By CHARLES ANDREWS
“CULTURE” IS VERY SUBJECTIVE
Woody Allen once complained in “Annie Hall” that the only culture in California was “being able to turn right on a red light.” Outdated completely, of course, if it ever was true.
I have written often that the healthiest thing for Santa Monica’s economy and image would be to emphasize and support our being “a City of the Arts.” Because we are. And because recognition is way overdue for our unique history. And because it is a clean economic engine.
Restoration of the Civic Auditorium would take us so far towards that goal. But four City Council members – JESSIE ZWICK, NATALYA ZERNITSKAYA, CAROLINE TOROSIS, and DAN HALL – voted to end that process. Now Hall has his own sublime idea for restoring our cultural excellence – an EDM concert on the beach (they are very loud) with 35,000 attendees, an idea with little chance of helping us economically.
I’ll tell you more about this next week. But in the words of my neighbor, kind of an authority who chases music all over the world: “That is the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard.”
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED:
HOT CLUB OF LOS ANGELES – While at my laptop today, I picked out an album on my YouTube music channel that said it was “Gypsy Jazz – Django Reinhardt, Stephane Grappelli” – but it wasn’t. I only wanted some quality background music, but after a few minutes, I focused a little. Something was off. The guitar strumming, the amplification, more ‘90s than ‘30s. That ain’t Django! For some profit algorithm I don’t understand, people with no morals and only half an ear will record well-known music using unknown but skillful musicians, and it will be good, and close, but… They will pass it off as the real deal, knowing most people will never notice. Feh. The HCOLA don’t claim to play note for note Django but they are the undeniable inhabiters of his spirit, and though I would love to time travel back to The Hot Club of Paris (I would also go looking for Josephine Baker), watching this virtuoso ensemble is so close it doesn’t matter much, and no travel needed except just over the SM border to Sepulveda Boulevard. Their website shows them booked every Sunday evening through 2027, but why would you wait? In this uncertain world, anything could happen. Sundays 9 p.m., Cinema Bar, Culver City, always no cover.
RECOMMENDED:
MAHLER, BARTÓK, RAVEL, LA PHIL – OK, a Mahler Symphony (#4) but no Dudamel, one of the great purveyors of master Mahler on the planet, boo hoo. Dummy. It’s the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and they have performed this several times and could probably do a dang fine job of it without any conductor. But if you stopped to dig a little, you’d find out conductor Elim Chan is a Dudamel Fellow, and who do you think put her on the baton for this performance? The LA Phil calls her “one of the most sought-after artists of her generation.” I could live my life without Ravel (I didn’t say I couldn’t stand him… like some of the Russians). The Bartok is a “Dance Suite,” and I love his folk music-based compositions. The Mahler that takes up the second half is the one that is probably his most sweet and least dark and ends with a child at the gates of heaven. But it’s Mahler, and he does it with great insight and musicality. Thurs, Sat 8 p.m., Fri 11 a.m., Sun 2 p.m., Walt Disney Concert Hall, LA, $29-226.
JASON ISBELL & THE 400 UNIT – I’ve seen him only twice, once solo at Disney Hall, and once with his band, an outstanding band, and that’s where you get the best show. The Orpheum Theatre in downtown LA is, in its own way, as elegant as Disney, a slightly faded but still spectacular stage, perhaps a more appropriate backdrop for such an incisive rockin’ band as this. Sat 8 p.m., Orpheum Theatre, 1/31;
“HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU” – I know I told you last week that “They’re back for a new season, just in time! To make us all laugh at the headlines rather than sticking our heads in the oven or moving to Antarctica over the evil results of Stephen Miller’s latest “Donald-whisperings.” But the horrific happenings in Minneapolis pre-empted that time slot. (It should have been available on the CNN app the next day, but I didn’t check.) Roy Wood Jr., ex-“The Daily Show” traffic reporter (who never got around to even mentioning the traffic) and brilliantly funny MC of the 2023 Washington Correspondents’ Dinner, is the ringmaster of this kind of game show based on the news, but it’s much more important to be funny than correct. Aided hilariously by team captains Michael Ian Black and Amber Ruffin, each with some celebrity teammate, usually struggling to keep up. Based on the immensely popular UK version, but, come on, except for Monty Python, Ricky Gervais, and Jimmy Carr, Yanks are much funnier. But, this Saturday, I don’t know if I could come up with much joy or joking. Tune in to see. Sat 9 p.m., CNN.
