This is the best deal on the planet if you are a flamenco fan. It is a full day of flamenco performance from 10 flamenco studios, plus food, drink, merchants, dance lessons and the like. Proceeds go to the restoration of the St. Isidore Historical Plaza, the oldest public building in Los Alamitos. According to Sarah Parra, the producer of the event and owner of Esencia Flamenca Dance Company, this may be the only event of its kind on the west coast. I attended last year’s event and it was a blast! Here is the schedule of performances.
St. Isidore Historical Plaza
Feira de Abril began in the 19th century as a post-Lent celebration in Seville Spain and carries on to this day. It is a six day fair of dining, dancing, parades, fireworks and Sevillanos decked out in traditional attire. Six days is too much for my lightweight constitution, but I will happily take six hours of it this Sunday!
Admission $20 and gets you $10 worth of tapas and beverages. You can buy tickets at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/feria-de-sevilla-los-alamitos-tickets-30902132109
LA has an amazing number of fine arts events. Unfortunately, many of them are below the radar, which does not do LA justice. I stumble upon them via stray tweets by outfits such as Art Nerd Los Angeles.
Expo Contemporary Art Fair
Spring Art Week LA is a prime example. Spring Art Week LA is a convergence of three juried shows at The Reef in the downtown LA Arts District. This event sounds like a great introduction to new artists, new photographers and new mediums for us culture consumers. It is further testament that the LA arts scene is on fire.
The Reef
Spring Art Week LA consists of:
Photo Independent – Showcases high caliber, independent, under-represented photographic artists who do not have an opportunity to participate in gallery-based art fairs.
EXPO Contemporary – Showcases transformative projects from painters, printmakers, book and graphic artists, sculptors, assemblage and mixed media artists, muralists, installation artists, and high concept designers. The fair will also explore alternative contexts including public art, experimental architecture, and environmental, social, and collaborative projects.
LA Festival of Photography – Workshops, lectures and networking events for photography professionals and students.
The shows are produced by Fabrik Media. Fabrik Media is worthy of their own story. The net of it is Fabrik produces a national art events guide, an LA-centric art magazine, limited edition art books and the above shows. The magazine is pretty cool. You can peruse back issues here.
Fabrik Magazine
The shows run April 22 and 23 with opening night on April 21. The LA Festival of Photography begins April 18. Tickets are available here. Online purchases receive automatic discounts.
Elizabeth Lamers is the best music accident I ever had. I stumbled upon her years ago at Hotel Laguna. It was her on vocals with a guitarist doing The Great American Songbook – my favorite genre. I paid attention. The vocal-guitar jazz duet is tricky to uphold and they hit it out of the park. A little web research told me that I was I was right to take notice and right to keep catching her performances. She’s held some impressive company in the music world. For instance, here is a video of her singing with Linda Rondstadt. Elizabeth is wearing the green dress and is the best looking of the quartet. (the best looking people always share my tastes!)
You, too, can keep company with Elizabeth (and be good looking) at various venues around The OC. Her shows are intimate, she mingles with the audience during breaks and she is one of the nicest people you will ever meet.
But first, it is important to stress why The Great American Songbook matters. For the uninitiated, The Great American Songbook, also known as American standards, are the familiar songs you’ve heard performed by Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Doris Day, etc. Some of the noteworthy composers are Cole Porter, Ira Gershwin, Rogers & Hart and Hoagy Carmichael. These songs have been around a lot longer than rock and will continue to thrive as new generations discover them. The surest indication of cultural longevity is….longevity.
Singers and jazz musicians have been and will be drawn to the songbook and for good reason. The melodies are original, sophisticated and make for enjoyable interpretation. The lyrics are clever and have staying power. Old school rock musicians talk about the songbook in interviews and how their parents’ records got them hooked. It became a rite of passage for some of these established rock singers to issue recordings of American standards.
Unfortunately, some of those rock singers should NOT have issued those records! The Great American Songbook betrays a singer’s real capabilities or lack thereof. Sinatra, Bennet, Ella Fitzgerald et. al. were relentless about their craft. They practiced their scales every day and you can hear the results.
Which brings me back to Elizabeth Lamers. Her quality, dedication, warm tone and brilliant musicians will be obvious to you when you hear her sing. Here she is doing Gershwin’s How Long Has This Been Going On.
You can catch Elizabeth most Saturdays at Bacchus Bar, a lovely, wine-centric hideaway in Irvine. The shows are FREE. But don’t bother checking Bacchus’ event calendar. They don’t maintain one. Luckily, Elizabeth maintains a calendar on her website. An event that you must see is her upcoming performance at the Casino San Clemente Jazz Series on May 25. She will deliver on a double challenge: She will perform an homage to Anita O’Day AND be backed by a drummerless trio. O’Day was one of the most venerated jazz singers ever. O’Day’s pronunciation, control and phrasing were razor sharp. Judge for yourself in this 1958 video of Anita. Of course, what is not up for debate is how cool Anita O’Day was. She was in the Steve McQueen tier of cool! The audience looks pretty cool, too. Don’t you want those outfits and accessories?
