Undoubtedly, one of the highest honors bestowed on a professional musician would be an invitation to perform at the White House for the president of the United States. Not many can say they’ve been invited more than once, but for an artist who became popular in the 1960s and continues to break ground with collaborators such as Stevie Wonder and the Black Eyed Peas, Sergio Mendes continues to amaze audiences with his deft hand at contemporary Brazilian-styled jazz and genre-bending pop music.
This international music legend will be bringing his sizzling samba sound to the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood for a four-day concert event from March 10 -13. The concert, named for his soon-to-be released album, Celebration: A Musical Journey, will celebrate five decades of Mendes’s career, and will feature old favorites from his bossa nova days on Herb Albert’s A&M label in the 1960s to his more recent collaborations with Erykah Badu and John Legend.
Since 1968, Mendes has been arguably the most well-known Brazilian musician in the world, enjoying success worldwide, including two performances at the White House for the Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon administrations. Hearing his massive 1960s-era hit Mas Que Nada with his group Brasil ’66, it sounds as fresh and relevant today as it did then. That’s probably why contemporary pop artists such as Justin Timberlake, India.Arie and Q-Tip all wanted to work with him on his 2006 Concord Records release, “Timeless.” More information on the upcoming concerts can be found at geffenplayhouse.com.
One artist who claims to have been directly influenced by Mendes’ playing is Los Angeles-based and Grammy Award-winning jazz pianist Bill Cunliffe. A former winner of the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Award in 1989, Cunliffe has played with a who’s who of jazz standouts, including Buddy Rich, Ray Brown, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Benny Golson and many more.
It was in 2010 that the Andover, Mass.-native won a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement of Oscar Peterson’s “West Side Story Medley.” It’s not often that Grammy-winning artists perform in our local environs, but thanks to the Culver City Redevelopment Agency and the Jazz Bakery, Cunliffe and playwright Luis Alfaro will headline a concert on March 24 as part of the Speak Easy series at the Culver Events Center. Speak Easy features an improvisational collaboration between two distinguished performers in a unique cultural program designed to showcase each artist’s unique vision, while performing together.
Having witnessed firsthand a previous collaboration between spoken-word artist Wanda Coleman and jazz bassist John B. Williams, this night is sure to please all who are fans of the spoken word and the world of improvisation. The Culver Events Center venue, once a speakeasy during prohibition, is at 11948 W. Washington Blvd. Admission is free and reservations are required. More information about the performance can be found at culvercity.org.
Music continues in Culver City as the Los Angeles Doctors Symphony Orchestra and the Westside Music Foundation present a concerto concert featuring the winners of the Robert Turner Piano Concerto Competition 2011. The program will feature pieces by Strauss, Bach and Beethoven, and tickets are $15 at the door, with students and senior tickets set at $10. The concert will take place at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium on Sunday, March 6 at 3 p.m.
A children’s musical program will take place at the Culver City Julian Dixon library Saturday, March 5, entitled Lesanju the Elephant – travel & friendship on the savanna. This monthly program is called Musical Adventures with the Definiens Project and is intended to create interactive musical stories to communicate positive messages about self-worth, growth, teamwork and friendship. Now if they only had this kind of program for adults, the world would be a better place. Admission is free and the performance begins at 2 p.m.
And if you didn’t quite have enough culture going on in Culver City this week, tireless jazz promoter Rocco Somazzi has The Industrial Jazz Group performing at Royal T Café on Thursday, March 3. This highly innovative and original 15-piece group plays complex time-signature progressive jazz to more groove-based and melodic instrumental rock. This kind of music opens your mind and makes you think of things you would have never considered. Open your ears and your mind and head down to 8910 Washington Blvd., music starts at 8 p.m. and cover is $10, and $5 for students.
Jonathan Weiss is a Los Angeles-based music supervisor for film, TV and advertising. Email him at jonjaz@aol.com.