Greetings, gentle Pop & Hiss-ians. We interrupt your conspicuous consumption of music coverage with the following announcement.

If you're a jazz fan or even someone with omnivorous tastes, you're going to want to adjust your sights (and your browsers) to the L.A. Times terrific arts news and reviews shop, Culture Monster. Starting Friday I'll be over there as part of what promises to be an expanded take on jazz coverage in L.A. and beyond, while also rubbing elbows with the latest word on theater, dance, art, architecture and classical. It's a fine, classy bunch, but we promise not to change just because we're running with a new crowd. 

Come along, won't you? Today I've got the rundown of last night's show with terrific young trumpeter (and recent Blue Note signee) Ambrose Akinmusire at the cozy Cafe Metropol downtown. A great young crowd packed the place, and it was a beautiful night -- the kind of night filled with such energy and imagination that it makes you want to take anyone who thinks the music is dying and slap them about the head and shoulders. (We all know better.)

Read all about it here. I'll still be dropping in here from time to time, and you can also follow me on Twitter @chrisbarton. See you on the other side.

-- Chris Barton

Photo: Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times

When Neil Diamond called Herbie Hancock to do a collaboration, the jazz legend readily says he didn’t share much in common with the singer – other than a fiscal one.

“I had never even met Neil before. The connection we have is we have the same accountant," Hancock says, laughing about the unlikely pairing. "I was happy we did it. He’s such a great talent. It gave me the opportunity to do something with him for a great cause.”

The cause being the “Stand Up to Cancer” telethon.

In only its second telethon -- the first in 2008 raised more than $100 million - the live and commercial-fee special airing Friday brings together a mix of music, film and television stars making their own pleas for donations to cancer research.

The two legends teamed together to take on the moving Beatles classic “Yesterday,” though the pair didn’t have much time to perfect the tune, as they had just physically met for the first time a day prior to Wednesday’s rehearsal on the Sony Pictures lot.

There’s a modification of an old joke that came to mind on Wednesday night. “What does a 70-year-old jazz legend get to play on his birthday at the Hollywood Bowl?” The answer for the great Herbie Hancock is, of course, anything he wants.

Not that this would be anything new for Hancock, who has always gone his own way. Starting his career at only 21, the pianist has zigzagged through an array of musical high points that have included eye-opening bandleader, sideman to Miles Davis in a historic jazz combo and innovative cross-pollinator, first with the raucous jazz-funk fusion of the Headhunters and later helping launch both the hip-hop and music-video eras with 1983’s “Rockit.” And that doesn’t even cover an album of the year Grammy in 2008 for “River.”

Billed as “Seven Decades — The Birthday Celebration,” the L.A. Philharmonic realistically needed two or three nights to adequately capture Hancock, who is in his first year as its Creative Chair for Jazz. In a lineup full of high-wattage guests, the program was split into two parts, the first consisting of Hancock’s groundbreaking, mostly acoustic ’60s work and the latter dedicated to Hancock’s equally influential electric period and his new album, “The Imagine Project.”

Though most of the near-capacity crowd knew to arrive early, it was easy to pity the few stragglers hustling to their seats through Hancock’s first set. Opening with a weaving, breezy take on Hancock’s “Maiden Voyage,” the wealth of experience onstage was awe-inspiring as the pianist was joined by longtime collaborator Wayne Shorter on saxophone, Jack DeJohnette on drums, trumpeter Terence Blanchard and, briefly, electric bassist Nathan East.

There’s no way to talk about the Portico Quartet without first talking about the hang drum. A UFO-shaped oddity that looks like two welded-together woks after a couple of well-placed whacks with a ball-peen hammer, its percolating, chiming pulse provides an exotic focal point to the unique saxophone, bass and drum instrumentals by these East London twentysomethings, whose 2008 debut was nominated for a Mercury Prize in the U.K.

For the follow-up, the group has teamed with producer John Leckie, who previously worked with the Stone Roses and Radiohead. And while the quartet's sound gains a new richness with a few well-placed flourishes of strings and electronics, its unclassifiable core remains intact. With Nick Mulvey’s hang drums variously recalling a thumb piano, steel drums or even a vaguely electronic-feeling sonic backdrop, Portico Quartet’s bewitching mix can sound like a noirish jungle cruise scored by Wayne Shorter and Steve Reich.

