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: When opposites attract, Bridgewater & Charlap at CAP UCLA
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
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
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
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 ...
Stephane Wrembel: All that Django-jazz at the Kabbaz 2
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 his signature “Django a Go Go” festival. The learning-and-jamming event, which he instituted in New York twenty ...
‘Rivers of Sound’: From the Euphrates to The Soraya
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 ...
Gifted Cuban pianist López-Nussa to bring Soraya jazz fest to smoking finale
ed. note: The trio of concerts over a single weekend—Gerald Clayton Sextet (Feb 17), Gretchen Parlato (Feb 18), and the Harold López-Nussa Trio (Feb 19)—are the grand finale of the Soraya’s jazz festival, Jazz at Naz. This interview, conducted by artsmeme jazz writer, Kirk Silsbee, was commissioned by The Soraya and first appeared on the ...
Gerald Clayton, Gretchen Parlato set to open ‘Jazz at Naz’ weekend @ The Soraya
A trio of cutting-edge Jazz at Naz intimate concerts takes jazz’s temperature and points to the art form’s future. Hungry for the potent experience live music brings, jazz fans (safely distanced and masked) will encounter, over the course of one weekend, a blazing sextet, a sensual vocalist, and a scintillating up-and-coming pianist from Havana. The ...
Jimi Hendrix, Los Angeles, 1969
(left) Monterey Pop Festival, Nurit Wilde/from “Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child”(right) with Michelle Phillips & Mama Cass Henry Diltz/ from “Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child” ed note: This excerpt from “Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child” by Harvey Kubernik & Kenneth Kubernik, Sterling Books (2021) is published with permission of the authors. In 1960s rock royalty, none wore the ...
REVIEW: Count Basie Orchestra swingin’ at The Soraya 2
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 ...