From the Dorseys to the Davies', brother acts translates well to the stage, but few have a bond like the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. The nine-piece, Chicago-based band boasts eight horn-playing sons of jazzman Kelan Phil Cohran. They, along with their father, will perform at the Exchange tomorrow, February 23.
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Christina Limson O'Connell Poncho and Terence channel Chano and Dizzy
Poncho Sanchez & His Latin Jazz Band
Chucho Valdes & the Afro-Cuban Messengers
Walt Disney Concert Hall
2-16-12
See also:
*Poncho Sanchez Played the Weekend Wedding Circuit, Until a Gringo Changed His Luck
*Marlon Brando Rocked the Conga Drums -- in Fact He Invented One
Better than...listening to Mark Sanchez play the congas.
Last night before a sedate but nearly sold out crowd at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Poncho Sanchez and Chucho Valdes led their own bands through hour long sets of percussion-driven latin jazz. The conguero from Norwalk and the pianist from Cuba kept the energy high but never seemed quite comfortable in the lavish hall.
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See also: Poncho Sanchez Played the Weekend Wedding Circuit, Until a Gringo Changed His Luck
In his column this week, Jeff Weiss talks with renowned conga player Poncho Sanchez about the unlikely gringo who put him on. Today we've got another Sanchez story about an even stranger encounter -- with Marlon Brando.
"It was 1976. I had been with [legendary vibraphonist] Cal Tjader for about a year and Cal told me Marlon Brando and Merv Griffin were coming to our matinee set,'" recalls Sanchez, calling from his Whittier home. "Marlon used to sit in with Cal out in East L.A. at a place called the M Club back in the early '60s. He'd come in, have some drinks and play the bongos. So I told Cal 'introduce me, introduce me.'"
Since the late '80s Philly-bred bassist Christian McBride has been a low end powerhouse for artists including Milt Jackson, Diana Krall and Questlove. He spent the most time in our fair city between 2006 and 2010 when he was the "Creative Chair for Jazz" with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and this Saturday he'll bring his straight ahead trio -- including pianist Christian Sands and drummer Ulysses Owens -- to share a bill with Ravi Coltrane's quartet at UCLA's Royce Hall. 
It's fair to say that, like Randy Newman, he loves L.A. "L.A. has always got a bad rap," he says, calling from his New Jersey home. "It's so spread out. It's hard to get a sense of the jazz community. I always felt Los Angeles has one of the tightest jazz communities in the sense that people who really love the music are going to go out and find it. Wherever it may be they are going to go find it."
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See also: Blue Note Records' Troubling New Direction
Over the summer I was at the Blue Whale jam session when a handful of drunken girls were asked to leave for being too chatty. Set aside the miracle of a bunch of drunken girls actually being at a jazz club; the fact that they were booted on a night when literally anyone can play is absurd. And probably not too good for business, either.
Regardless of what snotty musicians might think, jazz clubs could use a few more noisy drunks, girls or otherwise, because not only do they pay the bills, they bring a bit of energy to a sometimes-sullen genre.
The last time I was here, I was chased out of my agent's place in West Hollywood with a baseball bat...Long story short, out comes the bat and I had to pack up my things in Trader Joe's bags and split. Halfway down the strip to my friend Samsonic's house, I passed a few other LA bums with their stuff in bags just like me. We looked each other up and down for a moment, then kept walking. I'm hoping this [L.A.] outing has a little less drama. -Brian Chrette's email pitch to LA Weekly
"Feel it," says the New York-based organist Charette, offering his pinky finger. "It's fused." We are standing at the bar of a small French bistro in Manhattan, having just met five minutes prior. His pinky finger is fixed into a permanent crook due to an amp falling on it ten years ago. "I can't play classical anymore" says Charette examining his damaged digit. "But I can still play jazz!"
The Jazz Bakery, L.A.'s major jazz non-profit organization, is in turmoil because of the pending shutdown of the Culver City Redevelopment Agency.
Tom Meek The Ron Jones Orchestra at the Jazz Bakery, 2008
Jazz Bakery president Ruth Price had been working with the agency to reopen Jazz Bakery's venue at a new building near the Kirk Douglas Theatre later this year. After losing its original Helms Avenue location in 2009, the organization announced last year to that it would develop a two-stage performance venue at the new site -- with the help of a $2 million seed grant from The Annenberg Foundation.
But the Culver City Redevelopment Agency's demise appears to have killed that project, along with numerous others. Culver City's summer music festival -- also co-produced by the Jazz Bakery -- may also get the axe at a city council meeting next week.
Matt Otto Duo
SJ O'Connell
Ariel Alexander Group
Matt Otto Quintet
Blue Whale
1-11-12
Better than...watching the People's Choice Awards
Last night, after a few technical difficulties and a strict adherence to "jazz time," the second of four residency performances by the LA Jazz Collective got underway at Little Tokyo's Blue Whale. The evening featured three bands presented by two leaders (saxophonists Matt Otto and Ariel Alexander) creating what Alexander cheekily referred to as a "Matt Otto sandwich."
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When most college students return home for winter break, they watch TV in the den and get drunk with high school friends. 
Thelonious Monk Jazz Institute
Pianist Kris Bowers, a 22-year old-graduate student at Julliard, however, has come home to Los Angeles with some big prizes, and will perform at Catalina Bar & Grill tomorrow night, January 4th. The awards? After winning the prestigious Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition in September, he now possesses a recording contract and a $25,000 scholarship.
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Woody Allen's New Orleans Jazz Band
Christina Limson O'Connell
Royce Hall
12/29/11
Better than...Francis Ford Coppola playing the tuba.
Before the start of the European tour documented in the 1997 Woody Allen documentary Wild Man Blues, Allen tells his bandmates, "Theoretically this should be fun for us." Last night, before a sold out house at UCLA's Royce Hall, Allen and his New Orleans Jazz Band concluded their six date tour with a night of old-timey jazz that, at the very least, certainly seemed to be somewhat amusing to them.
