REVIEW: Count Basie Orchestra swingin’ at The Soraya 2

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count basie orchestraphoto: luis luque for the soraya When the Count Basie Orchestra concert at the Younes and  Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts was cancelled for the COVID shutdown in March 2020, it was a bitter pill. When the cloud lifted, Soraya director Thor Steingraber declared that the match would no longer be ...

Ella and Basie, reunited by Basie band & Lizz Wright at The Soraya

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Lizz Wright, Basie orchestra ed. note: This story by music writer Kirk Silsbee, commissioned and originally published by the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for the Arts, has been excerpted with permission. The Count Basie Orchestra band has not just outlived the big band era, it has thrived. This is no ghost band; its last ...

John Clayton’s jazz continuum prospers 1

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Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra
above: jazz musicians John Clayton, Jeff Hamilton, Jeff Clayton The California Jazz Foundation has been investing in the jazz community for a decade, with a generous track record of financial, counseling and material aid to 200 musicians in need. The Foundation doesn’t take its role, especially as an aid organization, lightly. “Give the Band a ...