Angel City Art's Presents: Wadada Leo Smith's Golden Quartet in Hollywood

Well, Rocco's at it again and this time he is presenting Wadada Leo Smith's Golden Quartet in their first performance in LA since their Redcat performacne a couple of years ago.

Quartet includes the high rising pianist Vijay Iyer, and veterans John Lindberg on bass and Pheeroan Aklaff on drums. There will also be a guest performance by Motoko Honda.

Wadada Leo Smith's Golden Quartet
one night only, April 3rd!

Lauded as “one of the most vital musicians on the planet” by Coda, Wadada Leo Smith is one of the most visionary, boldly original and artistically important figures in contemporary American jazz and free music, and one of the great trumpet players of our time. As a composer, improviser, performer, music theorist/writer and educator, Smith has devoted a lifetime to
navigating the emotional heart, spiritual soul, social significance and physical structure of jazz - both free and composed - and world music to create new music of infinite possibility and nuance.

This concert will feature music from the Golden Quartetʼs newest release "Spiritual Dimension" and a premiere of the music commissioned through the Guggenheim Foundation.

Saturday, April 3, 2010
8:00pm - 11:00PM
Barnsdall Gallery Theatre
4800 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA

Golden Quartet
Wadada Leo Smith - trumpet
Vijay Iyer - piano
John Lindberg - bass,
Pheeroan Aklaff - drums
with special guest Motoko Honda - piano and electronics

http://music.calarts.edu/~wls/pages/gq_ensemble.html

http://www.barnsdallartpark.com


General Admission: $25
Students: $15

tickets:

http://www.itsmyseat.com/DisplayEvent.html?sse=805699

First 50 ticket buyers will receive a free copy of Wadada Leo Smith's CD "Dreams and Secrets"

Accordionist Guy Klucevsek Solo Concert @ Royal/T

Rare appearance of world renowned accordionist, Guy Klucevsek @ Royal/T. Fair price, great place, out of this world music.

$12 general admission / $8 students

Thursday, March 18, 2010
8:00pm - 10:00pm
Royal-T
8910 Washington Blvd
Culver City, CA

GUY KLUCEVSEK has created a unique repertoire for accordion through his own composing and by commissioning over 50 works from composers including John Zorn, Fred Frith, Lois V Vierk, Alvin Lucier, and many others.

Solo performances include Serious Fun! at Lincoln Center, Bang on a Can, Spoleto Festival/USA, and children's TV show Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. He has performed at festivals throughout Europe, and has worked with such artists as Laurie Anderson, Anthony Braxton, Anthony Coleman, Bill Frisell, Fred Frith, Robin Holcomb, the Kronos Quartet, Natalie Merchant, Pauline Oliveros, Present Music, Bobby Previte, Relâche, Jubilant Sykes, and John Zorn. He was an original member of Dave Douglas’s band, Charms of the Night Sky, with whom he recorded three albums and toured throughout North America and Europe.

GUY KLUCEVSEK has created a unique repertoire for accordion through his own composing and by commissioning over 50 works from composers including John Zorn, Fred Frith, Lois V Vierk, Alvin Lucier, and many others.

Tickets are available at the door
General Admission $12
Students: $8

http://www.guyklucevsek.com

http://www.royal-t.org

Zappa Alumni DON PRESTON AND BUNK GARDNER @ HOLLYWOOD STUDIO BAR & GRILL

Wow! Two Zappa alumni playing together on St Patrick's Day!
Should be a great time. Played after Preston at Jimmy Carl Black's memorial a couple of years ago and he and the band sounded great. Go see a legend!

DON PRESTON AND BUNK GARDNER

Wednesday, March 17, 2010
7:00pm - 11:30pm
HOLLYWOOD STUDIO BAR & GRILL

DOLORES PETERSEN PRESENTS:

THE DON AND BUNK SHOW
ST. PATRICK'S DAY BASH


Zappa had decided to expand to an eight-piece band. he asked Don Preston to join who brought along Bunk Gardner.....

DON PRESTON

At 12 years old he was thrown out of school for hypnotizing several students and a nun. The nuns used to beat his hands with a big ruler when he made mistakes playing the piano. Because of this weird treatment he began to like strange and dissonant music.
Preston later did a stint in the army, serving in Trieste, Italy. Upon his return to Detroit during the early '50s, Preston associated with pianist Tommy Flanagan. He also sat in with Elvin Jones and others at the city's West End Cafe where Yusef Lateef conducted twice-a-week jam sessions with Milt Jackson's brother, bassist Ollie Jackson.
Preston moved to Los Angeles in 1957 where he hooked up with pianist Paul Bley, bassist Charlie Haden, and others who were hearing jazz in new ways.
Many will recognize Preston from his long collaboration with Frank Zappa as the keyboardist and one of the members of the original Mothers of Invention. Preston performed and recorded with Zappa until 1974.
He is a co-founder of the Grande Mothers and still active with the band, completing an extensive tour in Summer-Fall 2000 and later tours through til 2008.
Preston also appeared on-stage as a guest keyboardist with the Zappa tribute band Project/Object (featuring Zappa Band alumni Ike Willis and Napoleon Murphy-Brock) for several shows in 2001 and 2002.
_________

