News & Updates — Los Angeles

After almost a year in the making, the new joint project between Peace & Rhythm and the California-based bands Buyepongo and Quitapenas is now launching in pre-order today, Friday, February 5, 2021, exclusively from Bandcamp as part of Bandcamp Fridays. The digitals will be available to download for those that purchase the 45. The digitals will also be available for sale. The following month's Bandcamp Friday, on March 5th, will mark the release date of the physical split 45. To pre order, please visit us here  About the release: You might say Buyepongo and Quitapenas are sibling neighbor bands since they are of Mexican-American heritage, share some band...

One of the great left-field albums came from former Buffalo Springfield bassist Bruce Palmer, with his seemingly unmarketable (at the time) Eastern-tinged folk-jazz oddity The Cycle Is Complete, released in 1970 on Verve to little fanfare and nearly no promotion. Palmer's only album as a leader, he was given complete artistic control only for him to come up with an unexpected psychedelic improvisational (almost in the realm of "spiritual-jazz" a la Pharoah Sanders) spacey folk record with members of Kaleidoscope, Caribbean percussionist Big Black and young Rick James (billed as "Rick Matthews"). Verve had no idea what to do with...

Happy birthday to the great trumpet and flugelhorn player of bop and beyond, Art Farmer! A player of precise control and elegant brightness, he had a long and distinguished career that was creatively giving til the end. He grew up in Phoenix and tried out several instruments: piano, violin, tuba and cornet before settling on trumpet as a teenager. He started making his name on the Los Angeles scene of the '40s, working with his bassist twin brother Addison Farmer, Sonny Criss, Jay McShann, Roy Porter, Johnny Otis, Benny Carter, Gerald Wilson, Big Joe Turner, etc. In the early '50s...

One of the great figures in early psychedelic rock, Sky Saxon and his band The Seeds were very influential on the West Coast garage rock scene. From Salt Lake City (govt name: Richard Marsh), he moved to Los Angeles and started recording doo-wop under the name of Little Richie Marsh in the early '60s before forming a band called The Soul Rockers. The Seeds started in '65 and "Pushin' Too Hard" was a big hit in '67. In the '70s he started hangin' with Father Yod and Source Family, producing music for the cult. Shortly before his death he collaborated with...

Bop drummer Roy Porter was a heavy cat on the West Coast scene of the late '40s, famously recording with Charlie Parker and leading an forward-pointing big band that featured young musicians such as Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus, Art Farmer and others. Drugs destroyed his career but his '70s mini-comeback material remains sought after by funk collectors. A Colorado native, he went to college with Kenny Dorham in Texas. He was touring with Milt Larkin in '43 and landed in Los Angeles. His first recordings were with Howard McGhee in '45. In '46 he recorded with Bird for Dial (among...