Sean J. O'Connell

One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2012 issue. Check out our entire People 2012 issue here. Anyone willing to open a jazz club these days must be a little crazy, but if Joon Lee is nuts, he's doing a great job of hiding it. In fact,......

Brad Mehldau Trio Broad Stage 5-21-12 See also: Top Ten Jazz Albums for People Who Don't Know Shit About Jazz Brad Mehldau's most recent album, Ode, is a return to the trio format that helped make him one of the most prominent jazz pianists of the last twenty years. His......

Matt Chamberlain Residency with David Torn The Mint 5-16-12 Better than...watching the Lakers lose. Last night, before a moderate-sized crowd, drummer Matt Chamberlain resumed his month-long residency alongside guitar slinger David Torn. The two instrumentalists, armed with impeccable understanding and a relentless light show, put on a display of instrumental......

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......

Alex Sadnik Quintet Fingerprints Records 5-8-12 Better than...going swimming in Long Beach. Saxophonist Alex Sadnik is not a household name but he's trying. Aside from booking and playing a handful of rooms around the Long Beach area, he has embarked on a more globally minded project -- a podcast. Last......

Miguel Atwood-Ferguson Birthday Bash Blue Whale 5-4-12 Better than...celebrating Craig Ferguson's birthday. Violist Miguel Atwood-Ferguson is a really a nice guy - a "beautiful cat" as they might say in advance jazz speak. He radiates an openness and familiarity that few musicians possess and that helps when you want to......

Jeff Mangum Orpheum Theater 4-23-12 Better than...standing in 105 degree weather. After a ten-year absence from the road, songwriter-guitarist Jeff Mangum grew into a mythologized character that tens of thousands of kids pinned their hopes and theories upon. His two '90s era albums as Neutral Milk Hotel inspired a devoted......

See also: Anthony Wilson, Guitar Pin-up, Begins His Month-long Residency at the Blue Whale Anthony Wilson Quartet Blue Whale 4/4/12 Better than... the guy from 24 Hour Party People playing guitar all night. Last night, before a full house, guitarist-composer-arranger Anthony Wilson began his four-week residency at the Blue Whale......

Guitarist and L.A. native Anthony Wilson has been a part of the jazz scene since his birth. His 93-year-old father, bandleader/raconteur/legend Gerald Wilson, started swinging before World War II and hasn't stopped, but the younger Wilson grew up in a musical landscape as indebted to Peter Frampton as Lionel Hampton......