10 Years for Angel City Jazz Festival, a BUCK for Monk, what could be better!

The Onlyous 100 Years

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The Angel City Jazz Festival presenting the BEST in open mind Jazz experiences! Yes, it has been a DECADE of outstanding music presented by Angel City Arts and the only answer to the equation of Angel City + Superb Music = YES! This is one of the premier jazz festivals here in Los Angles and if you have been, you know this to be true. If you have not been, well you have your opportunity and we greet you with open arms!

The Angel City Jazz Festival takes place over several weeks at a variety of venues here in Los Angeles. You have so many options to check out the most outstanding music!

Come on out and enjoy all of this SUPER Fantastic Music! 2 weeks of Dynamic Sound!
To kick things off  “The Jazzcat” LeRoy Downs will be hosting at the John Ansen Ford Theater on October 1st with  The Monk Centennial Celebration featuring  the phenomenal Dee Dee Bridgewater, Brian Lynch, Conrad Herwig, Manuel Valera, Reuben Rodriguez, Richie Flores and Robby Ameen with Monk’s Afro Cuban Dream!

Followed by the great composer, arranger, pianist and leader of the Monkestra, John Beasley who will be cutting’ it up with DJ Logic, Mark De Clive Lowe, Dentoni Parks and Steve Lehman sampling along with John’s arrangements!

And at LACMA: the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on  Friday October 6th with the Jeff Parker Quartet and Angel City Young Artists Competition Winners !

Come and get this MUSIC!

60th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival

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This can be the best experience of your life! Celebrating 60 years of the Monterey Jazz Festival! An impeccable line-up to commemorate one of the worlds Greatest Jazz Festivals! The Place to be here in the West where it all comes together like “Effortless Mastery”. Several stages of the world’s masterful jazz musicians all together in one location, the stunning Monterey Peninsula where the beauty of location meets the brilliance of 60 years of jazz! From those you know to those you will come to know, expand your mind and experience a magical weekend of sound! By an means necessary, this is your life so live it. Moments in life you will always remember!

Come by Dizzy’s Den,  let’s hang out and do the music right!!!!

It has been such a pleasure to be your host for the last 15 years at Monterey so, let’s do it again and continue for a lifetime!!!!

 Clip from years past stream with Lou Donaldson

See you here!!!!!

As you all know by now, I love my Jazz Musicians!! So, I decided to create an environment JUST FOR THE CATS to hang, eat, relax and enjoy! It’s always extremely hard to catch everyone in town and available but, I would say that we had a splendid time! Please enjoy a few photos by Bob Barry and Kristina Dixon of 11One Visuals.

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All made possible by The Jazzcat, All Music Television, Tone Mesa, Anne Keeler and Samuel Pace!

If you are wondering about this event, here is an article by Paula Edelstein http://www.soundsoftimelessjazz.com/features.html

Good times certainly had by all. And in the midst of these good times, our little bubble of celestial, sonic heaven, we can’t help but be cognicent of our world at large and the constant peril that persists with the fools whose rose color glasses only see white. This music, this world is a prism of brilliant color and true love sees them all! With that, we took the opportunity to create a new digital series on All Music Television called….

Here are the first two episodes featuring Ryan Porter, Jamael Dean, John Beasley and Billy Childs…

Enjoy your life, Enjoy the music and stay WOKE and stay tuned!!

with host LeRoy Downs

KJazz in Association with Hollywood and Highland present

Cameron Graves
Tuesday July 18th @ 7pm at Hollywood and Highland

Hosted By LeRoy Downs

Make Music LA at Baldwin Hills Crenshaw with Barbara Morrison

Click, Listen and Enjoy

Profiling Artists from 3 Great Record Companies

Biophilia Records

Mack Avenue Records

Orenda Records

PI Recordings

Plus a Miles 91st Birthday Medley to close the show

89.9 FM KCRW.com

The music is so potent and it is and ever learning and growing process. So many artists are presenting fabulous works of art and the popular media just keeps playing the same old thing. Radio is a place to entice you to hearing and learning new music that you might enjoy! I learned about music back in the day from labels like Blue Note, Impulse, Riverside and the likes so, this Saturday I will be presenting several artists from these labels along with my regular eclectic programming.

