By CHARLES ANDREWS
THE RESURRECTION OF CURIOUS CITY: FRIDAY! HONEST!
Long promised, finally delivered. Every other Friday now, in print in the Santa Monica Mirror, and online. Best way to get it, plus my weekly NOTEWORTHY live music and arts recommendations, is to subscribe (free, no strings) to my Substack, MUSIC, POLITICS, LIFE. Go to – https://bit.ly/3UGkK1F
Important note: to keep artistic expression and all other free speech alive and uncancelled, please show up this SATURDAY, 10/18, for another national NO KINGS DAY, peaceful, joyful demonstrations, around LA. In Santa Monica at Palisades Park, Ocean Avenue at Montana Avenue, 90401, 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
You can wait until things get a little worse, a little closer to complete authoritarian control, but your options are slimming every day. For the First American Revolution, you had to pick up a musket and go looking for the redhats, uh, redcoats, and maybe slog through winter snow nearly barefoot. But after all, there were heavily armed soldiers in our streets then. Not like now, right?
NOW IS THE MOMENT
When our freedoms are quickly slipping away. Not next year, maybe not next month. The ICE Gestapo are prowling our (Democratic) city streets on false pretenses and with no due process, shooting a praying minister in the head with pepper spray, breaking into a Chicago apartment building from a Blackhawk military helicopter to roust children out of their beds, some naked, zip tying these dangerous juvenile criminals, and throwing them into dark vans for hours. A female TV reporter was thrown to the ground and handcuffed. The elderly father of three U.S. Marine veterans was tackled by several beefy ICE agents while doing his landscaping work. And on and on and on.
And you are waiting for… what? The longer you wait, the harder it is to unwind things. We ALL need to show Washington and the world that this has gone way too far, it is not America, and many millions of us are opposed to it. I hear so many say, what can we do?! Just show up on Saturday. Numbers, overwhelming numbers. It’s important. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED:
BRANFORD MARSALIS QUARTET – It would be a simplification, of course, but you could say there are two important families reigning over the New Orleans music empire, the funky Nevilles and the smooth Marsalises. Branford has been an acclaimed saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and educator for more than four decades. He has played with Miles, Dizzy, and Herbie, composed for stage, film, and TV, and soloed with prestigious classical symphonies. He usually plays one or two shows at a time, but we get him for four shows. He doesn’t blow into LA that often, so this is something to take advantage of. Tues, next Wed, 7 p.m., 9:30 p.m., Blue Note, Hollywood, $77-200.
ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO – I always have trouble finding the words to describe my enthusiasm for the musical magic of Alejandro, so I consulted with longtime McCabe’s booker and sound man Wayne Griffith. “I tell people he looks like a well-dressed bank teller or accountant,” I said, “who can play the living daylights out of his electric guitar with a thrilling showcase of rock and roll, blues, Latin, and surprises,” Wayne said, Yup, that’s what I would go with too. You will walk away a new and hardcore fan of Escovedo. Friday 8:00 p.m., McCabe’s, Santa Monica, $40.
OZOMATLI – Hard to believe these raucous, popular, genre-busting guys have been around 30 years. The first time I saw them was in the small local club, At My Place, and they filled the room with their energy and then marched around the place like they were leading a New Orleans second line. The second time was on the SM Pier, and I had never seen a bigger crowd there up till then, even though much bigger names had played. They are pure LA, and as well known for their social activism as their music. They should tear up a small venue like Venice West, and are playing once a month for three months. Friday 8:00 p.m., Venice West, $47-164.
HOT CLUB OF LOS ANGELES – You can go to the Cinema Bar any Monday night, 9:00-11:30, free, for almost 14 years now, and hear these hot players run through Django Reinhardt-style ‘30s jazz. This amazing ensemble is a treasure. Monday 9:00 p.m., Cinema Bar, Culver City, free.
RECOMMENDED:
“HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU” – Panel game show format takes on politics and current events, but it’s more important to be funny than right. Often hilarious. The chaos is overseen by one of my favorites, Roy Wood Jr., but his two team captains, Amber Ruffin and Michael Ian Black, dish up the biggest laughs, most of them spontaneously. Every Saturday, 9:00 p.m., CNN
“NEW ORLEANS: SOUL OF A CITY” – An original four-part series that began last Sunday, but this is the one I’ve been looking forward to: the music. NOLA is one of the premier music cities in the world, especially for live music. If you’ve never been to the annual “Jazz & Heritage Festival,” begun in 1970, well, you just haven’t lived. But NOLA’s music is year-round and 24/7. Eliminate New Orleans, and you obliterate most American music. Lots of polka is what’s left, and no zydeco accordions. I can guarantee almost everyone will learn something about New Orleans music from this program. Sunday 10:00 p.m., CNN
TOLEDO DIAMOND – His decades-long Sunday night residency at Santa Monica’s Harvelle’s, the oldest blues bar in LA (almost a century!), is a treasure that you shouldn’t assume will always be there. Toledo choreographs (literally) 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. Every Sunday, 9:30 p.m., Harvelle’s, Santa Monica, $12.
COMING ATTRACTIONS (also recommended): ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO, McCabe’s, 10/17; OZOMATLI, Venice West, 10/17, 11/14, 12/12; TOLEDO DIAMOND, Harvelle’s Santa Monica, 10/19, 26; HOT CLUB OF LOS ANGELES, Cinema Bar, 10/20; BRANFORD MARSALIS QUARTET, Blue Note, 10/21, 22; BOZ SCAGGS, Disney Hall, 10/25; MARIANNE WILLIAMSON, Saban Theatre, 10/25; TIM BURTON’S “THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS” in concert, Hollywood Bowl, 10/25, 26; ITZHAK PERLMAN, Disney Hall, 10/28; SIMON MOULLIERE QUARTET w/ GERALD CLAYTON, Sam First, 10/29; Halloween “HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME,” film + organ music, Disney Hall, 10/31;
DOWN THE ROAD (also recommended): QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, Dolby, 11/11; PATTI SMITH, “HORSES,” Disney Hall, 11/15; LA TRIO, Sam First, 11/15; ROBERT PLANT, United Theater on Broadway, 11/22, 23; LA OPERA’s “LA BOHEME,” Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 11/22, 30, 12/4, 6, 10, 14; DENGUE FEVER, Venice West, 12/5; JACKSHIT, McCabe’s, 12/9, 10, 11; LA PHIL, MOZART, SIBELIUS, Disney Hall, 12/12, 13, 14; LIBRARY GIRL, Ruskin Theatre, 12/14; CHARLES LLOYD QUARTET w/ GERALD CLAYTON, Blue Note, 12/15.
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 39 years and wouldn’t live anywhere else in the world. Really. Send love and/or hate mail to: therealmrmusic@gmail.com
