Don’t be superstitious! Buy Jeff Beck-tribute guitar.
Jun
24
2024
Jeff Beck (1944 – 2023) is considered one of the best guitarists in history, and to my ear the most soulful of the British rockers. A trailblazing guitarist, Beck recorded with everyone from Stevie Wonder and Buddy Guy to Tina Turner and Mick Jagger. Beck got his start with The Yardbirds, making groundbreaking music on ...
It’s been ‘a hard day’s night’ — for sixty years!
working like a dog: paul, john, george & ringo What’s amusing about that funny-yet-familiar song title, “A Hard Day’s Night,” is its disingenuity. When the song hit Planet Earth with a sonic boom, the four moptop Beatles, John, Paul, George, and Ringo, delivered their “woooo”s as though they’ve never had a hard day’s anything in ...
Lyrics of love, loss, longing in Mark Sebastian’s new ‘A Trick of the Light’
From time to time, singer/songwriter Mark Sebastian’s well-meaning comperes have cautioned him about the lyrical content of some of his songs. Sebastian’s literate and sophisticated songs explore the romantic battleground between men and women. He crafts exceedingly poetic evocations of love, loss and longing. The title track contains some of the best contemporary writing you’re liable to ...
R&B today, in Los Angeles festival
Apr
16
2024
Smooth sounds and infectious beats of rhythm and blues music, shortcode R&B, will fill the Los Angeles skyline in a one-day extravaganza for music enthusiasts. The line up of R&B royalty will include artists Ashanti, Ja Rule, Omarion, and Bow Wow, joined by a plethora of R&B sensations including Pretty Ricky, Fabolous, Ginuwine, Mya, Keri Hilson, Lloyd, Ray J, ...
Standing ovation for Salonen from San Francisco Symphony players
Mar
28
2024
esa-pekka salonen acknowledges orchestra’s standing ovation at Disney Hallphoto courtesy brian lauritzen An unusual scene on view by a quick-witted photographer taken at curtain call after a concert by San Francisco Symphony conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen — this moment coming only days after his startling announcement that at the completion of his five-year contract, in ...
Three ‘wows’ and ten years of arts leadership from Thor Steingraber 1
“Three wows” sold Thor Steingraber on The Soraya. Steingraber’s long interview process in the fall of 2013 and winter of 2014 to become top executive of Cal State Northridge’s newish theater culminated in a site visit. As he marks ten years as The Soraya’s executive and artistic director, he remembers this moment as his first ...
REVIEW: Chilly Nimoy night warmed by jazz duo Goldings & Koonse
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 ...
Musica Angelica to honor Richard Colburn with mighty Bach St Matthew Passion performance
Feb
19
2024
Last month we visited the welcoming campus of the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles for a rousing and very spiritual rendition of Yuval Ron’s “Rumi’s Wedding,” an inspiring mashup of Jewish, Christian and Muslim music and dance. Now the esteemed church will host a performance of the life-affirming Baroque music-masterpiece, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, ...
A rousing banquet of New Orleans jazz: Delfeayo Marsalis at The Soraya
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 ...
REVIEW: A well-heeded call for community: DIAVOLO’s ‘Existencia’
We all knew why we were there. We were there to remember and commemorate — most of us having lived through it. We were there to ruminate, and then, to thank our lucky stars. For, in the ashes of the January 17, 1994 Northridge Earthquake, a 6.7-magnitude tumbler that overturned the campus of Cal State ...