I’m going to Continental often still. Last night featured a really talanted drummer.
Can’t post vids here but I dropped one on IG
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CeocQAsFh70/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Also don’t forget about Jazz is Dead at the Lodge… Going to a couple soon, most notably Marco Vale and Azymuth in 10 days
After a lengthy Covid hiatus, I returned to Catalina’s this Sunday night to see the John Pizzarelli Trio. Great show. Wish it had been longer than 90 minutes, but still a great show. To my surprise, the food has improved. My chicken piccata with veggies and mashed potatoes was very tasty and cooked well. Drink prices seem to have been raised and I believe the parking may have as well.
And I think I saw a note on the menu that if you want bread and butter, there’s a $5 tariff.
This is the hippest spot in town. Gorgeous interior. Great menu including non-alcoholic. Snacks that are better than they should for a jazz club. @avantbored you need to come!
Rant ahead:
Absolute shame that whoever owns/runs this place has no utilize it more considering the name and history. Much respect to Jacques for keeping it alive.
This is the west coast equivalent to the Village Vanguard. This is the venue that had Miles, Chet Baker, Gerry Milligan blowing cool jazz. Also the same venue that Lee Morgan, Joe Henderson, Elvin Jones, Grant Green set the place on fire.
Why aren’t more live albums and shows being recorded here? The Vanguard is still going strong. Especially with all the talent from the UK, Chicago, NYC, and LA right now. Also many legends are still alive and playing like Herbie, Ron Carter, Kenny Barron, off the top of my head.
They didn’t think of maybe having Wayne Shorter before he passed. I heard it’s now own by some guy who also owns some bs bar/restaurant also on Hermosa pier.
Amazing find! Thanks @JeetKuneBao
Some history here: Lighthouse Café - Wikipedia
While I can see your clear enthusiasm for this genre, your rant about recording live entails a few large hurdles. What is the cover charge? What’s the maximum capacity? How much is the band taking in for the night AND for the recording. (Union gig?) How much is the house taking in? Who owns the recording? Who is responsible for paying mechanical & performance royalties should it go through as a proper product? How does it get to the end consumer once it’s out? (Marketing & distribution) Who keeps the master recording?
Is the soundboard and equipment up to snuff?Who’s the engineer? Post work by??
There’s probably a tour clause right now with Blue Note that would restrict performances within a certain radius of the club for someone like Herbie who would also require a guaranteed fee. Also, as in all pianists of that caliber, the rider would usually stipulate the size of the grand piano, company, and/or tuning to be done the day of the show. You do not want to know how much the 8’ Steinway costs as a rental. I’ve been the one to build those budgets before.
It is extremely hard to make money off running a jazz club. The running joke is “How do you make a million dollars in jazz? Start with 2 million.”
I’d argue it has never been easier to get a live recording out into the world. Rights included.
There’s the DIY aesthetics of these amazing streams from the worlds stage - https://youtube.com/@theworldstage?si=b6izh_WSUW6ea4IA
To crossing the coast to what Emmet Cohen was able to build over the pandemic (kicked out of his own apartment but upgraded to a real studio!)
But imo one of the best improvised collections of the last 10 years is Jeff Parker’s Mondays at The Enfield Tennis Academy.
Re: the lighthouse specifically- the kinds of acts being booked there clearly are playing to as broad a palette as possible and are quite a far cry from its heyday as someplace to experience improvised art. Nick Zammuto of The Books used to talk on stage about how with the necessities of live performance as a musician he essentially considered himself an alcohol salesman.
The closing of ETA across town shows that sometimes even the alcohol sales can’t make the rent.
I’m headed to Tokyo in about a month and I cannot wait to be able to visit a different jazz venue or listening bar every night, all over town, each with their own aesthetic and sound. I used to wonder why we couldn’t have that here, and then In Sheep’s Clothing opened and very quickly closed.