TOLEDO DIAMOND – Who’s been showing up even longer than the Hot Club, with a very different but also virtuosic show? His decades-long Sunday night residency at Santa Monica’s Harvelle’s, the oldest blues bar in LA (almost a century!), is the stuff of myth. Toledo choreographs a truly unique show, a blend of ‘50s hipster jazz and his dancing dames and a most modern smokin’ hot band that gets better all the time. Who says Santa Monica is not a City of the Arts? Sun 9 p.m., Harvelle’s, Santa Monica, $13.
COMING ATTRACTIONS (also recommended): TOLEDO DIAMOND, Harvelle’s Santa Monica, 2/1, 8; HOT CLUB OF LOS ANGELES, Cinema Bar, 2/2, 9; “HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU,” CNN Sat 9 p.m., 2/7, 14; JASON ISBELL & THE 400 UNIT, Orpheum Theatre, 1/31; JIM KWESKIN & FRIENDS, McCabe’s, 2/7; LIBRARY GIRL, Ruskin Theatre, 2/8; DUDAMEL, BEETHOVEN, LORENZ, SCHUMANN, Disney Hall, 2/12-15; ALBERT LEE, McCabe’s, 2/13; ANNE HILLERMAN’S “DARK WINDS,” Season 4, AMC/+, 2/15;
DOWN THE ROAD (also recommended): TOLEDO DIAMOND, Harvelle’s Santa Monica, 2/8, 15, 22; HOT CLUB OF LOS ANGELES, Cinema Bar, 2/16, 23, 30; “HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU,” CNN Sat 9 p.m., 2/21, 28; WARREN HAYNES Solo, Blue Note LA, 2/17, 18; DAMN WELL PLEASE ORGAN TRIO, Harvelle’s, 2/17; KAUKONEN The Final Tour, McCabe’s, 2/20, 21, 22; GUSTAVO, BEETHOVEN “MISSA SOLEMNIS,” Disney Hall, 2/20-22; BEETHOVEN, ORTIZ, DUDAMEL, Disney Hall, 2/26-3/1; LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO, BroadStage, 2/27; BRANDI CARLILE, Kia Forum, 2/27; GLASS “AKHNATEN,” LA OPERA, 2/28, 3/8, 11, 14, 19, 22; BILL FRISELL TRIO, Blue Note LA, 3/4, 5; DUDAMEL, “Dante,” BEETHOVEN 6, Disney Hall, 3/5, 6, 8; CHARLIE HUNTER TRIO, Blue Note LA, 3/9; THE BAD PLUS POTTER TABORN, Blue Note LA, 3/10, 11; MADELEINE PEYROUX, Blue Note LA, 3/17, 18; “VERTIGO” in concert, Disney Hall, 3/21; SAMARA JOY, Blue Note LA, 4/15, 16; VERDI “FALSTAFF,” LA OPERA, 4/18, 26, 30, 5/2, 6, 10; TAKE 6, Blue Note LA, 4/30-5/3; STANLEY CLARKE’S SANTA MONICA INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL, BroadStage, 5/1-9; MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO, Blue Note LA, 5/4, 5; LA SANTA CECILIA, Fonda Theatre, 5/7; MOZART “THE MAGIC FLUTE,” LA OPERA, 5/30, 6/6, 11, 14, 17, 21.
Charles Andrews has listened to a lot of music of all kinds, including more than 3,500 live shows. He has lived in Santa Monica for 40 years and wouldn’t live anywhere else in the world. Really. Send love and/or hate mail to: therealmrmusic@gmail.com
