Los Angeles: Alive and Vibrant Music Scene or Dead?

Recently I took a trip to Los Angeles to have a look around the music scene, catch up with friends and generally soak up some musical inspiration. I spend two weeks in LA with a few days in San Francisco. I often hear people say there are few gigs in LA these days. While I am not familiar with the LA scene of the past what I experienced was a healthy scene with lots of great music, much of which was free or a reasonable price (usually $20 at the most).

During my time in LA I heard the Oz Noy Trio at Catalina's (feat. James Genus and Dave Weckl for $20!), Bruce Forman's group Cowbop at Viva Cantina and at the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival, Ben Shepherd's group upstairs at Vitello's, the Pete Myers Big Band at Jazz at the Cap, Katisse at the Baked Potato, the Kenny Burrell Big Band at UCLA, Poncho Sanchez at Spaghettini's and Tech Support at the Blue Whale. In addition to these performances I attended jam nights at The Falls in Downtown LA, the Cafe Cordial Pro Jam Session and the Baked Potato Monday Night Jam.

I was very fortunate as my friend Jon Papenbrook, who I stayed with for the first week, plays in lots of groups and I was invited to come listen to these groups rehearse. The two groups I heard were at the Burbank Music Academy and the Steve Sleagle (spelling?) Big Band rehearsing at the union building. The Burbank group I subbed for the guitar player who was away on tour with Natalie Cole. Both bands played well and were made up of well known players, with the Jon playing lead trumpet on the both bands. On the Burbank band the second trumpet player is in Earth, Wind and Fire and the trombone player played with MJ; so lots of very good players in these bands.

One highlight of this trip in addition to the music / hang was meeting guitarist Lee Ritenour at Vitello's. I have listened to Lee extensively and he is definitely one the big time Los Angeles studio players. He was super nice to me and we chatted about music mostly and New Zealand a little.

Also, a highlight was jamming with my friend Ben Shepherd and his flatmate Eric Valentine at their place. Eric is a well known drummer in LA, and he informed me that he had been to NZ to play with Steve Luthather and Steve Vai on the G3 tour!! It was awesome to play with these great musicians partly because after hearing all this great music I was hanging out to play, but also because I felt these guys played so well together and we would make a great trio if we did some gigs round LA.

I had always wanted to drive the coast from San Francisco to LA via the pacific coast highway so on this trip I decided to make the most of this opportunity. I drove up to San Francisco via the freeways then returned to LA via the pacific coast highway. This coast is some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. I absolutely loved Big Sur. Stunning, to say the least. I hope to go back there soon to have a holiday. It's a long drive (it took me 11 hours but was worth it). It was a little foggy the day the I did this trip but that added to the excitement!

In San Francisco I heard the Tommy Igoe Big Band at Yoshi's (what a terrific venue!), and the Jose Simione Blues Band at the Saloon (not so terrific venue, but cool gig nonetheless) and an unknown band at the Tonga Room. All of which were high quality and only a 6 hours drive from LA to San Francisco (via the freeways). I have to say, San Francisco is a beautiful city. Busy, scenic and exciting.

I couldn't fit in Vegas on this trip but that is even closer to LA than San Francisco is.

All in all, I would say LA is alive and vibrant as a music city. There are some amazing musicians (as good or better than you will hear anywhere). I have many friends in this town who are awesome people. I hope to make it back there soon and I plan to book some gigs.

(many thanks to Bruce Forman and Jon Papenbrook for accommodating me and taking me to gigs)

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