The Disney Concert Hall
I took the subway down to Civic Center today to go see the the coolest concert hall I’ve heard of. Weather was beautiful, it is becoming really warm here now finally. I met a group of students from the photography department of the Art Institute who were there on assignment so I was not alone shooting. Since I needed to get away from the trombone for a bit it was good with a creative session. The garden behind the concert hall had some orchids and stuff, so I spent some hour there too. Check these ones out!
Oh, forgot to mention that I have an 16Gb iPhone coming. It should be coming any day now. Such a cool thing! Here is a picture for those of you who don’t know it…
Monday…
So some compulsory practicing as usual done the whole afternoon, we have gotten our practicing mutes now to the trombones… Good, our ears need some rest from trombone sounds! At 6pm we went to Bob’s big band rehearsal again and played through some nice Tom Kubis and Gordon Goodwin arrangements. Paul Litteral (former trumpeter with the Rollings Stones and multiple hit songs from radio) joined in, playing lead. Great player, great guy, was so much fun playing with. After rehearsal we followed Paulie and Paul to Peach’s place again to listen to their recording session for some new possible hit tune. The song writer/engineer came over to the studio and showed them the song. Mattias got to join the session and together they head arranged the entire tune in some hours time. Mattias might be playing on the next coming radio hit!
Friday night down town
Last friday we went down town to check what was on. We started out going by subway to 7th street and were immedeately overwhelmed byt the tall scrapers. Cool sight an night time! We found an Ihop diner and got ourselves some spare ribs american style. We followed some huge sky lights down to what turned out to be Staples Center hosting the LA Clippers vs. Utah Jazz basket ball game. The game had already started so we got some cheap tickets off the street and went in to see it! That arena is HUGE and what an atmosphere! Great vibe; basket ball is true american culture!
After the game we took the subway to Hollywood/Highland to see some club life. Hollywood Blvd is totally boiling, full of clubs, bars, music and motion. We walked around for some hours, went in to a improvised comedy theater show, drank a few beers and watched the preparations for the Academy Awards with the big Oscar statue outside the Kodak Theatre. Cool stuff! LA is really a cool place!
Scott Whitfield at Charlie O’s
Both Mattias and me have become fans of Scott Whitfield after seeing him play last week. This time he had more time to show his colors whilst playing in his group at Charlie O’s. while we certainly enjoyed hearing him play live, we actually enjoyed as much the intermissions when they played some of his CDs. They sounded fantastic! He is a great player, a very natural approach to the horn using a very mature jazz language.
Bob McChesney at Charlie O’s
Finally we got to meet our hero, the one and only… We went down to Charlie O’s to see the Don Menza big band play. This monday the big band we usually play with was canceled due to President’s day which meant we got to see the entire two set concert at the jazz club. The cool thing was that while we were expecting to meet Bob McChesney there we also got to see Chuck Findley playing lead trumpet with the band. Cool stuff. The concert itself was not too exciting but seeing Bob play for the first time here was impressive. This coming week he will play with his own quintet which will be totally awesome!
Barbeque in Santa Monica
We were invited to a party a friend of Paulie’s was hosting in her house down in Santa Monica. Peach had the most amazing house you could imagine, totally big and furnished. We arrived at 4pm (they always start parties early in LA we’ve noticed) and people were already there cooking and preparing the food. Of course a big cooking island in the middle, full of italian food. Lots of people stumbled in during the evening, we got lots of new friends.
After food and beers the party continued inside Peach’s recording studio where we all unpacked our instruments and started jamming away. Lots of blues and good times. Everybody crammed inside the studio on the floor listening to the “concert”. Man when did we attend such a party at home? Check out some of the photos…
Rock down at Redondo Beach
Today I went to pick up my instrument after two days of repairs and maintenance. I had troubles with tuning, the horn is very old and has been very low. I left it with a known name here in LA who desoldered the tuning slide and cut it shorter. It turned out pretty good and he made sure the instrument was in good condition. The horn now sounds a bit different from before but is at least in tune. That’s a good thing.
Mattias has been out doing his long walks (good on him) so he chose to stay home this evening. I wanted to go meet an old friend of mine down at Redondo beach. It turned out the public transportation was a bit more cumbersome than expected… it took me 2.45 hours to get down there!! Nick, my friend, was playing at a club called the “Starboard Attitude” down at the pier, and I brought my horn. Total rock happening, so I ended up playing some Rolling Stones’ tunes and Knocking’ on heavens door. Classic for sure… and good times. Even got myself a photography/webdesign job down there too.
Valentine’s day
Today we explored the subway system and took a ride down to Hollywood/Vine to listen to a big band rehearse. It is great, the subway day-pass (all day subway/metro riding) costs five bucks! 30 swedish crowns! To ride a whole day. Perfect. We walked around Sunset Blvd strolling the walk of fame. Many names we recognized but even more we’ve never heard of. Beautiful area down there, lots of old landmarks. Take a look at the pictures!
Later on we continued down to Charlie O’s to celebrate both Valentine’s day and Pete Christlieb’s birthday. Pete is a legendary tenor saxophone player known from a ton of records and was playing with a group of friends on his birthday at the jazz club. The band and especially Pete played incredible.
Since it was Valentine’s day the place was decorated with hearts and red color; they even hosted a valentine-raffle. We ended up winning one CD, one set of champagne glasses, a bottle of champagne and a huge heart-shaped cream cake.
nice and easy day…
Today was quite a chilled day… The sun was strong and hot; spent some time at the pool reading and relaxing after a recovering sleep (some beers too many last nite…). We went down to the 25 year old club “La Ve Lee” on Ventura Blvd to see some jazz fusion with some for us unknown names. Turned out to be a cool concert with a group called “Code 3″. Some great bass playing from Doug Shreeve.
Tomorrow will be an exciting concert at Charlie O’s featuring Bill Reichenbach and Alex Iles on trombones. Just listened to some clips of Alex Iles on youtube which sounded amazing. Looking forward to hear that! Watch out for some photos coming up!
Emil Richards All-Star Big Band
We went again to rehearse with the Bob Stromquist big band that we now do regularly at Mondays. Easy going, it is really fun to play big band again! Paulie then took us to Charlie O’s jazz club again to see the vibraphonist Emil Richards perform with his All-Star band. We got to see Bill Reichenbach at bass trombone and Charlie Loper on lead bone. Some great solos were played by the trumpeter Bob Summers, the legendary tenor saxophonist Pete Christlieb and Emil himself. We were enjoying hearing the Big Phat Band, Gordon Goodwin-drummer Ernie Dresel play. God what a drummer that is, far amongst the best big band drumming we have ever heard. Check the concert photos out!
When that finished, we continued down to the famous Larry Carlton established joint “the Baked Potato” down on Cahuenga Blvd, to go rip some tunes at the jazz/fusion inspired jam session. Both Mattias me and Paulie got to play some tunes there and laid down some backgrounds for the vocalists. Great fun, we’re for sure going back down there again next week.
Today we got hold of the trombone player Bob McChesney via email who sent us his playing schedule. Luckily he’ll be playing with the Don Menza band on Monday, following with his quintet the Wednesday after. Good times, exciting to finally get to hear him play live! That’s it for today!
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This is the place where you can read about where I am and what I currently am doing. My calendar is on the left.
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