la la land - part 1 - jazz legend

Just back from Southern California, the land of the ocean breeze, ice cold frappes, jammed freeways, ubiquitous cell phones-iPods-PalmPilots-Blackberries and other gizmos that prove the maxim: "He, who dies with the most toys, wins!" My wife and I spent 10 days there, mostly in L.A. but with absolutely fantastic side trips to Santa Barbara and San Diego. Our lodgings were south of L.A., in the suburb of San Pedro - too beautiful to even be called a suburb under which moniker the monstrous high rises of Scarborough spring to mind! It's a lovely piece or real estate down there and in future bloggature I want to touch upon a few highlights of this trip. This particular entry is mostly about THE highlight for me, which was seeing Jack Sheldon in concert.

I saw Jack at the Sweet & Hot Jazz Festival. This shindig is held annually at the Marriott Hotel at LAX and, as the name suggests, it mostly features trad bands, Dixieland bands and some R&B. All the artists were top notch and it was really difficult to pick and choose. I was lucky enough to get a guest pass from my good friend, Maurice Gainen, a well known sax player and producer on the L.A. scene, who played at the fest with The Hues Corporation (mostly known as a disco band from the 70's but they played some gritty R&B at the festival) The guest pass allowed me to weave in and out of all and any of the rooms at my leisure.

The hotel was chock full of elderly jazz lovers and assorted hangers on. Apart from great music emanating from every crevice, nook, cranny and hall on the ground floor and the basement, the festival also featured some stores that sold overpriced jazz merchandise, such as caps (got me one that says "jazz" in bold gold letters on an orange background, doesn't get much gaudier than that, eh?), jazzy ties with saxophones or guitars on them, cool porkpie hats (couldn't find my size) and other assorted bric-a-brac. Tucked away in the very far corner of the basement was a room presided over by a gentleman in his 80's or perhaps even 90's, who had on display the most amazing collection of jazz books I'd ever seen. I spent about an hour there browsing, driving my wife to the edge of insanity (a glass of chilled Chardonnay brought her back!) and I ended up buying a book about Django Reinhardt that I hadn't seen before. It's a British publication, has all sorts of never before seen photos in it, as well as a CD and fairly lame looking transcriptions of some of Django's hits. Or perhaps it's my reading that's lame....Yeah, that's it...!

Jack Sheldon's show was supposed to start at 8:30 in one of the medium sized rooms and around 7:45, there was already a solid line-up (just as an aside, just after Jack, Howard Alden played the same room, WOW! - trust me on this, jazz guitarists do NOT get any better than Howard) We were able to squeeze into the back of the room - standing room only - just as Jack was starting his first tune. His show lasted for 45 minutes and I was transfixed the whole time. He covered a lot of familiar ground ("Caravan", "Don't Get Around Much Anymore") but he played AND sang with so much flash, such ease, such incredibly developed sense of style and timing - it's simply amazing. It was truly awe-inspiring to be in the presence, only a few feet away from this trumpet legend. His solos were fleet-footed flights of fancy, 16th notes in the very highest registers knocked off with ridiculous ease, his melodies were sure footed, yet never, ever boring. His singing is amazing: even if he didn't play a single note on the trumpet, he would be a top jazz artists based on his singing abilities alone. A contemporary of Chet Baker but with a much more flashy style, Jack Sheldon is a true living legend, what more can I say.....His back up band was superb, of course (pno, drums, bass) but unfortunately, I don't rememeber the names of the musicians (perhaps they are on the Sweet and Hot website)

After the show, I spied Jack talking to some older lady and I approached him and asked him if he'd mind posing for a picture with me. When I told him I was from Toronto, he lit up and regaled me with a couple of stories of his gigs in our city.



Oh, and one more thing must be mentioned: Jack's stage patter is hilarious - but completely unprintable. The guy's monologues are a steady stream of blue repartie, too blue for anyone under 70 to use without seeming like a lech. Jack pulls it off and is funny as hell! And judging from my short conversation with him - a very gracious, nice guy too. Here's to many more years of your artistry, Jack!