Saturday Morning May 27th 

from 3AM to 6AM

On the edge of the music, balancing between the “was” and the “will be” of sound is where you can always find me doing my absolute best to provide you with an intelligent, thought provoking, artistic, creative endeavor in sound. Jazz is the most confusing word in music and therefore it’s hard to explain in mere words. All we ask, as the purveyors of this music called Jazz is that you…

Click for Video

1. Come to the music openly
2. Hear all the notes
3. Allow yourself to feel the vibration
4. Do NOT allow mediocre mainstream media to dictate you taste
5. Seek, explore and settle on nothing less than extraordinary
6. Let love and intent of the sound guide you to new destinations within yourself
7. And most of all Enjoy!

It is not often that you have an opportunity to hear and enjoy pure, unadulterated JAZZ creativity coming through the airwaves here in Los Angeles.

There are but a few heroes that grace the airwaves on a consistent basis. Bo Leibowitz with “Strictly Jazz” and Mark Maxwell with “Rise” are the only two truly providing a great service for Los Angeles. I am honored to work with and sub for both of them whenever the occasion permits.

Friday Night / Saturday Morning

“The Wee Hours”

  May 27th

3am – 6am KCRW.ORG

The Jazzcat sitting in for Bo Leibowitz spinning a menagerie of sonic brilliance and whippin’ up magic with lot of great music by the cats you know and some you don’t!

Bring your enthusiasm for sound and your blank canvas to listen to the colors of jazz unfold, blossom and enlighten! Come on you nocturnals, weather its wine or a cup of java, stay up and let’s jam together!

May 27th

Friday Night /Saturday  Morning

3AM to 6am Pacific Standard Time

3 Hours of Progressive, Eclectic Jazz for you dome!

The Light is ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello Beautiful Jazz People!

The Jazzcat on KCRW for 2 More Saturdays!!!!!

click KCRW logo and enjoy show for Sat May 20th!!

89.9 FM KCRW.com

Saturday Morning May 20th and 27th 

from 3AM to 6AM

On the edge of the music, balancing between the “was” and the “will be” of sound is where you can always find me doing my absolute best to provide you with an intelligent, thought provoking, artistic, creative endeavor in sound. Jazz is the most confusing word in music and therefore it’s hard to explain in mere words. All we ask, as the purveyors of this music called Jazz is that you…

Click for Video

1. Come to the music openly
2. Hear all the notes
3. Allow yourself to feel the vibration
4. Do NOT allow mediocre mainstream media to dictate you taste
5. Seek, explore and settle on nothing less than extraordinary
6. Let love and intent of the sound guide you to new destinations within yourself
7. And most of all Enjoy!

It is not often that you have an opportunity to hear and enjoy pure, unadulterated JAZZ creativity coming through the airwaves here in Los Angeles.

There are but a few heroes that grace the airwaves on a consistent basis. Bo Leibowitz with “Strictly Jazz” and Mark Maxwell with “Rise” are the only two truly providing a great service for Los Angeles. I am honored to work with and sub for both of them whenever the occasion permits.

Friday Night / Saturday Morning

“The Wee Hours”

 May 20th &  May 27th

3am – 6am KCRW.ORG

The Jazzcat sitting in for Bo Leibowitz spinning a menagerie of sonic brilliance and whippin’ up magic with lot of great music by the cats you know and some you don’t!

Bring your enthusiasm for sound and your blank canvas to listen to the colors of jazz unfold, blossom and enlighten! Come on you nocturnals, weather its wine or a cup of java, stay up and let’s jam together!

May 20th and 27th

Friday Night /Saturday  Morning

3AM to 6am Pacific Standard Time

3 Hours of Progressive, Eclectic Jazz for you dome!

The Light is ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Come on by and get your music on! The Jazzcat will be spinning 3 hours of…

JAZZ Supersonic Sounds!!!!

on the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza Bridge. Enjoy the experience of live jazz music along with a display of premier episodes of “The Jazz Creative” and other jazz media sponsored by the AllMusicTelevision Digital Network!

Saturday April 15th

1pm – 4pm

A casual set of eclectic jazz music with some premier jazz musicians dropping by to say hello and share their latest projects!!

