Monthly Echo Park Jazz Benefits 826LA

Underground Jazz Scene

was packed Thursday night.  Music afficionados came out to support 826LA/Travel Mart's writing programs for local school children. What they got was a peak into LA's underground jazz scene.  

Music journalist Drew Tewksbury books Echo Park Jazz on the last Thursday of the month.  He want it to be "a blank canvas where jazz musicians can take the show in any direction they want."   Last night's lineup was Slumgum and La Sirène.

Two Takes On Sound

We talked to Slumgum saxaphonist Jon Armstrong about their take on jazz.  They take improvisation away from the traditional "head, solo, head, solo" format, meaning playing off a melody and going to individual solos.  Their's is more of a journey through the music, changing moods and cadences along the way.  

Their headlining set proved to have quite a dynamic range. Especially present was their rock influence where, beyond the flourishing drum rolls with cymbal crashes, the piano became a sort of bass/percussion instrument itself.  

La Sirene opened the night with a much quieter, but equally rewarding set.  They covered a Sufjan Stevens' album.  It was great to hear melodic threads woven throughout.  Riffs were revisited and reworked with the impeccable musical chops of the players.  Eric Klerks put the band together and got them into the studio.  They completed a record which they are now shopping to labels.  

CalArts Connection

All the players all came out of The Herb Alpert School of Music at Cal Arts.  Slumgum is Jon Armstrong: Tenor Sax, Rory Cowal: Piano, Dave Tranchina: Bass, Trevor Anderies: Drums.  La Sirène is Cathlene Pineda, piano, Trevor Anderies, drums and cymbals, Eric Klerks, double bass.