For the last two weeks of April, and not for the first time, the Jazz Bakery in Culver City was the place to be in Los Angeles County if you wanted to hear world class jazz. From the 20th to the 25th the club hosted the great vocalist Andy Bey and his quartet in an all-too-rare California appearance, followed by a five day engagement with the mixture of grace and power that is the Larry Coryell Trio that began on April 27th. Both artists are touring behind particularly strong new releases and, w

Tonight was a special night at Clancy's Crab Shack in Glendale, one in which everyone had something to celebrate. The club was marking its first full year of presenting live jazz and reveled in presenting, in the person of legendary saxophonist James Moody, perhaps its most prestigious performer to date. For Moody & his wife Linda, it was an auspicious date as well, coinciding with their fifteenth wedding anniversary. Moody, a young 79, leading a superb rhythm section consisting of such vete

There’s nothing quite like an evening of holiday music to get you into the spirit of the season and, if the musicians are as good as the Klezmer Conservatory Band and the setting as compelling as the breathtaking new Disney Hall in downtown Los Angeles, it doesn’t even matter if the holiday that the music belongs to-in this case Chanukah-isn’t the exact same one that you are slated to celebrate. In fact, it just makes the night that much more memorable and exciting. The KCB’s Oy, Chanukah

Southern California is noted for its periods of craziness, and right now certainly seems to be one of them. Still trying to make sense of the tragicomedy of the statewide recall election and the ascendancy of the Governator, the Southland has been further challenged by strikes affecting the area’s largest grocers and public transit authority and, last but far from least, a series of wildfires that has taken lives, destroyed homes and devastated thousands of acres of forest in five different coun

Bay Area jazz singer Jennifer Lee recently came down to Los Angeles to give a performance celebrating the release of her debut CD J-Walkin' at Catalina's Bar & Grill. Leading a drummer-less trio, Ms. Lee's nearly two-hour set naturally highlighted numbers from that collection and was most interestingly included several bossa novas and folk songs sung convincingly in the original Portuguese. Rounding out the group quite capably were saxophonist Tripp Sprague, guitarist Steve Cotter and bas