Rising out of an insistent bass line, the moody “Dawn Patrol” boils over into a flurry of saxophone and percussion acrobatics, while the hypnotic maze of ringing hang drums in “Line” recalls the widescreen sweep of Moby's early ambient days. Blending an almost futuristically elegant sense of atmosphere with flashes of raw, flesh-and-blood expression, Portico Quartet isn’t the first to carve out such a pan-global sonic world, but it's created one that's welcoming to visit.

-- Chris Barton

Portico Quartet
“Isla”
Real World
Three stars

 

At this point in Bill Frisell’s career, you pretty much know what you’re going to get. Sure, there’s the occasional foray into his unhinged past with John Zorn’s Naked City and the string-heavy Richter 858 project, but for the most part Frisell has carved out a comfortable -– and, let’s be honest, quite lovely –- niche that finds his alternately stinging or soothing guitar tone stirring up a gorgeous and unique mix of rustic Americana and slow-boiling jazz.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. For his latest record, his first for Savoy Jazz, Frisell has assembled an unconventional trio with experimental-minded violist Eyvind Kang and drummer Rudy Royston, who has backed frequent Frisell collaborator Ron Miles. Frisell isn’t a stranger to string accompaniment in a small ensemble given his recent work with Jenny Schienman. But Kang is given ample room to put his distinct stamp on the proceedings, most notably with his gruff, sawing interplay with Frisell on a twilit reading of “It’s Nobody’s Fault but Mine.” Frisell’s taste for mining the classic songbook remains intact with lovely, understated takes on “Beautiful Dreamer,” “Tea for Two” and the ever-jaunty “Keep on the Sunny Side,” but these add up to a rather inescapable feeling that Frisell has been here before.

Originals such as the churning and surprisingly upbeat Vic Chesnutt dedication “Better Than a Machine” and the elastic “All We Can Do” certainly show there’s plenty for both longtime fans and newcomers to enjoy here. It’s just hard not to wish for more surprises.

-- Chris Barton

Bill Frisell
“Beautiful Dreamers”
Savoy Jazz
Two and a half stars

In some respects, 1998 seems like a lifetime ago. Cellphones were still brick-shaped novelties, the iPod was just a twinkle in Apple's eye and Stanton Moore, the hard-hitting drummer for New Orleans funk ensemble Galactic, released the solo album "All Kooked Out" on the tiny San Francisco imprint Fog City.

Teamed with the Bay Area's eight-string guitar virtuoso Charlie Hunter and saxophone madman Skerik from the deliriously unhinged ambient-art-jazz ensemble Critters Buggin, the record marked a supergroup of sorts for a wildly fertile mini-movement in the late '90s, one that curiously spiraled out of the improv-happy jam-band scene led by Phish. While the mere mention of the "J" word -- much less Phish -- causes many music fans to leave the room, Moore's album, along with records by San Diego's Greyboy Allstars and Medeski Martin and Wood, also picked up a number of longtime jazz fans in the process, as well as forming a gateway of sorts into the music for a new generation (this writer included).

I had the pleasure of speaking with jazz pianist Vijay Iyer a short time ago in advance of Sunday's performance with his trio at Pasadena's Levitt Pavilion (which is free, by the way -- seriously, if you have any curiosity about jazz or jazz piano, this would be a good show to catch).

We talked about the effect of the avalanche of critical acclaim he received since his 2009 album "Historicity," his impressive new solo piano album coming Aug. 31 and his genre-blind view of music, particularly with regard to his cover choices. In the past he has reinterpreted John Lennon, Stevie Wonder and M.I.A., and his diverse track record continues on "Solo" with a reverent take on Michael Jackson's "Human Nature," which fits rather nicely against a cover of Monk's "Epistrophy" and Iyer's inventive originals.

And while you'd expect any number of famed solo jazz recordings acting as his inspiration, there was one album in particular he found a kinship with during the making of this album: Janelle Monáe's genre-hopping "The ArchAndroid."

"I listened to that the day that we were mixing, which was pretty interesting because it’s obviously very different sonic landscape. It’s kind of just good to get a blast of something else, just some other dose of creative expression that’s not yours when you’re holed up in this kind of thing," he said.

