Jimmy Webb to perform “MacArthur Park” where torch song was inspired
This just in from Liz Hirsch, the powerhouse behind the Levitt Pavilions, a national network of outdoor amphitheaters in urban park settings. The Pavilions’ marvelous ethnically diverse music offerings are all provided gratis for the pleasure of a picnicking (and often dancing) audience. Writes Liz: On Saturday, June 15 Levitt Pavilion Los Angeles at MacArthur ...
Nureyev influenced Mick Jagger 3
“Nureyev: His Life,” Diane Solway (William Morrow & Company, 1998) contains a brief interview with pop singer Marianne Faithfull (pages 333-4): Among [Nureyev’s] biggest fans were Mick Jagger and his girlfriend, the pop singer Marianne Faithfull, who were photographed arriving for the premiere [of Roland Petit’s Paradise Lost (1967) made for Nureyev and Dame Margot ...
Capitol Records “Hollywood Jazz” mural celebrated
May
2
2013
“Hollywood Jazz – 1945-1972,” a jazz mural, image posted above, commissioned by the Los Angeles Jazz Society, deteriorated since its unveiling on October 27, 1990. But great news — it has just been beautifully restored by Capitol Records. Artists featured in the mural include Chet Baker, Gerry Mulligan, Charlie Parker, Tito Puente, Miles Davis, ...
Review: Kenny Barron hits the hoops for Da Camera Society concert
It was a jazz concert in an unlikely locale. Pianist Kenny Barron, whose teammates have included Roy Haynes, Lee Morgan, James Moody, Dizzy Gillespie, Milt Jackson, and Yusef Lateef, unleashed a magical solo piano recital in a boy’s gym. It was the refurbished indoor basketball court of the 28th Street YMCA Building — a glorious ...
Los Angeles jazz history evoked in Kenny Barron concert
I’m super excited to attend a concert by a jazz giant, pianist Kenny Barron, at the historic Dunbar Hotel on Central Avenue in L.A. The event is being staged by the Da Camera Society’s “Music in Historic Places” run by the Society since 1980 – a series of concerts matching world-class ensembles with historically and ...
Ornette Coleman via Shirley Clarke via Ross Lipman
arts·meme friend Ross Lipman, a primo art-film restorationist, clues us into a very cool screening of a documentary directed by the feminist filmmaker Shirley Clarke (Lipman is an expert and advocate of her work) next weekend at the Billy Wilder Theater. It’s “Ornette: Made in America,” to be screened in the mid-stream days of UCLA ...
Superb exhibition “Stravinsky and L.A. Dance” to close 2
Stravinsky & L.A. Dance, located on the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion’s sunlight-strewn mezzanine celebrates the composer’s creative influence on Los Angeles dance-makers of the past. The photos (several by Otto Rothschild) are presented together with reconstruction materials of The Joffrey Ballet’s The Rite of Spring. Curated by Lorin Johnson and Mark Konecny and instigated and overseen by Music ...
Culture clash: Dino & the Stones
Feb
13
2013
From “Life” by Keith Richards (Little, Brown, 2010) page 151: “The first show we ever did in America was at the Swing Auditorium in San Bernardino, California. Bobby Goldsboro … was on the show, and the Chiffons. But earlier, we’d had the experience of Dean Martin introducing us at the taping of the Hollywood Palace TV show. ...
British diva, Dame Shirley Bassey, to appear on Oscars 2
We learned from arts·meme‘s friends at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences that Dame Shirley Bassey will make a special appearance on the Oscars® show broadcast on Oscar Sunday, February 24, at the Dolby Theatre™ at Hollywood & Highland Center. The sublime chanteuse, a prima diva, Bassey is best known for recording the ...
Stravinsky in West Hollywood, 1967, captured by photog Bobby Klein
I had been invited back to the Maestro’s house one evening to show him some of my previous work. He took me into his study and locked the door. Beethoven was playing on these huge Voice of the Theater speakers really loud. Stravinsky had been ill and was being watched like a hawk by his ...