You are absolutely correct. That was an emotional rant with no thought of the logistics, legalities, etc. A recording would take months realistically years to pull off.
Sad to see such a historic venue become a shell of its former self. The genre itself is still not popular. People do come because of La La Land but I highly doubt that population of people know who Lee Morgan, Joe Henderson, Elvin Jones, etc was.
Also to add there is a new a Blue Note club in Hollywood.
Not all jazz acts. I regret missing Isaiah Collier shows.
The Blue Whale is set to make a return soon as well.
RE:World Stage - it is a non-profit where success is hard earned and well deserved. I had the honor of hosting Billy Higgins as well as Cedar Walton 20+ years ago and I do actually have a live recording dropped to disc by a broadcast engineer that started at Shelly’s Manne-Hole.
That’s exciting. Same place?
No. Atwater. A few friends took a tour of the building last year. 2 performance spaces + restaurant was what I was told by a person closely connected with Angel City Jazz.
That is so cool. Wow Billy Higgins and Cedar Walton! Legends.
So happy about the Blue Whale coming back. They always had such killer acts come thru.
Tokyo is a destination for jazz.
The shows, listening bars, and the record stores. Japan has a history of embracing jazz.
Bring me back some vinyl records from Three Blind Mice label
I gotta get out! Lighthouse Cafe also sounds rad!!
IIRC that record was recorded on a portable Nagra by Bryce Gonzales. It sounds great. I don’t think it would qualify by any jazz audiophile standards but it’s mixed well and the mastering is solid on that release. Plus, Kevin Gray cut the lacquer for the vinyl, which should earn credit with the picky. Anyway…
He’s great! I sold him a preamp out my garage. He said he was getting it for a friend’s bar or cafe or something but I haven’t yet seen my old pre in the wild…
For those interested in experimental styles
https://www.instagram.com/opengateconcertseries?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
just followed!
U know you can buy them here too
For actual shops even the recent reissues are pretty hard to get. I seen a few over at Amoeba for titles that are not Misty or Midnight Sugar. You’ll be lucky to find those in the bins right now. With discogs though everything is available online. Do you collect as well?
The only Three Blind Mice I found at Amoeba was this one from Kohsuke Mine.
Definitely enjoy buying LPs in person more than online. Besides the aesthetic experience of digging in the bins, not all shops will ship properly – the disc needs to be taken out to avoid seam splitting at the top, and the mailer needs have like a 1/2" width all around for the interior bracing. I am always nervous when ordering online, even from trusted shops, and they use the basic mailers. SI’ve gotten records from Discogs shippers that just whang the LP into one of those mailers with no extra bracing. So, if I ask for the disc to be removed, I don’t know if they will ensure the disc and the sleeve will arrive undamaged.
Even with trusted shops, 25% of the time I have to get in touch with them to get an exchange because the disc is warped. Is that the fault of the mailer or just the nature of vinyl records, as most collectors know? One or the other, or both. Can’t prove it on either side, so the shop and I just go through the motions of getting a new copy. Sometimes I don’t get one at all, even though I document extensively 1) the condition of the mailer when it arrived, 2) how I open the mailer, 3) the disc itself, 4) play test. Is it more inconvenient than shlepping back to Amoeba? Who’s to say.
Once I paid $10 extra for packing through The Mixtape Shop in NYC. Bulletproof. So pleased with that job. I was glad I did; at the time, the artist was sold only through 2 or 3 shops in the US that had good online stores. None in LA. So on top and because of the markup for imported vinyl, you are paying maybe $10 - $15 for shipping. But again, maybe that’s about how much it will cost us in gas to and from the shop.
I really try to buy in person when I can. And it’s hard to see JP reissue vinyl in the stores here in LA, but more often than not on the east side, Mount Analog carries them. Have seen them a couple of times at Record Surplus in Santa Monica. They were much more common when We Release Jazz was getting a lot of buss for their Ryo Fukui reissues.