"And maybe that’s just who I am because in a way my role in this music has never been some sort of insular thing, it’s always been kind of leaking into other areas of music and contingent on what’s around it."

Read the whole story here.

-- Chris Barton

Photo: Vijay Iyer in concert. Credit: Hans Speekenbrink

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In only its second year, L.A.'s own Angel City Jazz Festival was one of the highlights of 2009, with a two-day blend of rich, forward-thinking jazz at the John Anson Ford Amphitheater last Labor Day Weekend. Yet this is a tough time for music festivals, and despite the overwhelming feeling that a beautiful musical tradition was coming into its own, it was easy to wonder if the brainchild of longtime local promoter Rocco Somazzi and Cryptogramophone Records' Jeff Gauthier could sustain itself after such an auspicious leap.

Luckily for jazz fans, the festival is not only continuing, it seems to be growing. Though the actual "festival" component at the Ford has been scaled back to a single day on Sunday, Oct. 3 (with performances by the Ravi Coltrane / Ralph Alessi Quintet, Wadada Leo Smith's Golden Quartet and others), the festival overall has expanded to a full week, with shows planned across the city.

Partnering with Cryptogramophone and the L.A. County Arts Commission as well as REDCAT, L.A. Film Forum and the still-itinerant Jazz Bakery, the events planned for Oct. 2-8 indicate that the festival's taste for adventure remains undiminished. Among the highlights include avant-garde bassist Henry Grimes in a group with Wadada Leo Smith and Alex Cline at REDCAT, the John Abercrombie Quartet at the Musician's Institute Theater and an event at LACMA's Bing Theater celebrating the release of "Dirty Baby," a book that chronicles the meeting of the music of Nels Cline with the poetry of David Breskin and the art of Ed Ruscha.

Tickets are available separately here, as well as a five-night pass to every show for $75. Full details of the lineup after the jump.

“Big bands are definitely not coming back,” George Carlin once declared in a bit from the ’80s, where he posed as Jesus Christ sitting down for an interview. While their golden age certainly has passed, what was as true then as it is now is that big bands have never entirely disappeared, and in fact, there is considerable evidence that the classic format may be enjoying a bit of a revival.

Last year’s Grammy-nominated John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble and the eclectic steampunk jazz of Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society are just two recent examples, and a triple bill at the Hollywood Bowl on Wednesday night headlined by the venerable Count Basie Orchestra honored the form’s rich history while also showing where it stands in the present.

In a rumpled shirt and straw hat fit for a Brooklyn block party, downtown New York trumpeter Dave Douglas showed a different side to his always eclectic tastes, leading his band through fluid, expansive selections from “A Single Sky,” an album released last year that was Douglas’ first big band recording.

Arranged by keyboardist Jim McNeely, Douglas’ lyrical set departed from the usual big band sound with energetic flashes of Latin jazz and funk, gaining strength as it slowed to an atmospheric purr for the evocative “The Persistence of Memory.” With the bandstand bathed in red light, Douglas and crew took the Bowl to a dark, noirish place highlighted by a giggling, gurgling trombone solo by Ed Neumeister, whose deft work with a mute had his horn occasionally resembling Peter Frampton’s talk box.

In terms of mining the fertile ground that lies between jazz and electronic music, Europe has been eating the rest of the world’s lunch for years. While such a stylistic pileup can send some listeners into a tizzy of category-defining in a quest to slot a given album firmly in one discipline or another (particularly in the often fractious world of jazz), such things are particularly pointless when approaching the band Food.

Shifting through a variety of collaborators in more than 10 years together, the group led by U.K. saxophonist Iain Bellamy and Norwegian percussionist Thomas Strønen traffics in an atmospheric, improvisation-heavy sound that turns further inward for the band’s first release with the ever-contemplative European label ECM. Joined at various points by Nils Petter Molvær on trumpet and laptop deconstructionist Christian Fennesz on guitar and electronics, “Quiet Inlet” is a record full of wide-open spaces and subtle conversations.

