[contextly_auto_sidebar id="J9S6BFoEKctFIUF9sCOFryBh5uvOWyC0"] AFTER completing his Underworld U.S.A. Trilogy and writing a memoir about his often tortured relationships with women, crime writer James Ellroy is back with a new quartet of novels that will serve as a prequel to his Los Angeles Quartet -- the four great novels that include L.A. Confidential. A few days ago, I hung out with … [Read more...]
An LA Novelist Pleads With Amazon
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="2X67n54jvsskEeTyvZeL9ZzPV0yO4y6x"] JANET Fitch, a friend whose writing I admire, has written an open letter to Jeff Bezos of Amazon about what the online bookseller is doing to the literary trade and the the nation's "intellectual life." Amazon's dominance means its decisions matter, she writes: "I'd like this profession of author to remain a possibility for young … [Read more...]
An Interview with the Allah-Las
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="lc08pyxv3eSerUA4sZEPFYeA0ka8ZMiw"] ONE of the best bands going these days is an LA group who met at Amoeba Music on Sunset. Their records sound like lost tracks from the West Coast garage collection Nuggets. And unlike a lot of revivalists, these guys can put it across live and make the music sound not retro but somehow timeless. Your humble blogger corresponded … [Read more...]
Allah-Las and Woods in Echo Park
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="pHxetFmD8PAhck5zTGruKBeGPrlL5XUG"] IT was 1966 again on Friday night, as two of today's best retro-rock bands, the folky Woods and the garage-psych Allah-Las played at the free Echo Park Rising Festival. Ideally I would have taken in more of the festival, but these were two really strong sets. I was there to see LA's Allah-Las, whose reverb-heavy take on folk rock … [Read more...]
Bill Frisell and John Pizzarelli
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="YzGwojzyP7xLvlItRYvhB3hE0xZLcPub"] Want to see two masters of the jazz guitar play a laid-back duo version of "Days of Wine and Roses"? We sure do. The performance, along with an inteview, just went up on the Fretboard Journal. Here it is. Enjoy! … [Read more...]
Silicon Valley’s New Robber Barons
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="EgEeltgVhbdrJtpZgu1Pc9OkKclq7k1w"] THERE'S a very fine new piece in the August Harper's in which Rebecca Solnit draws a straight line between the 19th century robber barons and Silicon Valley's cyber-utopians. The common denominator, she writes, is Stanford University. The relationship between the early kings of the railroads -- who were given free reign across much … [Read more...]
“An Arts District without artists?”
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="sm1yCVkC5n9okJnqnTpzTSDYpQTHApRe"] WE'VE heard this before, but it's always painful when it happens: The visual artists who have helped tame downtown Los Angeles and given it a hip sheen are now being forced out by gentrification and rising rents. The process is just starting, but it seems destined to pick up speed quite soon. A new story in the Los Angeles Times … [Read more...]
R.I.P., Charlie Haden
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="tnDFZtwLKRma3GhZjOOq3vBDLpuUYWqr"] THE great jazz bassist, long ailing, died Friday at 76. Even for those of us who knew how sick he was -- he had post-polio syndrome -- the loss is brutal. So many musicians played with him, live or on record, or studied with him at the program at CalArts. Ornette Coleman, Keith Jarrett and Brad Mehldau are only a few of the best … [Read more...]
Taking Stock of the Ojai Music Festival
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="JFTV8kkscmtLKx5Wmj1BWgosRiTRBgVg"] YOUR humble correspondent has just returned from the Ojai Music Festival, which continues to be a great place to see classical music. Here are a few highlights of this year's festival. On one major piece I break from the critical consensus and will get into that tomorrow. Music director Jeremy Denk is both a consummate … [Read more...]
LA Artists of the ’60s at LACMA
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="pFkvNxQ3v2mm1VEKfWCa48kouHd3cwqj"] FOR the next few weeks, we have an unusual and probably accidental correspondence: Two important but often unseen artists of Los Angeles' great 60s flowering are up at the LACMA. For admirers of John Altoon -- one of the original Ferus Gallery bad boys -- and Helen Pashgian, a pioneer of the Light and Space movement -- it's a rare … [Read more...]