BUNK GARDNER

Born John Leon Guarnera in Cleveland, Ohio, Bunk Gardner joined the Mothers Of Invention in early 1967. He recorded and toured with Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention until late 1969.
Shortly after he had left The Mothers, Bunk performed with Menage A Trois, with his brother Buzz and with John Balkin.
Bunk Gardner also toured and recorded with Geronimo Black and with The Grandmothers.
Early 2000, a couple of albums of The Don And Bunk Show got released, the duo that Bunk had formed with Don Preston.
In 2003 he took part in a concert (and recording) of The Grande Mothers Re:Invented. Besides Bunk Gardner, the Grande Mothers Re:Invented also feature Don Preston, Napoleon Murphy Brock and Roy Estrada.
In 2007, the Crossfire Publications record label released Bunk's first solo album, "It's All Bunk!", collecting material from Bunk's entire career.

Admission: $20 plus dinner entree or 2 drinks required

Open Gate Presents:Michael Vlatkovich Trio and the George McMullen Trio.

Open Gate Presents:

Trombones! The Thirteen year of the the series.

With Michael Vlatkovich Trio and the George McMullen Trio.

Two of the best trombonists in LA with two kick-ass rhythm sections to back them up! Really not to be missed. Trombone gets a bad rap and is the butt of a lot of jokes...silliness. Come hear these masters play and have your attitude to The Bone altered forever!



Sunday, March 7, 2010
7:00pm - 10:00pm
Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock

Michael Vlatkovich Trio
Michael Vlatkovich - trombone
Anders Swanson - bass
Rich West - drums

George McMullen Trio
George McMullen - trombone
Joel Hamilton - bass
Alex Cline - drums

Admission is $10, students, seniors, and series performers half price. Free parking is plentiful. Further information can be obtained by calling (626) 795-4989.

The Open Gate Theatre Sunday evening concerts series’ celebration of its thirteenth year of presenting unusual, mostly improvisationally-oriented music is a trombone extravaganza! “Headlining” the event, trombone master/composer Michael Vlatkovich, a local veteran player/musical treasure to be sure, will lead his trio—one of the groups that has performed in this concert series more than any other over the years—featuring bassist Anders Swanson and drummer-percussionist Rich West (subbing for the touring longtime regular trio member Christopher Garcia) in a set of its typically deep, varied, eccentric, surprising, and virtuosic sonic explorations. Witty, layered, sophisticated, and brilliant, Vlatkovich’s music is some of the most criminally under-recognized in creative jazz.

The evening will be opened by another nimble, multidirectional, and driving trombone trio, that led by another local trombone wiz/composer, George McMullen, and featuring bassist Joel Hamilton and drummer-percussionist Alex Cline, a tried and true team of fluid foundation-layers. Like Vlatkovich, McMullen has performed with an impressive who’s-who of major artists in the genres of jazz, pop, Latin, and New Music. In fact, to provide only one example, the two trombonists played together in large bands led by both Vinny Golia and Brian Setzer (!). While Vlatkovich has brought his trio and other units in to perform at the Open Gate Theatre concert series innumerable times, McMullen has contributed for many years as a member of the Open Gate Theatre band. His music is at once swinging, open, uniquely expressive, and subtly vibrant. Strikingly different players equal in accomplishment and integrity, both players are integral figures on the local creative jazz scene who have figured richly into the legacy of this concert series. What an opportunity to hear them together on one evening!

Once the two trombone trios have played their distinctive and diverse sets, both trios will combine to create a double trombone trio, six musicians exploring original music organized for the occasion by Vlatkovich, four adventurous compositions written for this utterly unique ensemble. It’s truly a special occasion, one which we hope will be a fitting musical celebration for all present for it.

CEAIT Festival 2010 March 4 & 5 at 8:30pm @ Redcat

This looks like it is going to be an incredible two nights of electronic music in downtown @ the Redcat. Carla Bozulich, Steve Roden, John Wiese, and Better Than Future (with fantastic Scott Cazan, Casey Anderson, & Beth McMullin), plus more! Surely not to be missed!