On tracks such as the hushed “Chimaera” and “Cirrina,” the rhythm is no more than tinkling chimes or a gently brushed snare, emphasizing lush, sinewy horn passages that build to a dialogue with a secondary melody so distant it's almost subliminal. Songs such as “Tobiko” and “Mictyris” are more direct, rising out of a percussive world beat clatter akin to the techno experiments of Moritz Von Oswald. Bellamy’s saxophone weaves through a bed of fuzzy textures from Fennesz, who became a bit of an indie rock darling with the 2001 album “Endless Summer.”

Though the record often recalls the dreamy, immersive world of Bennie Maupin’s “The Jewel in the Lotus,” at other points it drifts into a sort of ambient monotony as Bellamy’s saxophone becomes too smooth for its own good. Still, at a time when genre borders have become all the more meaningless, “Quiet Inlet” offers an often enchanting place to visit.

-- Chris Barton

Food
“Quiet Inlet”
Two and a half stars
ECM

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A jazz veteran who has collaborated with Sun Ra, Don Cherry and Sam Rivers as well as leading his own ensembles, violinist Billy Bang (born Billy Walker in 1947) may not be a household name. Yet listeners who might ordinarily shy away from the at-times turbulent world of free jazz shouldn’t miss this recording, a rewarding and often gorgeous record that hopefully will remedy Bang’s comparatively low profile.

Though jazz violin is a relative rarity (New York’s eclectic Jenny Scheinman and our own Jeff Gauthier immediately come to mind), “Prayer for Peace” is as much about Bang’s compositional verve and nimble backing band as it is his instrument. Opening with a cover of “Only Time Will Tell” by fellow jazz violinist Stuff Smith, Bang’s quintet swings with such understated elegance that it’s easy to imagine the song turning up in the jazz-mad HBO series “Treme.”

Bang’s tastes run too eclectic to stay in one style long. Rising out of a clockwork groove from bassist Todd Nicholson and pianist Andrew Bemkey, “Dance of the Manakin” is a slowly escalating study in joyfully adventurous jazz-funk. In addition to touching on Monkish bop with “Jupiter’s Future,” Bang also showcases a deft hand with Latin jazz on “At Play in the Fields of the Lord,” which builds to a swerving, sawing violin crescendo, and Compay Segundo’s Cuban classic “Chan Chan” gets a fairly straightforward reworking with some bawdy trumpet work from James Zollar.

But it’s the album’s title track that leaves the greatest impression. The song’s nearly 20-minute run time coasts by in a blink, with every movement evolving into the next with a lush, captivating grace reminiscent of “A Love Supreme.” Some might still call it avant-garde, but leave it to a man who took his name from a cartoon to prove labels don’t mean a thing.

— Chris Barton

Billy Bang
“Prayer for Peace”
TUM Records
Three stars (Out of four)

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One of the leading figures in the Chicago music scene was lost Thursday as Fred Anderson, saxophonist, club owner and tireless advocate for the city's fertile jazz scene, died at 81. In a tender, illuminating obituary for the Chicago Tribune, critic Howard Reich reported that Anderson's sons declined to get into specifics about the saxophonist's death, but grave news of his "massive heart attack" on June 14 sent ripples of concern through the jazz community.

Owner of Chicago's landmark Velvet Lounge and co-founder of Chicago's intensely creative Assn. for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) collective, Anderson helped nurture the careers of many Chicago jazz heavyweights, including Ken Vandermark, Hamid Drake and Jeff Parker. Anderson remained a force onstage and on record late in life, including a remarkable 2007 album with Drake and Parker, "From the River to the Ocean" (recorded by Tortoise's John McEntire and released on the Chicago indie label Thrill Jockey), and last year's live recording from his 80th-birthday show at the Velvet Lounge, "21st Century Chase," a fiery, inspiring free excursion that also featured Parker along with tenor saxophonist Kidd Jordan, bassist Harrison Bankhead and drummer Chad Taylor.

As reported in a separate story by Reich, the future of the Velvet Lounge has an unfortunate question mark looming over it with the loss of Anderson, who often covered some of its operations out of his own pocket. Fortunately, what will endure is the music, and Anderson left us with plenty to appreciate. Sample the video above, the trailer from a 2006 live CD/DVD set, "Timeless," for a taste.

-- Chris Barton

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