Tag: Los Angeles Times

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Performances Reviews

Claudia Quintet at REDCAT Reviewed

From the Los Angeles Times:

The accordion isn’t exactly one of the more common instruments in jazz. Yet in the context of the genre-shifting mix of New York’s Claudia Quintet, the accordion sounded so natural at REDCAT on Wednesday night that it’s fair to start questioning just why it doesn’t make an appearance more often.

Of course, the same can be asked of the quintet. Composed of veterans from New York City’s jazz scene, the Claudia Quintet doesn’t make its way west very often. But the audience of CalArts students and older jazz heads were treated to an evening with a versatile band that deserves mention among the top ensembles in jazz today.

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Performances

Charlemagne Palestine still pushes his keyboard to the limit

From the Los Angeles Times:

Palestine, known in music circles for his marathon all-night concerts in the 1970s (they were often so intense that he bled on the keys) is returning to the Los Angeles stage tonight after an 11-year absence. As part of the Monday Evening Concerts series, he will perform one of his seminal works, “Schlingen-Blängen,” on one of the world’s largest church pipe organs at the First Congregational Church.

“I can’t say, at 61 years old, that I can be maximal every day,” he added. “But when I play this big organ, it’s going to resound like Armageddon come home.”

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Performances Reviews

Bay Area alive with new music

New music in the San Fran area is reviewed.

In the ’60s and ’70s, the Bay Area was a new music mecca. Minimalism was forged there. East mingled with West. Electronic music came of age. Such European avant-garde composers as Luciano Berio, György Ligeti and Karlheinz Stockhausen joined the scene. After graduating from Harvard, John Adams hopped in a Volkswagen bus and headed for Northern California.

Our current century rejects headquarters. San Francisco is now but one of many centers in a multi-centered universe. But pick a good weekend and the Bay Area still hops. Last weekend was a good weekend — as well as something of a preview of upcoming concerts in Southern California — and here is a diary of a writer trying to get a handle on it all.

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