The 2009 Angel City Jazz Festival Set For Labor Day Weekend | Sept. 6 – 7, 2009
Angel City Jazz Festival Set
For Labor Day WeekendLA’s Only Alternative, Non-Commercial Jazz Festival
2009 Angel City Jazz Festival is set to take place on Labor Day
weekend, September 6-7, at the intimate and affordable John Anson Ford
Amphitheatre in Hollywood, CA. Headlining this year’s festival will be
veteran woodwind player/composer Bennie Maupin and Dolphyana, with an all-star band performing West Coast premieres of newly discovered compositions by the great Eric Dolphy. Also headlining will be world renowned trumpeter Dave Douglas and Brass Ecstasy,
a recently formed band with the unique instrumentation of trumpet,
French horn, trombone, tuba, and drums. Other artists appearing at the
festival are Grammy Award-winning pianist Billy Childs’ Jazz-Chamber Ensemble, The Nels Cline Singers with Jeff Parker of Tortoise, The Larry Goldings Organ Trio with Peter Bernstein on guitar and Bill Stewart on drums, The Satoko Fujii Four
with Natsuki Tamura on trumpet, and Mark Dresser on bass, Seattle based pianist Wayne Horvitz’s Gravitas Quartet, pianist Motoko Honda & Butoh master Oguri, Jesse Sharps’ The Gathering featuring vocalist Dwight Trible, and many others (see full schedule below).
Festival director Rocco Somazzi says, “We’re honored to be presenting
great artists like Dave Douglas, Bennie Maupin, Billy Childs, and Nels
Cline in the beautiful and historic Ford
Amphitheatre. Bringing creative jazz back to the Ford is a great
thing for Los Angeles and a big step up for the Angel City Jazz
Festival.”
The Angel City Jazz Festival is a two-day outdoor
event featuring innovative and original jazz musicians from the West
Coast and around the world. The 2009 festival presents established jazz
artists as well as lesser known emerging talent, with a focus on West
Coast creative jazz. The Angel City Jazz Festival was founded in 2007
by jazz promoter Rocco Somazzi, and the first event was held at
Barnsdall Art Park in Hollywood. Co-Producing the festival this year
is Los Angeles based Cryptogramophone Records.
Nestled in the
Hollywood Hills, the 1200-seat John Anson Ford Amphitheatre is one of
the oldest performing arts venues in Los Angeles, with a rich history
of West Coast jazz. The open-air theater sits atop a 45-ac.re
park-like setting in the beautiful Hollywood Hills, and is a great
venue for family entertainment, and picnicking under the stars. The
Ford Ampitheatre was originally known as the Pilgrimage Theater, and in
the 1960s and 70s the “Jazz at the Pilgrimage” series was a destination
for many West Coast “cool” jazz artists like Art Pepper, Mundell Lowe,
Chico Hamilton, Harold Land, Oscar Brashear, Buddy Collette, Barney
Kessel, Shelly Manne, and Don Ellis. The Angel City Jazz Festival
resurrects this historic venue as a nexus for West Coast creative jazz.
In
addition to the music, this year’s festival will feature Live Painting
by Unification Theory. In the picnic area of the Ford Amphitheatre from
4pm to 11pm both days of the festival, visual artists Fumiko Amano,
Favianna Rodriguez and Gustavo Alberto Garcia Vaca will be painting
live, inspired by the music being performed during the festival. All
live paintings will be available for sale at affordable prices ranging
from $20 to $100. Proceeds will benefit the Angel City Jazz Festival.
For tickets, log-on to www.FordTheatres.org,
or call the Ford Box Office at 323-461-3673. Tickets are priced at $35
for adults, and $12 for full-time students with ID and children 12 and
under. Through the Ford’s early buyer incentive, adults who buy
tickets on of before August 30th pay only $30.
The Ford
Amphitheatre is located at 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, Hollywood, CA
90068, Just off the 1010 Hollywood Freeway across from the Hollywood
Bowl and south of Universal Studios. The grounds open two hours before
showtime for picnicking. The Ford offers a number of dining options: a
variety of food and beverages is available on site, and box dinners for
evening events may be ordered in advance. Patrons are welcome to bring
their own food and drink. The Ford is disabled accessible. Portable
wireless listening devices are available upon request.
On-site stacked parking costs $5 per vehicle for evening shows. Free
non-stacked parking serviced by a free shuttle to the Ford for evening
performances only, is available at the Universal City Metro Station lot
at Lankershim Blvd., and Campo de Cahuenga. The shuttle, which cycles
every 15-20 minutes, stops in the “Kiss and Ride” area.
This
event is part of the Ford Amphitheatre 2009 Season, a
multi-disciplinary arts series produced by the Los Angeles County Arts
Commission in cooperation with Los Angeles County-based arts
organizations. For a complete season schedule, directions to the
theater and parking information, log-on to www.FordTheatres.org
Festival Schedule
Sunday, September 6th 4PM – 11PM
4:00 PM Plays Monk (Ben Goldberg, Devin Hoff, Scott Amendola)
5:15 PM The Satoko Fujii Quartet
6:30 PM Jesse Sharps’ The Gathering with Dwight Trible
intermission
8:00 PM The Billy Childs Jazz-Chamber Ensemble
9:15 PM Larry Karush – solo piano
9:50 PM Dave Douglas & Brass Ecstasy
Monday, September 7th 4PM – 11PM
4:00 PM Alex Cline’s Band of the Moment
5:15 PM The Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet
6:30 PM The Nels Cline Singers with Jeff Parker
intermission
8:00 PM The Larry Goldings Organ Trio
9:15 PM Motoko Honda & Oguri
9:50 PM Bennie Maupin and Dolphyana
DL Media