Anita O’Day – Queen of Cool in song, style and demeanor
Elizabeth Lamers will elevate your taste when it comes to Great American Songbook and what a night of live music can be. Catch these shows when you can. I have them listed in my calendar page.
When I heard the name Sunset Club Trio, I thought they were a jazz ensemble. My bad. This trio is another example of astonishing, young, LA-based classical talent putting their own spin on the old masters. But it is a respectful, refreshing and exciting spin! Most often, they transcribe classical pieces to fit their trio format (violin, flamenco guitar and electric guitar). The results are breathtaking! See for yourself at this link.
Southern California is indeed the perfect storm for attracting and mashing up all these talents and delivering such compelling live music: We have the entertainment industry, The Colburn School, USC’s Thornton School of Music (two of the trio members are pursuing Ph.D. degrees at USC) and numerous intimate & affordable venues. Despite Southern California’s environment for fostering fine arts, I haven’t found a centralized method for us to look up these events. This reason drove me to start my blog and Culture Calendar. You’re welcome!
Sunset Club Trio performs at the Laguna Beach Art Museum on April 13. Tickets are $7-$5 and include museum admission. One of the current exhibitions is Stanton MacDonald-Wright’s Haiga Portfolio. It pairs nicely with The Sunset Club Trio due to MacDonald-Wright’s mix of old and new. Haiga is a venerated Japanese art form (it is a painting style inspired by haiku). Stanton MacDonald-Wright was one of America’s first modern artists.
“Stanton MacDonald-Wright pairs beautifully with Sunset Club Trio” –Famous art blogger
Many thanks to Laguna Beach Live and The Laguna Art Museum for marketing this event! No lost opportunity here.
You won’t find some of these festival titles on Netflix. You will have slightly better luck on Amazon, thanks to The Criterion Collection.
Hollywood Does Not Make Them Like They Used To
So put down that smartphone and experience some of The Los Angeles 19th Annual Festival of Film Noir. The lineup is impressive. So is The Egyptian Theater as is the opportunity to mingle with like-minded fans.
Did you think I was going to write about been Fritz Lang’s Metropolis? No, this is the Mexican film El Automovil Gris (The Grey Automobile) and it is accompanied by Mexico-based jazz-funk band Troker. Thanks to Santa Ana Sites, we get to see these two art forms come together at The Frida Cinema on March 25
I have not heard of the movie or the band and I bet you haven’t either. So how are these iconic?
The Grey Automobile
The Grey Automobile (1919) was filmed at the close of the Mexican Revolution and had some political statements to make. It is based on the true story of the Grey Automobile Gang. This gang wore revolutionary military garb (not federal military garb) as they terrorized and stole from citizens of means. The star is the actual detective who pursued and apprehended the gang. It was a serial in its original form, was Mexico’s first ‘big’ picture and was wildly popular at the time.
Over the last 15 years, The Grey Automobile has enjoyed a renaissance. It has been paired with various live musical and narration art forms such as Japanese benshi. Here is Roger Ebert’s take on a 2003 pairing.
The captions are in English and Spanish. It is understandable that an early silent may be too low-tech for our modern sensibilities. That’s why an edgy, modern jazz ensemble such as Troker can keep us engaged.
Troker
‘If Salvador Dali ever made a heist movie, then Mexico’s Troker would have been the soundtrack.’ I did not come up with that description, but I wish I did! Rest assured, Troker is not surreal nor are they free form. They remind me of the best of early jazz fusion. Think of Miles Davis in 1969 or Herbie Hancock in 1973. Add some funk, a touch of mariachi and some DJ scratching and you have a good picture of what they are about. You can find plenty of their works on YouTube. Troker has accolades aplenty and are too numerous to list here. That detail is available at their website. An important takeaway is that Troker wrote the score and has been touring with this movie across the country. This is not a one-time experiment but an act they have perfected. Here is a preview of their soundtrack to The Grey Automobile.
Frida Cinema
Movie art houses are a dying breed. The Frida Cinema takes a new (to me) approach: They are a non-profit. Unlike most theaters, you can call them and get a live, polite human being. Said human being can also answer your questions. As far as I am concerned, such old-school practices are edgy and radical! Show them some love by showing up on March 25.
Most art walks consist of galleries. The Santa Monica Airport studios are not galleries but a set of working studios. Furthermore, this art walk is not held in a business district or an urban arts district. It is held in repurposed, historic airplane hangars. (have you ever encountered a repurposed industrial building that was less than impressive?) The venue almost has a campus feel, which is no surprise since Santa Monica College’s satellite campus is next door. You won’t have to worry about crossing streets.
