Charles Mingus

Here's Where Five Jazz Legends Are Buried in L.A.

Everyone's always saying that jazz is dead -- at least since the fuzz shut down New Orleans' Storyville in 1917 -- but jazz will never die. Musicians on the other hand can, do and have. And quite a few jazz legends are buried in L.A. In fact, it's pretty surprising how many pivotal stars have thei ... More >>

A New Play About the Scandalous Astronaut Lisa Nowak

"I've come to believe that all theater is 'experimental theater,'" declares Los Angeles stage auteur Joseph Tepperman. "But I don't know -- there's a problem with using that word because then people expect Robert Wilson, they expect something avant-garde with a capital A, capital G." Tepperman and ... More >>

Five Historic L.A. Jazz Spots

Have you hugged a jazz musician today? You should. For the second year in a row, April 30th has been declared International Jazz Day by no less a reputable organization than the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. This year's host city is Istanbul. But why not L.A.? A ... More >>

Austin Peralta's Death Was Fueled By Drugs and Alcohol, Says Coroner's Report

Twenty-two-year-old virtuoso pianist Austin Peralta died shockingly the day before Thanksgiving. Until now, details of the final hours of his life have been mostly a mystery. See also: The Life and Death of Austin Peralta His coroner's report, obtained by West Coast Sound, states that viral pneumo ... More >>

Ten Jazz Albums to Hear Before You Die

By Joseph Lapin Because there are multiple decades of jazz, it's almost impossible to pick the top 10 albums of all time; the hip cats with their canes and cool shades will throw their used saxophone reeds in my direction and call me a young whippersnapper. Top Ten Jazz Albums for People Who Don't ... More >>

Top Ten Jazz Albums for People Who Don't Know Shit About Jazz

See also: *Top 10 Rap Albums For People Who Don't Know Shit About Hip-Hop *Top 5 Los Angeles Jazz Albums of 2011 Lots of folks know almost nothing about jazz, but condensing the hundred some odd years of the genre into ten albums is not easy, something akin to asking someone to describe the histor ... More >>

5 Revelations About L.A. Music History at the Grammy Museum's Show 'Trouble In Paradise'

Becky Sapp​ For some, Los Angeles' musical history fits nicely into categories; there was bouncing beach pop, Laurel Canyon folk, West Coast rap and Sunset Strip rock. But behind this shroud of notable names and iconic acts, there is a richer, more diverse portrait of music in Los Angeles. Th ... More >>

Bizarre Ride: Jeff Weiss's Five Los Angeles Music Archetypes

[Editor's note: Longtime Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's new column, "Bizarre Ride," begins today. You can find it on West Coast Sound every Wednesday.] The L.A. cliché is a war of shadow and light: fallen stars gone to seed, saccharine pop and gangsta rap. But this is 2012 and Dr. Dre is a headphone g ... More >>

Top Five Los Angeles Jazz Albums of 2011

Gretchen Parlato​See also *The Top Ten Los Angeles Albums of 2011 *Top Ten Los Angles Metal Albums of 2011 Despite what some may believe, Los Angeles has a rich jazz history. From Central Avenue to Hermosa Beach, early innovators like Hampton Hawes, Charles Mingus and Dexter Gordon honed thei ... More >>

Victorian L.A. With a Modern Soundtrack

Five Artsy Things to Do This Week, Including Sam Benjamin's 'Brief History of Porn' Lecture

Courtesy Actual Size L.A.A shrine-like installation in Gustavo Herrera and Spencer Douglass's exhibition "Hollenbeck"​ If you need a break from all the nostalgic historicizing saturating the art world these days, dash over to see an ingenious artist-made, open-air storefront on Alvarado. But d ... More >>

R.I.P. Gil Bernal; Los Angeles Tenor Sax Great is Dead

​Obituary by Jonny Whiteside Tenor sax veteran Gil Bernal died on Sunday of congestive heart failure. He was 80. Bernal was an incomparable Los Angeles jazz musician who began his professional career with swing kingpin Lionel Hampton in 1950, and played and collaborated with everyone from Ray ... More >>

