The East Los Angeles Music Department will be hosting a series of live musical events on-campus at the S2 Recital Hall during the holiday season. The events will feature student musicians from the ELAC Music Department and showcase the knowledge they have learned through the fall semester. A student recital will be held today at noon. Admission to the event is free. The ELAC Music Department will host a piano…
By Jorge Vazquez Starting the jolly month on the right foot, the ELAC Jazz band held a holiday jazz concert Friday. The concert took place in the S2 recital hall and was free to students and community members alike. It was Jazz Ensemble Director Bobby Chavez’s first show in his new position. Last year, he was assistant director to Bob Dawson. Chavez went from lead trumpet in recitals last year…
By Kathy Cecchin Jazzabration Living Legend Award-winner singer Sylvia Boyd first saw Bobby Chavez when he was playing jazz at the Lighthouse Cafe in Manhattan Beach, California. “I gotta work with that guy,” she thought. Less than a year later she will join the Husky Jazz Ensemble for their concert on Dec. 1. Chavez invited Boyd to join the evening’s festivities to celebrate his first concert as ELAC’s Jazz Ensemble…
By Jorge Vazquez The ELAC Jazz Band held a concert on May 12, 2017 in the S2 Building. Admission was free and snacks were sold in the lobby. Though the Jazz performance was free, patrons were encouraged to donate to the music program afterwards. Despite never being to that venue, the ELAC Jazz Band was welcoming to regulars and newcomers alike. Upon entering, the 17 band members were already playing…
By Russel Zazueta Jazz music performed by the Charlie Ferguson Sextet did a great job in charming audiences of all ages during the First Friday Jazz Series concert at East Los Angeles College. Inside the dimly-lit recital hall, shades of blue light shot up the walls for ambience, when pianist Charlie Ferguson counted off the next jazz standard by snapping his fingers. The sextet launched into a standard called “Breakfast…
By Brooke Gemina PeruJazz received a standing ovation and demands for an encore after its performance Friday night in the S2 Recital Hall. The band dove right into performing after Robert Dawson, who is the Music Department Chair, introduced them. “I had to write a letter to Lima, (Peru),” Dawson said. PeruJazz is an underwritten band, meaning that the Peruvian government subsidizes their income. Dawson wrote a letter to Lima outlining…
By Elizabeth Toy Jazz musicians Justo Almario and Abraham Laboriel drew in a modest, but devoted crowd of jazz enthusiasts Nov. 6 at the First Friday Jazz performance. The duo opened the evening with a song which they dedicated to all who helped them in their lives. Almario switched between playing the flute, clarinet and saxophone, while Laboriel played the bass. “We are doing the songs that my father wrote,”…
By Sergio Berrueta The Billy Childs Quartet lit up the chilly November air with an innovative jazz sound at the First Friday Jazz Concert on Nov. 7 at the S2 Recital Hall. Childs stepped out to the stage with his band introducing them individually before going into the first tune of the night, “Mount Olympus,” a song originally written by Childs. The entire concert was filled with original works rather…
By Danny Vasquez Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga deliver a refreshing take of old jazz classics in their first duet album “Cheek to Cheek.” After doing a duet in Bennett’s 2011 album, “Duet II,” both Bennett and Gaga developed a great chemistry and beautiful sound together. With Bennett being an experienced show tune and jazz singer, along with Gaga’s pop stardom, both artists display a modern take in old jazz…
By Sergio Berrueta The new spring season of East Los Angeles College’s First Friday Jazz Series kicked off with the East L.A. Jazz Quintet coming into their own to provide jazz at its finest. After a fifteen minute late start, the quintet played a freeform jazz improv to start off with the Music Department and ELAC professor Bob Dawson performing a masterful performance on the trombone. Justo Almario, a music…