tonight, but he's joined by a delightfully diverse crew of musicians, including Zola Jesus, Beach House's Victoria Legrand, Grizzly Bear's Ed Droste, Faith No More's Mike Patton and Serge's son, Lulu Gainsbourg. But perhaps no performers will come as close to capturing the great man's whimsically daft and subversive spirit as Sean Lennon and his Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger partner, Charlotte Kemp Muhl. Muhl may play the straight woman to Lennon's absurd surrealist, but she's just as musically adept and quick with the smart and savvy one-liners. —Falling James

John Escreet Quartet

ALVAS SHOWROOM

While SoCal is an area where great musical talent often meets with less than equal showrooms, music lover Matt Lincir has turned his family's longtime dance studio in downtown San Pedro into one of the area's best small performance spaces. Now equipped with a fully restored 1921 Steinway B and a more recent Hamburg Steinway C, Alvas Showroom has the area's two best club pianos in one space, along with staging, lighting and sound equipment most other local rooms only dream of. On Sunday hot young NYC pianist John Escreet gets a turn at Alvas, joined by Ben Wendel (Kneebody) on sax, Dave Robaire on bass and Steve Hass on drums. Escreet's percussive attacks at a recent Blue Whale SRO performance had that audience in musical rapture the entire night. —Tom Meek

Also playing:

PART TIME PUNKS WITH CRAFT SPELLS, SEAPONY, GRAVE BABIES at the Echo; UH HUH HER, HOLLY MIRANDA at Bootleg Bar.

mon 8/29

Stone Darling

THE SATELLITE

Local pop group Stone Darling close their weekly residency tonight with another no-cover set. Whereas some all-girl groups rely on cutesiness to get by, these Darlings balance their sugary, melodic side with a contemplative moodiness that makes their pop songs so much more than ephemeral bonbons. The quartet prefers to reinvent songs like the country standard "Long Black Veil" and Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer" as lo-fi laments rather than mimic the prevailing pop divas of our era. "All I Wanna Do" starts solemnly with a low-key jangle of guitars and drums as Paige Darling coos reverentially in hushed tones, sending out romantic smoke signals that ultimately feel more like a worshipful prayer than a mere pop song. —Falling James

Also playing:

ROSS SEA PARTY, LA FONT at Silverlake Lounge; GARFUNKEL & OATES at Largo; ACTIVE CHILD, MAN/MIRACLE, HOT AS SUN at the Echo; FRANK FAIRFIELD at Redwood.

tue 8/30

Young Jeezy, Freddie Gibbs

HOUSE OF BLUES

Lots of side-eyed glances and hip-hop blog grousing followed this past spring's announcement that L.A. by way of Gary, Ind., rapper Freddie Gibbs had signed with Atlanta trap star Young Jeezy's label. Looks like the huffing and puffing that Gangsta Gibbs was signing his death sentence was just hot air. Jeezy seems to have been spurred into action by Gibbs, setting off on this tour and recently announcing a September release date for the long-awaited follow-up to 2008's The Recession. No wonder if he feels a little pressure — Gibbs is one of the strongest, most technically impressive rappers around, even as he seems continually and genuinely surprised he's able to make money from his lyrical skill instead of the streets. No gimmicks tonight, just a gangsta party. —Rebecca Haithcoat