CEAIT Festival 2010
March 4 & 5 at 8:30pm

REDCAT
631 West 2nd Street
Los Angeles, CA

CEAIT Festival
Featuring John Wiese, Maria Chavez, Marcus Schmickler, Better Than Future, Steve Roden, and Bloody Claws (Carla Bozulich)
World and U.S. premieres

“[Steve Roden’s work] is aural performance art... Simplicity and beauty, sparse and Zen…” Igloo

"Bozulich is following a muse that runs her ragged." Stylus

The genre-bending festival from the CalArts Center for Experiments in Art, Information and Technology returns with two concerts that each run from abstract reveries to flat-out sonic raucousness. John Wiese, founding member of the concrète grindcore band Sissy Spacek, opens the fest to crackling effect, followed by Peruvian-born avant-garde turntablist Maria Chavez, who uses new and broken needles (“pencils of sound”) and distressed vinyl to spin brooding webs of electroacoustic sound. The night concludes with composer Marcus Schmickler, of Pluramon pop fame, and two newly revised works of surround-sound computer music derived from astrophysical data. The second program kicks off with electronics and laptop interpenetrations by Better Than Future, comprising Casey Anderson, Scott Cazan and Elisabeth McMullin. Next up is a multimedia performance by Steve Roden that ruminates on desert landscapes outside Marfa, Tex., and the minimalist forms of Donald Judd through juxtapositions of field recordings, live improvisation, graphic notation, acoustic objects, electronics and video. The festival’s smashing finale arrives courtesy of Bloody Claws, aka Carla Bozulich, a sound artist who works in numerous impromptu formats and who has toured and recorded extensively with the Geraldine Fibbers, Scarnella and Evangelista. She appears alongside a very special guest.

John Wiese | Maria Chavez | Marcus Schmickler
Thurs Mar 4 | 8:30 pm

Better Than Future | Steve Roden | Bloody Claws (Carla Bozulich)
Fri Mar 5 | 8:30 pm

Double Naught Spy Car Every Thursday in March @ Taix

More fun Thursday nights at Taix with the avant-garde, surf styling's of Double Naught Spy Car.

About: L.A. Weekly Music Awards Best Instrumental Band of 2002, burst from Tinsletown's contorted psyche to provide underscore for America's descent into an opiated social contract and overt corporate tyranny. In sweat drenched shows harkening back to 1950s jazz clubs, the grinding Telecaster and spasmodic steel of Paul Lacques, the gurgling Stratocaster of Marcus Watkins, the revisionist/reductionist bass of Marc Doten, and the all knowing unyielding drums of Joe Berardi beguile, bewilder, bait, and beatify their audience -- and all with no pesky vocals or lyrics to water down the twang and throb.

Same 10:15 sharp start time.


Line-up for the month:

Delightful cobills at 11:30...
~March 4th The 1921A
http://www.myspace.com/the1921a
~March 11th Salt Petal
http://www.myspace.com/saltpetal
~March 18th The Black Widows
http://www.myspace.com/maskedblackwidows

~March 25th two sets by Double Naught Spy Car with special guests.
http://www.myspace.com/doublenaughtspycar

Taix French Restaurant
1911 West Sunset Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA

CD Release: Scott Heustis Group at Spincycle/The Trip March 4th 9:30PM

Come to the CD release of the Scott Heustis Group

These fantastic musicians play "Dangerous music. Improvised right before your eyes and ears, and without a net!!"

Scott Heustis guitar
Robert Leng sax
Jeff Schwartz bass
Breeze Smith drums

Only $5

Scott Heustis Group at Spincycle/The Trip

Thursday, March 4, 2010
9:30pm - 10:30pm
2101 Lincoln Blvd Santa Monica, CA 90405

Pianist Motoko Honda @ MONA This Friday, March 5th

It's time for the first Friday concert @ the Museum of Neon Art and this week is a great one! A trio made up of three of the finest composer/players in the Los Angeles area. Will be a great night of music.Not to be missed!

Who: Piano - Motoko Honda
Electric bassist - Steuart Liebig
Drummer - Joe Berardi

What: Jazz/Eclectic/Avante-Garde Pianist

When: Friday, March 5, 2010
Doors open at 8:00 pm

Where: Museum of Neon Art
136 W. 4th St., Los Angeles, CA 90013

Tickets: $10 at the door / MONA Members $5


The much awaited-for performance by Motoko Honda is finally here! Throughout LA, this pianist has turned ears with her resonating and challenging vibrancy of avante-garde chords, eclectic tunes, and performative presence. Come see her music enliven the neon flame at MONA.


ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Motoko Honda is a pianist, keyboardist, improviser, composer, and sound architect living in Los Angeles. A graduate of California Institute of the Arts, Motoko has been active as an electro-acoustic-prepared piano soloist, band leader, and sound artist collaborating with visual artists and dancers. She has also recorded a wide range of music from classical, avant-garde, jazz, punk, contemporary, world and new music.

A frequent "pick of the week" by Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Weekly, she is a featured musician in the documentary film "Good Ear", and has performed at major venues such as Ford Theater, Barnsdall Gallery Theater, REDCAT/Disney Hall MOCA, and many festivals such as RESBOX at the Steven Allen Theater. Continuing to pursue the boundaries of all kinds of music, Motoko is known to weave through various genres to create something unique and personal every time.

Steuart Liebig and Joe Berardi are also accomplished composers, improvisers, and electronic sound artists in their own right.

Event Information: 213-489-9918
The concert will take place at the Museum of Neon Art, 136 W. 4th St., in Downtown LA's burgeoning arts district. Tickets are $10 at the door. Free parking is available on the street, or in two paid lots 1/2 block away.