By Don Heckman Charlie O’s closed Wednesday night. It happened without anticipation, and without warning. My first awareness of the bad news came with an email from Jo-Ann Ottaviano, who has been running the club – along with her brother Mike – since the death of her husband, Charlie Ottaviano in 2008. It arrived at… Read More Here, There & Everywhere: The Closing of Charlie O’s
By Don Heckman Los Angeles – Aug. 11. (Wed.) B.B. King, Buddy Guy. The blues at its best by a pair of venerable masters. The Hollywood Bowl. (323) 850-2000. – Aug. 11. (Wed.) Bennie Maupin Ensemble. Maupin’s mastery of the tenor saxophone, flute and bass clarinet has reached from Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock to… Read More Picks of the Week: Aug 10 – 15
By Tony Gieske The myriad kudos Ron King has collected saluting his work as one of the town’s greatest professional trumpet players were nowhere in evidence on the bandstand at Charlie O’s Saturday night. There was not so much as a T-shirt. He got right down to business with a strange black plastic mute in… Read More Live Jazz: Ron King at Charlie O’s
By Don Heckman Los Angeles – Nov. 16. (Mon.) Devon Wendell, Kevin Kelly and Tyler Kidd. Blues on the loose, featuring iRoM’s own “Doc” Wendell playing electric and acoustic guitars and harmonica. A chance to hear the reviewer in action. The Viper Room. (310) 652-7869. – Nove. 16. (Mon.) Elvis Schoenberg’s Orchestre Surreal. Schoenberg’s… Read More Picks of the Week: Nov. 16 – 22
By Don Heckman Trumpeter Lew Soloff is the very model of a veteran jazz artist — fluent, articulate and imaginative in almost any musical setting. His resume, far too long to list, reaches from Blood, Sweat & Tears to Gil Evans. But what Soloff brought Thursday to the first of two appearances at Charlie O’s… Read More Live Jazz: Lew Soloff at Charlie O’s
By Don Heckman There’s an often repeated sportscasters’ line about the National Football League which basically says that any team can beat any other team on any given Sunday. And, while listening to the Chuck Berghofer Trio at Charlie O’s Thursday night, a variation on the phrase kept coming to mind: Great jazz can be… Read More Live Jazz: The Chuck Berghofer Trio
By Don Heckman Los Angeles – Feb. 2. (Mon.) Emerson String Quartet. The veteran, eight Grammy Award-winning ensemble performs amid a major retrospective showing of the art of painter Roberta Eisenberg. The program includes Beethoven, Ravel, Webern and Schubert. Cal State Polytechnic. Pomona. (310) 216-5861. http://www.csupomona.edu/~kellogg_gallery/. – Feb. 4 – 7. (Wed. – Sat.) Jacky… Read More Picks of the Week: Feb 2 – 8
Los Angeles – Jan. 13. (Tues.) Gabriel Alegria Afro-Peruvian Jazz Sextet. The title says it all: Alegria and his players showcase a rhythmically vital Latin jazz that takes a path that is different, but no less compelling, than the more familiar accents of Afro-Cuban and Brazilian music. The Jazz Bakery (310) 271-9039. http://www.jazzbakery.com – Jan.… Read More Picks of the Week: Jan. 12 – 18
By Don Heckman Judy Chamberlain is a singer who’s always a pleasure to hear. In part, because her astonishing repertoire makes every performance a fascinating journey through a century of song. But even more so because she brings such care, authenticity and musicality to everything she touches. Her appearance at Spazio in Sherman Oaks Saturday… Read More Live: Judy Chamberlain and Bill Cunliffe
By Don Heckman Running a jazz club has to be one of the more admirable, but difficult, of all human tasks, especially when the club is open seven days a week. And maybe it was the wear and tear, the sheer day in, day out stress of making Charlie O’s one of L.A.’s classic jazz… Read More Here, There and Everywhere: Charlie of Charlie O’s
The International Review of Music 