By Melina Paris, Music Columnist
In its 10 years, The Angel City Jazz Festival has garnered a reputation as Los Angeles’ most adventurous jazz festival. It features some of the most innovative and original established jazz artists and emerging talent working today with a focus on west coast creative jazz, covering the past, present and future.
This year the multi-day, multi-venue festival celebrated the centennial of Thelonious Sphere Monk (born October 10, 1917). On October 14, the World Stage featured a double-bill with Bassed! The James Leary Bass Choir, playing the music of Monk and Dwight Trible’s Cosmic Vibrations band.
I couldn’t see both sets but after previously seeing Cosmic Vibrations perform I discovered they provide a meditative experience. Trible’s astonishing vocal range and intonations in response to the band’s soundscape reach out of bounds taking listeners to uncharted musical territories.
Bassed! offered a different kind of territory. Sitting close and listening to the distinctive sound of a five string bass choir gave me a resonant sensation. Monk’s harmonies are intense and complex. They pull you deeper into the power of the sound.
Bassed! featured Grammy winner and Monk’s bandmate, James Leary, John B Williams, Leslie Baker, Richard Simon and William BJ Johnson all on bass and Clayton Cameon on snare drum.
The bass choir showcased Monk classics including Brilliant Corners, performed as a bolero, Straight No Chaser, Mysterioso, a meditative Monk blues and the definitive Round Midnight which was a little melancholy and melodic. Each individual bass’s emotive nuance was audible, adding to the depth of this beloved number while capturing the room.
Mysterioso, Leary explained, was played as a pizzicato, plucking the strings rather than using the bow on the bass. It must have rubbed off because later, when asked how we preferred to hear another number, pizzicato was the audience’s choice.
The drum kicked off a mambo rendition of Well, You Needn’t. The basses dropped immersing us into a sexy tune. Heads were bopping to the tenor and Latin rhythms of the basses and drum.
Bassed! closed with a live rehearsal of In Walked Bud, written for pianist Bud Powell. It was also the number for the pizzicato request. Leary stated that the band hadn’t rehearsed it yet. But why not show their chops in this setting so open to improvisation? They played the song twice and the first time was good. It was an interesting experiment to watch. It was a skillfully tightened up version that indeed flowed.
In its 10 years The Angel City Jazz Fest has grown, linking together through performances at cutting edge jazz at venues all around Los Angeles. This year’s concerts included The Ford Theatres, LACMA, REDCAT, Zebulon Café, the Blue Whale, the World Stage, the Bootleg Theatre and the Moss Theatre.
The 2017 festival was presented by Angel City Arts, a nonprofit committed to cultivating and revitalizing jazz culture in Los Angeles. They produce concerts by musicians who have achieved exceptionally high levels of musicianship and brought significant contributions to the evolution of jazz and improvised music.