News & Updates — Los Angeles

Though never a household name, pianist, big-band leader, composer and community activist Horace Tapscott was a major figure on the Los Angeles jazz scene. As a teenager he, Don Cherry & Billy Higgins played together and took in the legendarily thriving Central Ave bop scene of the late '40s. Initially a trombonist, he got a call to work with Lionel Hampton before moving to piano (the Thelonious Monk and Herbie Nichols influence is evident). In '61 he formed the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, a progressive big band that included poets, dancers and a good amount of activist spirit. In '63 he...

Blues-boogie piano star Camille Howard was one of the better known female talents of the early R&B and jump-blues years. One of the finest blues piano players of the era, she rocked the Los Angeles scene with her own groups, as well as with her husband Roy Milton's band as pianist and occasional singer (and he drummed on many of her records). Out of Galveston TX, she was performing in the local Texas nightclubs by the mid-'30s. She moved to California in the early '40s and joined Milton's band, making her recorded debut with them in '45 for Lionel Hampton's...

Here's a birthday shout-out to the groovy guitarist Gábor Szabó, who infused jazz with the folk music of his native Hungary, Indian & Middle Eastern musics, gypsy styles and pop. He used feedback as part of his music, and he worked well with vocalists. He cut a bunch of excellent '60s albums on Impulse!, as well as the Skye label (which he ran with Cal Tjader and Gary McFarland). He worked with Chico Hamilton, Charles Lloyd, Lena Horne, Bobby Womack, Coke Escovedo, Paul Desmond, Gary McFarland, Chick Corea and others. Santana recorded his "Gypsy Queen" (the instrumental part of "Black...

The Memphis-born Arthur Lee heard and played jazz, R&B and surf music before forming a psychedelic folk-rock band in 1965 called Love, and they became one of the most popular bands on the L.A. club scene and remain a cult favorite to this day. Love's music was not just folk-rock, as the music sounded flamenco, garage, pop, blues, hard rock and funk elements as well, and Lee himself collaborated with several singers and musicians including Jimi Hendrix, Billy Preston and Ornette Coleman and is considered a proto-punk figure. He was born as Arthur Taylor, his early years were spent in...

(Photo by Herman Leonard, 1948) Tenor genius, Oscar-nominated actor and cigarette fetishist Dexter Gordon had an incredible sound that inspired Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane and Jack Kerouac. Out of Los Angeles, he started on the clarinet as a teen before moving to alto. He finally switched to tenor around 1940. He was greatly influenced by Lester Young, whom he encountered in '43 in a jam session with Ben Webster. He received training from Illinois Jacquet as he toured early with the Lionel Hampton band. They made some recordings in Chicago in '41, Gordon's first. He worked in the bands of...