Another differentiator to this event: It is the most kid-friendly art walk I have ever seen. There are abundant workshops to keep your kids engaged. From what I saw at last year’s event, the kids were numerous and were having a great time.
Truly, this must be the most under-reported arts event in LA, aside from mentions in the Santa Monica media. It happens once a year, so act accordingly. It is free! The parking and parking shuttles are free! The live music is free! (more on that in a moment) The food trucks don’t serve free food, but they do serve tasty, low-priced items.
This year’s music is provided by local ensemble El-Haru Kuroi. I checked out some of their videos and I approve! They are a fun, melodic blend of Latino, contemporary and folk with a touch of world beat.
Absolutely! The official name is Bach in the Subways. It started in New York in 2010 as a solo project by cellist Dale Henderson to bring classic music to a wider audience. It has spread throughout the world rapidly since then by a cadre of community-minded artists and organizers. It is free in all geographies and it happens on March 18. The LA event starts at 9 AM, lasts 10 hours and features 21 performances at four locations inside Union Station. The ensembles range from solo instrumentalists to a 60-person choir. For those who like their Bach served with a side of quirky, you can catch Bach as performed by a saxophone quartet and by a trio of recorders.
This event is impressive for all kinds of reasons. Let me start by once again busting that stale cliché that LA lacks culture. Nuts to that! LA is hosting the largest Bach birthday event compared to all the other locations! Furthermore, our supposed cultural betters in San Francisco are hosting bupkis for Bach!
The other, more noble reason I am enthusiastic about Bach in the Subways is how arts events of this scale are due to the efforts of volunteers and the spirit of cooperation. From what I have read, no money changes hands before, during or after the show. The gods of bureaucracy must be weeping! We must give a major shout-out to the LA organizer Jeehyun Lee. I sense that Ms. Lee turned her vision into a very large reality in short order.
The complete performance listing is available here.
Note that there are free Bach performances in Glendale, Universal City, Claremont and Hollywood during the same weekend. I hope we see a similar phenomenon in The OC next year.
The best of Afropop is coming to SOKA. It will make you get up and dance even if you have not heard it before! I am not kidding. True story: Years ago, I was at the Playboy Jazz Festival. The headliner was some smooth jazz artist. One of the many warmup bands was an Afropop star (King Sunny Ade). The entire Hollywood bowl fell into spontaneous dance when King Sunny started to play. Do you think all these Kenny G fans knew who King Sunny was and were they expecting participate in a dance marathon? I think not. Security did not know how to handle this situation.
Afropop, a general term for popular African music, has been around since the birth of rock and was heavily influenced by Cuban music and guitars. Sometimes it falls into that all-encompassing bucket known as ‘world music.’ When some people hear the term world music, they may think of something too foreign or too politically correct, but that is not the case with Afropop. The sounds are so happily harmonic. Of course, you won’t understand the lyrics, but does that matter? You will know that it is happy dance time. Just like Bossa Nova makes you want to kiss someone, even though it is sung in Portuguese. Recall Paul Simon during his African music period. The African elements made his music so playful.
Listen to some of the songs at this link and you will ‘get it.’ Afropop rarely comes to LA much less Orange County. This event is great news. I have not heard live Afropop since that jazz festival back in 2008.
The Juno Award-winning African Guitar Summit consists of 4 guitarists from different regions of Africa, each of whom brings different musical styles and languages. Of course, there is the bonus of this being held at the SOKA Performing Arts Center. The acoustician who designed this center also designed the acoustics for the Disney Concert Hall. This is world class architecture for live music. I can’t guarantee that the show management will let us get up and dance but we can hope that they are dancing, too.
Tickets are available here: https://purchase.tickets.com/buy/TicketPurchase?agency=SOKV_PLAGENCY&pid=8251803
Hell yes! Santa Ana is firing on all cylinders on March 4.
Once upon a time, The OC had The Eclectic Orange Festival. It was 3+ days of music and stage events held in and around the Segerstrom Center. This year, Eclectic Orange was worn down to one concert by Kronos Quartet. I love Kronos, but one concert does not a festival make.
Enter Santa Ana’s Boca De Oro Art & Literature Festival. It is one day but what a big day it is! And it is all free! It features 10+ hours of continuous and simultaneous literary, arts and music events around the historic Calle De Cautro district and the Santa Ana Arts district. The event starts at 2pm. The Boca De Oro web site has the details and maps. Note that they have separate schedules for the literature events and the music & arts events, so read the web site carefully and print out a copy of the festival map.
The festival was formed through a partnership of way too many local organizations to list here, but please read about them. I find it so gratifying that these various local public and private bodies can come together and create such rich event.
