Making a sound investment

Andrew Norman, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra's newest composer-in-residence, was speaking to a small audience seated on folding chairs one February evening at Pierre's Fine Pianos in Los Angeles.

Fun times and 'Dirty Water'

Dick Dodd is one of the most persuasive and recognizable voices in the classic American rock ’n’ roll pantheon.

Fun times and 'Dirty Water'

Dick Dodd is one of the most persuasive and recognizable voices in the classic American rock ’n’ roll pantheon.

It's a matter of record: Burbank's Atomic Records and Backside

Over the last decade Burbank has seen the music chains Virgin Megastore, Sam Goody and FYE disappear as consumers shifted from buying CDs to downloading their music online. However, two independent record stores started in the ’90s have managed to thrive in the city as a new generation of...

Channeling Janis Joplin at the Pasadena Playhouse

When Janis Joplin was growing up in Port Arthur, Texas, her mother, who once aspired to be a Broadway star, would play show tunes and Janis and her two younger siblings would take on the roles as they cleaned house. It's one of the biographical anecdotes performer Mary Bridget Davies — who...

Throwing a rope over Western swing's return

Bruce Forman, widely recognized as one of the top jazz guitarists in the world, has gotten off the straight-ahead path in recent years to follow what seems at first a highly unlikely alternate route: Western swing.

The pros of improvising

One of the great features of the long-running Open Gate Theatre series is the local platform it provides for cutting-edge musicians from Northern California. Experimental music needs exposure to grow, and the precious few opportunities to hear such work tend to make musical mavericks feel isolated....

Kindred spirits, all playing guitars

When veteran guitarist Bob Bain drives into Toluca Lake Tuesday to participate in John Pisano’s long-running Guitar Night at Lucy’s 51, it’s likely that more than a few memories will accompany him. Bain was the guitarist in the famed Tonight Show Orchestra at NBC until Johnny...

Pianist Gloria Cheng is a master of interpretation

For concert pianists, interpreting standard repertory is a good bet for high-profile recitals, recordings and, of course, career longevity. Pianist Gloria Cheng loves the music of the certified masters (Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, etc.), but to her credit, she's gone out of her way to champion...

Composer-guitarist David Pritchard is intricate but accessible

Contemporary composers who write complex music where instrumentation intersects very specifically often deal in atonal shock. Not David Pritchard. The Pasadena guitarist and composer executes the hat trick of devising music for a small ensemble that is pleasing to the ear and quite intricate.

South Pasadena Strings will play L.A. to raise funds for trip to Carnegie Hall

Sometime in the last century, the great classical pianist Arthur Rubinstein is said to have been interrupted by a man on the streets of New York who asked, “How do I get to Carnegie Hall?” Rubinstein's response: “Practice, practice, practice.”

Labor of love: Luxuria Music spins with all volunteers

In a small studio on the far edge of Glendale, a worldwide flow of music is in a moment of transition. On the turntable is a 45rpm disc of spectral, hypnotic sounds from 1980, as radio DJ Lee Joseph begins winding down his two-hour show on ...

Trumpeting legend Arturo Sandoval to play at the Alex Theatre

No one taught a young Arturo Sandoval more about the mysteries of bebop and how to approach a life in music than Dizzy Gillespie. At times during their long friendship, the jazz trumpeters referred to each other as father and son. “He was more than a teacher,” Sandoval says of the bop...

Advancing on a 'Territory of Jazz'

Choreographer Valery Tereshkin had a very long day ahead of him as he sat in a hotel lobby in Glendale this week. Just days before, his Russian Jazz Ballet had performed “Territory of Jazz” at the Alex Theatre, dancing to popular songs from the likes of Duke Ellington, Harry Connick Jr....

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  Photo Gallery: Jazz Ballet of Valery Tereshkin performs at the Alex Theatre

Deepening the blues on New Year's Eve

It's an axiom in the music business that virtually anyone can get a New Year's Eve gig somewhere. While that's largely true, the better musical aggregations that choose to work that night can make ringing in the New Year quite special. Such is the booking of blues-harmonica great and singer Rod...

The Barndance door is closing

When the barkeeps announce last call at the next edition of Ronnie Mack's Barndance, it'll sound the death knell for an extraordinary musical showcase that has been a backbone of the Los Angeles country scene for the past 25 years.

The Blasters' frontman Phil Alvin takes to the stage New Year's Eve after a scary 2012

When Phil Alvin takes the stage for a New Year's Eve solo set at Joe's Great American Bar & Grill in Burbank, he won't just be welcoming in 2013. He'll be closing the book on a year he'd rather forget.

A virtuoso orchestrates a miracle

One of the more quixotic ventures in the current economic climate would be to start an orchestra in Southern California. It's a sure recipe for financial suicide. Yet that's just what cello soloist Ruslan Biryukov did when he founded the Glendale Philharmonic Orchestra three years ago. Is it a...

The Collins Kids are more than all right

Mid-20th century Los Angeles country music performers were such a wildly colorful community that they made their competitors in Nashville seem more like undertakers than entertainers.

A Fine Frenzy is a force of nature

Alison Sudol finds comfort in the woods. The singer-songwriter and leader of the band A Fine Frenzy grew up mostly in Los Angeles and Burbank, and even there she's often found herself gravitating toward a convenient corner of nature. On a recent afternoon, it was a picnic table along the pathways of...

Imani Wind Quintet playing at Caltech's Beckman Auditorium

As a rule, we don't expect revolutionary music trends from classical chamber ensembles. But if ears are open to the Imani Wind Quintet, even the seasoned chamber listener will be surprised by the novel delights in sound, repertory and musical associations. It's safe to say that there's nobody else...

From Jimi to jazz

Glendale Pops subscribers probably don’t know the name or music of 30-year-old Miles Mosley, a bassist and composer who headlines Saturday with the Glendale Pops Orchestra at the Alex Theatre. The pairing is a departure for a series more likely to feature artists with identifiable histories...

Greg Poree will be groovin' for a good cause

If you leave a phone message for guitarist/composer/arranger Greg Porée on a Monday or Tuesday, don't be surprised if you have to wait for a return call. Those days are taken up with providing the musical direction to a little enterprise called “Dancing with the Stars.” The...

'A crazy kind of mishmash'

Carmine Sardo leads a double life much akin to that of a comic book superhero. By day, he's a mild-mannered merchant, tending to his La Crescenta auto and boat upholstery business. After dark, Sardo is transmogrified into a musical crusader, a player of audacious proficiency whose blend of...

Guitar Night marks a milestone for John Pisano

Selflessness is not a quality one often associates with artists. After all, creative people have their personal visions and usually spend their careers trying to get other people to help them realize those aspirations. Jazz guitarist John Pisano, known as a musician’s musician, is...