Ryan “Papa” Porter

Josef Leimberg

Daniel Rosenboom

On Sunday, May 7, the Symphonic Jazz Orchestra will celebrate its 15th Anniversary with a special tribute to Ella Fitzgerald’s centennial birthday. This 7pm concert will feature guest vocalist Jane Monheit performing with the SJO’s 67-member jazz orchestra, the only ensemble of its kind in the United States.

With support from the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, the SJO will perform a number of Ella’s beloved jazz orchestral arrangements by Nelson Riddle, including “Someone to Watch Over Me,” “I Won’t Dance,” and “Our Love is Here to Stay.”

This one-of-a-kind celebration, which will take place at the Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center at 6200 Atherton Street in Long Beach, will open with a work remembering SJO co-music director, the late George Duke, and feature two exciting world premiere works by Alan Chan and Gordon Goodwin, featuring saxophone soloist Eric Marienthal. The Carpenter Center is home for the SJO as they present a series of free educational and community concerts there called “Arts for Life.” An Arts for Life event will also take place the afternoon of May 7 with hundreds of students from across LA country in attendance.

Photo of Ella Fitzgerald; Agency: Redferns (Photo by Gilles Petard/Redferns)

Photo of George Duke EsperanzaSpaldingSchenectady080308

The 67-member Symphonic Jazz Orchestra is uniquely dedicated to the blend of jazz and classical, as exemplified by George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” The orchestra, led by music director Mitch Glickman, has performed across Southern California at such venues as the Carpenter Performing Arts Center, Royce Hall, the Ford Amphitheater, and more. The SJO has received peer review grant awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, Irvine Foundation, Music Performance Fund, Meet the Composer, the ASCAP Foundation and others. Soloists who have joined the Symphonic Jazz Orchestra include George Duke, Christian McBride, Dave Grusin, Raul Midon, Lee Ritenour, Justo Almario, John Clayton, Bill Cunliffe, Peter Erskine, Robert Hurst, Phil Perry, Ernie Watts, and The Yellowjackets.

Since its debut in 2002, the Symphonic Jazz Orchestra has commissioned ten new works, and performed fifteen world premieres. Previous commissioned composers have included George Duke, Lee Ritenour, Lesa Terry, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, and Darcy James Argue. Each year, the SJO selects a composer to write a new piece through its ASCAP Foundation/ Symphonic Jazz Orchestra Commissioning Prize.

In addition to performing and commissioning, the SJO has become an integral piece of music education in Los Angeles County, bringing their “Music in the Schools” program to 170 classrooms totaling almost 4,000 students each week, with a focus on schools in underserved neighborhoods. This year-long program integrates with and enhances students’ understanding of math, reading, science, history, and creative writing. In some of the neighborhoods served by the SJO, like Compton and Watts, the program is in schools that have had no arts education in decades. This program is supported by national and local educational partnerships with Turnaround Arts, the Herb Alpert Foundation, LA County Arts for All, and the Arts Community Network in underserved elementary schools across LA County.

SundayMay 7 

Celebrate Ella Fitzgerald’s Centennial

with Jane Monheit

at the Symphonic Jazz Orchestra’s 15^th Anniversary Concert

at the Carpenter Center in Long Beach

Symphonic Jazz Orchestra founder and music director Mitch Glickman notes, “For 15 years we’ve given composers the world’s greatest Crayola box of sounds – the 67-member Symphonic Jazz Orchestra comprised of Hollywood’s finest studio musicians, adept at jazz, classical and so much more. By perpetuating this uniquely American form of music that began with Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” we continue to move the genre forward and feature some of the world’s finest soloists. And for the past 9 years, we have developed a unique K – 5^th grade music curriculum that is now in 12 schools in Watts, Compton, Long Beach, Culver City and Los Angeles. I am continually amazed watching the students compose and perform their own blues songs, improvise on the keyboard, analyze the music of Bach, and sing the music of Duke Ellington.”

Tickets for the event are $35 and $55 and are available. Additionally, there are a limited number $100 of VIP tickets that include a pre-concert reception at 6 pm, followed by preferred seats for the 7 pm concert. Sponsors for the event include the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, Turkish Airlines, and KJAZZ Radio.

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For more information please see http://sjomusic.org.