Reviews:
15th Annual Los Angeles Central Avenue Jazz Festival
From LA Jazz Scene August 2010 - by Glenn Mitchell
Celebrating America's only true art form of Jazz comes every year to Central Avenue, Los Angeles. This event took place Saturday and Sunday, July 24th and 25th. Attending only Sunday, the 25th was an amazing afternoon. Four superb groups were featured: The Gathering, Ernie Andrews, Gerald Wilson 21 piece orchestra and Henry Franklin's quartet with sax man, Azar Lawrence. All of these did unbelievable performances!
The Gathering is a quintet of young colossal musicians. Getting there at the end of their set, they were finishing an original composition titled "Allignment" by tenor sax man, Randal Fisher. Jesse Sharp - sop. sax/bs clar., Austin Peralta -piano, Nick Rosen - bass and Greg Pell - drums made up this phenomenal quintet. Their playing very much surprised everyone.
Jazz vocal legend, Ernie Andrews, graced the stage with a superb set of L.A.'s best jazz players: Bobby Rodriguez - flugelhorn, Rickey Woodard - tenor sax, Llew Matthews - piano, Richard Simon - bass and Ralph Penland - drums. James Janisse did the announcements of band members and introduced Andrews, who has now been kicking in mellow jazz for 65 years and is only 83 years young! The quintet began with a jazz gem, "Fujiyama" by Blue Mitchell got jazz grooving immediately with fine solos from both horns and rhythm section as well. Andrews has always kept his audience endeared to his vocalizing. Of many songs, his "Don't Touch Me," Miles Davis' "All Blues" and a novel tune "I Love Me," really put the audience in emotional heaven.
The unbelievable Gerald Wilson 21 piece orchestra set the afternoon into high gear. I have known of Wilson, who is composer, leader and trumpeter going on six decades now. I had originally seen them at the famed Lighthouse cafˇ in Hermosa Beach in early years of 1960's. His musician members were trumpets: Ron Barrows, Bijon Watson, Winston Byrd, Jeff Kaye, and Bob Comden; saxes: Jackie Kelso, Carl Randall, Louis Taylor, Randall Willis, Kamasi Washington and Terry Landry; t-bones: Les Benidict, Shaunte Palmer, Eric Jorgensen and Maurice Spears; rhythm section: Brian O'Rourke (piano), Reggie Carson (bass) and Mel Lee (drums) and special guest: Evette Devereaux (violin). They opened with a blues, "You'd Better Believe It," which got the entire audience rocking to the music. Everyone in the orchestra soloed remarkably well. Of a few that I noticed among the band were saxophonists, Jackie Kelso and Kamasi Washington; trumpeters, Winston Byrd, Jeff Kaye and Ron Barrows. The Trombone section players did super well, as did everyone in all several numbers performed. The highlight sensational tunes were "Blues for Yna, Yna," which is probably the best jazz waltz (by Wilson) ever written for jazz orchestra or big band. It swings beyond belief! Wilson announced the number and stated that the other best jazz waltz written was by Fats Waller many years back. Special guest, Yvette Devereaux gave a moving solo on her violin during this piece.
Another favorite was an up tempo rendition (arranged by Wilson), Miles Davis' "Milestones." The band cooked super well and again had the audience rocking including many solos from several more in the ensemble. Towards the end of the set, an all-time favorite played as the closer, by the famed Wilson organization, "Viva Tirado." The audience gave them a very well-deserved standing ovation.
The final group of the afternoon belongs to high caliber bassist, Henry "Skipper" Franklin. Franklin has just returned from several months working in Shanghai, China at the Ritz Carlton hotel and returning via Japan for another week's concerts in its major cities, returning home and playing at Central Avenue's 15th year celebration. His quartet included celebrated Azar Lawrence - tenor and soprano saxes, Theo Saunders - piano and Ramon Banda - drums. Their opener was an avant gard piece named "Lonnie's Lament," and had great solos from all of the quartet. Franklin took a longer bass solo and I was remarkably impressed by the fluidity of his lines and the clarity of all of his notes. An impressive number and good for everyone was, "Oh What a Beautiful Morning," from the Broadway show "Oklahoma." Two more gems, "Soko" by Theo Saunders (Lawrence played his beautiful soprano sax) and "Koko" written by Lawrence brought the afternoon concert to close with a very happy and satisfied audience of which several thousand attended.
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