Eric Garcetti Becomes Eclectic: What Councilman's Guest DJ Set Says About the Race For L.A. Mayor

Eric Garcetti, spinning​Eric Garcetti knows how to spin. The still-undeclared candidate for mayor threw down some tracks yesterday during a guest DJ set at KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic. It was all in good fun, but Garcetti's playlist -- and his commentary on it -- says a lot about how he would ... More >>

Last Chance Cassavetes: Your Weekly Movie To-Do List

Buddy Collette, 1921-2010

Legendary LA Jazzman Buddy Collette Dead at 89

merryljaye.com"Buddy Collette," by Merry Jaye​Legendary LA jazz performer Buddy Collette died last Sunday. He was 89 years old. Collette was a treasure trove of LA jazz history, a living depository of black culture in this city going back to the 1920s. Born in 1921, he was exactly the right ... More >>

Record Shopping with The Slits!

The Slits, the legendary UK punk band who created in 1979 the groundbreaking dub-fusion masterpiece Cut (which you should own, or run and get if you don't), were recently in town promoting a comeback release. The band, still led by irrepressible frontwoman Ari Up and original bassist Tessa Pollitt ( ... More >>

Like a Rainbow in Curved Air: An Interview with Terry Riley

Legendary composer-performer Terry Riley is the creator of such groundbreaking "Minimalist" works as In C, A Rainbow In Curved Air, Poppy Nogood and, with the Kronos Quartet, decidedly un-Minimalist works as Cadenza on the Night Plain and Salome Dances for Peace. He'll perform solo and in collabora ... More >>

A World of (Jazz) Music

The Ghost of Miles at the Hollywood Bowl

The Ghost of Miles Davis Tonight at the Hollywood Bowl

Rock Picks: Riot Girl Carnival, Miniature Tigers, Death Cab for Cutie, Deer Tick

Also, Vieux Farka Touré, John Fogerty, Stacey Q, Watts Ensemble and others

Brick's Picks: Mingus Big Band, Jane Bunnett & Spirits of Havana, Randy Brecker

Free gigs with Don Rader, Jon Mayer and Jack Sheldon

Brick's Picks: Amir ElSaffar, Kyle Eastwood, Dot Org at Eagle Rock Center

LA People 2009: Urban Redeveloper — Edgar Arceneaux

Brick's Picks: Connect With Your Inner Mingus

Jazz in L.A., October 3-9

In the Beginning: Hip-Hop at the Movies

Rapper's delight

Movie Reviews: Heavy Metal in Baghdad, Postal, War, Inc.

Also, The Cool School, Refusenik and more

Prisons, Punks and Don Quixote

Our critics’ guide to the very best of LAFF

Disney Nights

The Philharmonic's Shadow of Stalin, Mingus' Epitaph and Dawn Upshaw singing Golijov

Plunging Into the Third Stream

Turtle Island Quartet at the Jazz Bakery, and more

What the Heck Is That?

Arthur Nights, the festival you never expected

Bound and Determined

An excerpt from The Dark Tree: Jazz and the Community Arts in Los Angeles

Smog Pop

The musical life of air pollution

Fullness

Gerald Wilson, big bands and the rewards of non-suicide

Unleashed

L. A. Flaw

The case against the city becomes its lore — and much of its charm. The evidence? Writing Los Angeles: A literary Anthology

TRIBES: Kittens and Puppies and Birds, Oh My

Music, Race and Junk

The Only Music

The Goods

I listened to ’em, honest

The Elixirs

Charles Lloyd on ultrapolation, dehumidification and the sound

New Tijuana Moods

Reinventing the border with Nor-Tec and Julieta Venegas

Let It Burn

The Sun Unplugged

Beats, blood and Infesticons

'Don't Like Vanilla'

The many flavors of Central Avenue Sounds

The World's Most Dangerous Musicians

L.A.’s post-jazz scene

Hot Nice Lunch Forever

Space Sparks

Vinny Golia's not blowin' in the wind

News

Jazz Central

Oral history from a vanished Los Angeles