Don’t freak out! Unless you’re at ZAPPADAN!

Music

Our Los Angeles rock-and-roll-and revolution tour-guide, Dominic Priore, author of “Riot on Sunset Strip: Rock ‘n’ Roll’s Last Stand in Hollywood.”, shares with us news of his impending illustrated lecture, “Freak Out Hot Spots!,” a symposium filled with photos and super-rare footage of all the locations on Frank Zappa’s 1966 map of Sunset Strip hangouts.

The map, produced as bonus material companion to the Mothers of Invention’s debut album “Freak Out!”, offered a satirical depiction of Los Angeles’ cultural landscape, highlighting nightclubs, record stores, and other countercultural venues. This map mocked LA’s mainstream glitz and celebrated the underground scene that Zappa was a part of. His criticism of authority, shaped by the Watts riots and his own personal encounters with the police—including a notable arrest in 1965—left Zappa distrustful of law enforcement and fueled the anti-authoritarian views often expressed in his music.

Both Zappa’s iconic map and Priore’s book explore the intersection of art, music, and rebellion in 1960s Los Angeles. As Dom puts it, himself: “Dig.”


Freak Out Hot Spots | Philosophical Research Society, Los Feliz | Sun Dec 8

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‘Fifth Beatle’ Billy Preston in impressive, heartfelt documentary 1

Film · Music

There are many documentaries and docudramas about performing artists lately. So much so that people are joking that everyone is getting one. Soon to open will be Maria, starring Angelina Jolie playing the Italian coloratura/diva. But a gripping new documentary, That’s the Way God Planned It: Billy Preston, about the great, nearly gone-missing, Los Angeles-born songwriter/performer/keyboardist, the ultimate stage-and-recording studio “sideman,” merits your attention. I found its musical insights spot-on and its portrait of a vital contributor to the Golden Age of rock illuminating. The movie revisits that special time through the prism of a musical Zelig. Its rendering of the toll extracted by intense human artistry is prescient. I cannot recommend it enough.

Preston (1946-2006) was a musical prodigy, hitting ivories at a young age and singing gospel in Central Los Angeles’s Black church scene of the early fifties. (He was a very good singer and dancer.) His trajectory, from that start to being present in Hamburg at the club that launched the Beatles, then proceeding to Abbey Road where he was the veritable Fifth Beatle, the “Black Beatle,” is too-untold a story. Those who lived the era, as did I, already know that Preston’s virtuosic panache on Hammond organ underpinned the Fab Four’s adventurous forays as a mini symphony orchestra. From that era, a deep bond grew, in particular, with George Harrison. (Harrison’s surviving wife, Olivia, is a producer of the film, which is nice.) A contract with A&M Records put him on tracks of Barbra Streisand, and more, in Herb Alpert’s creative klatch on LaBrea Avenue. Then there was Sly Stone, Ray Charles, Rufus. Then came the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and Preston’s own GRAMMY-winning solo artist career, with several hit records–memorably cheerful, soulful, upbeat songs like the one quoted in the doc’s title.

(The material on Ray Charles alone merits a short film. Just incredible.)

The array of talking heads in this documentary is notably informative and heartfelt: Billy Porter, Ringo Starr, among several Preston colleagues and friends. Their sound bites convey real information and advance the narrative. A track near to the movie’s end, in which Clapton describes his caring for a fellow alcoholic to the point of tearing up, is both credible and moving. For Preston had demons. The survivor of childhood sexual abuse, he was a gay man before, how can I put this properly, that was a “thing.” Deeply closeted within the aggressively heterosexual culture of sixties rock and roll, his private life stayed that way. But as time wore on, his sexuality became a burden he did not carry well. There was extreme substance abuse.

My congratulations to the film’s producers and Paris Barclay, its director, for whom telling Billy Preston’s story was clearly a labor of love. The film hits a sweet spot of advocating for its subject while not shying from uncomfortable truths. In its final moments, the movie makes absolutely clear Preston’s unique musical gifts and why he mattered; why he approached true stardom, but failed to cross that indelible line; it clarifies, as well, the many he influenced who did.

A must-see movie that I would pair with the documentary on Little Richard — a film I thought did not get sufficient attention. A perfect example: everyone knows that Jimi Hendrix toured with Richard. But Billy Preston did too!


Arts journalist Debra Levine founded artsmeme in 2008.

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Death of a dancer: Vladimir Shklyarov

Dance
Thanks to the Internet, balletomania is a global phenomenon. YouTube viewing of classical dance from such far-flung spots as St. Petersburg is a boon to fans across the universe — equally, it aids dance critics and scholars. So when word spread that Vladimir Shklyarov, 39, had tumbled from a balcony five floors to his death ...

Joy of Jewishness in Hanukah double bill

Music
What can we do about world events this holiday season? What about this: let it go for a night and experience joy through music. A two-for-one sale of klezmer rock, otherwise known as “Ashkenazi Jewish Roots Music” is on tap at the Carpenter Center in Long Beach. For nearly 40 years, the Grammy Award-winning “Jewish ...

Down in the dumps about democracy? Try an evening of French animated shorts at The Kabbaz

Film
Feeling deflated, depleted, depressed, and disappointed? Somewhat disoriented, downhearted, down in the dumps, or demoralized? Get thee to the cozy Theatre Raymond Kabbaz on Pico Boulevard for a singular foray through fantasy, futurism and fun. It’s the Kabbaz’s annual French Animation Festival, and, attending last year, we came out smiling from ear to ear. But, ...

Portrait of an Artist – the many roles of Medhi Walerski

Dance
ed. note: This story written in advance of a November 23 performance by Ballet BC in Los Angeles was commissioned and first published by The Soraya on November 8 2024. It is reprinted with permission. Soft-spoken but emphatic, Medhi Walerski, at 45, is a ballet prince with piercing eyes, a crown of clipped curls, and ...

On Hallo•meme, be bewitching, like ‘Gilda’ 6

Dance · Film
I was thinking about my costume for this Halloween. Who better to embody than Rita Hayworth in her hallowed role as a film-noir temptress in the movie of the same name, Gilda (1945), from Columbia Pictures?Here she is in her nightclub number in the movie, “Put the Blame on Mame.” Rita was dressed in a ...

Conrad Tao & Clayton-Hamilton to jointly wish “Rhapsody” a Happy Hundredth

Music
by 
Ed. note: This story by jazz writer, Kirk Silsbee, was commissioned by The Soraya in advance of Conrad Tao & The Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra: Rhapsody in Blue on Saturday March 16. It is re-published with permission. The February 12, 1924 premiere of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” was a musical earthquake. When the young prodigy ...

Notes from the peanut gallery: London Philharmonic Orchestra @ The Soraya

Music
view from on high This season, which marked the heralded London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO)‘s first American tour in ten years led by its Principal Conductor Edward Gardner, had as an artistic high point an October 10, concert in Northridge, California! Sandwiched into four California stops (Davis, Costa Mesa, Santa Barbara), the LPO graced our beautiful sound-worthy hall ...

Admittedly smitten: JazzAntiqua at 30

Dance · Music
aaron stokes laura ann smyth The “smitten” party would be me. I’m smitten by a dance company — JazzAntiqua Dance & Music Ensemble, as it stages its thirtieth-anniversary celebration in an aptly named event, RITUAL OF RHYTHM. For anyone familiar with the choreography of Artistic Director Pat Taylor, the evening, produced in association with Ebony ...