Posts by Kirk Silsbee

arts•meme contributor Kirk Silsbee writes about jazz and culture, as he has for nearly 40 years. He can be read in many publications including Downbeat, the Burbank Leader, the Glendale News-Press, Downtown News, and Jewish Journal. He makes a mean plate of pancakes and is known to be a terrific kisser.


REVIEW: Chilly Nimoy night warmed by jazz duo Goldings & Koonse

Music · Reviews
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photo credit: bob barry It’s a quiet Saturday night on Westwood Boulevard, and all that’s left of the latest rainstorm is a light mist. The Nimoy Theater marquee is the brightest thing on the street, and it draws some people inside. Organist Larry Goldings and guitarist Larry Koonse are playing jazz duets tonight, under the ...

Artist George Evans: Native son in perpetual motion 2

Visual arts
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If you walked into the intimate Matter Studio Gallery and were told nothing about the current exhibit, you’d be forgiven for wondering what unites the group of artists represented. Large neon figure slashes dance through space over dark brown-magenta grounds. Brilliant photographic prints capture big-sky panoramas with low horizon lines. Muted watercolors of figures and ...

A rousing banquet of New Orleans jazz: Delfeayo Marsalis at The Soraya

Music
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ed. note: This story by jazz writer, Kirk Silsbee, was commissioned by The Soraya in advance of Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra on Wednesday February 7. It is published with permission. Brass bands smear the air with unbridled exuberance. A second line of dancers swagger-and-cut in their wake, goosed by the popping rhythms ...

Jazz/pop superstars Herb Alpert, Lani Hall to open Soraya jazz festival 1

Music
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ed. note: This story by jazz writer, Kirk Silsbee, was commissioned by The Soraya in advance of “A Golden Anniversary,” in the upcoming Jazz at Naz Festival January 27. It is published with permission. Few trumpet voices in history generate the kind of instant recognition as that of Herb Alpert. His short, pungent phrasing and ...

Django-jazz at The Kabbaz(z) redux~! 2

Music
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The French guitar wizard and Django Reinhardt specialist, Stephane Wrembel (center), whose infectious playing and stage Gemütlichkeit leave audiences wanting more, is heading West. His upcoming California tour culminates in three nights at Theatre Raymond Kabbaz, where Wrembel brings the second edition of his signature “Django a Go Go” festival. The learning-and-jamming event, which he instituted ...

REVIEW: When opposites attract, Bridgewater & Charlap at CAP UCLA 1

Music · Reviews
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It was a provocative entry to a fall jazz season: singer Dee Dee Bridgewater and pianist Bill Charlap, performing in a duo format at Royce Hall for UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance. Like a pro wrestling match between a pile-driving heel and a gymnast babyface, it was a potential mismatch too tantalizing to ...

Sam Francis at LACMA: a California original goes global 1

Visual arts
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Though his last productive years were spent in a Santa Monica studio, art fanciers with a taste for the color-laden Sam Francis (1923-1994) paintings had to search out isolated canvases at a couple of local museum installations. With “Sam Francis and Japan: Emptiness Overflowing” (through July 16 at LACMA, the Los Angeles County Museum of ...

Charles Lloyd’s ecstatic melody on his 85th

Music
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On the cusp of Charles Lloyd’s 85th birthday—we’ll join the master in celebration at Saturday’s live performance at The Soraya—the acclaimed tenor saxophonist and flutist stands at the summit of jazz. A master improviser whose musical ethos was forged in the crucible of 1960s musical freedom, Lloyd has been a restless and unpredictable explorer on ...

REVIEW: Cécile McLorin Salvant’s singular jazz style, at Royce Hall

Music · Reviews
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While she’s no stranger to Southern California audiences, vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant’s show presented by CAP UCLA’s Royce Hall on January 26 reinforced her status as a one-of-a-kind singer. Through her idiosyncratic artistry, willingness to indulge the moment, and her genial manner, Salvant charmed and thrilled the near capacity of Royce’s floor.      In the broader ...

‘Rivers of Sound’: From the Euphrates to The Soraya

Music
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ed. note: This story by jazz writer, Kirk Silsbee, was commissioned by The Soraya and first appeared on the theater’s blogsite. Composer Amir ElSaffar, the innovative jazz trumpeter and director of the Rivers of Sound Orchestra, is calling his latest new work “a sonic embrace.” ElSaffar penned the expression to describe Emergence, a sound experience ...