The vacant Expo Furniture building will house the upcoming jazz exhibition.
Interior of former Expo Furniture building. (Photos courtesy of Blair Cohn)
BY NICK DIAMANTIDES
Staff Writer
Music lovers all over Long Beach are buzzing with excitement. Bixby Knolls will host a live jazz performance and exhibition next month. Dubbed “Jazz the Ides of March,” the concert is slated for March 15 in the now vacant Expo Furniture Building at 4321 Atlantic Avenue.
Blair Cohn, executive director of the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association (BKBIA), said the store closed in October. “The Long Beach Redevelopment Agency (RDA) purchased it recently and I thought while they are deciding what to do with it, why can’t we put some art and culture there that could make the association some money and benefit some of the businesses,” he said. He noted that Nights at the Petroleum Club, has been very popular with Bixby Knolls residents, and he believes the jazz performance will be as well.
“People are happy to have an entertainment venue in their own back yard,” he explained. “Here we have the opportunity to do a series of events. So the city has given us permission to do the first one and if it’s successful we may be able to do more.”
Tickets will be on sale for $10 at the door, in advance at the Richard Goad Theatre, and online. “We don’t have a dance floor available and it’s still carpeted,” Cohn said. “But I have a feeling people will want to get up and dance a bit, so I think we will just make some space available for people who want to dance.”
The performance is being coordinated by the BKBIA and the Long Beach Shakespeare Company, who will split the profits. Cohn said that Helen Borgers, the Shakespeare Company’s artistic director, is using her connections to get the bands. Borgers is also a well known jazz disc jockey for CSULB’s KKJZ radio station.
Cohn explained how plans for the performance developed. “The Shakespeare Company was looking for a place to have rehearsals so they could program more events at the Goad Theatre,” he said. “We went and talked to Robert Swaze at the city’s economic development bureau, and he suggested that we consider doing something at the Expo Building.”
Cohn then asked the RDA for permission to hold the concert there. The agency agreed to it with the possibility of approving more concerts in the future. Next, Cohn obtained a special-events permit and began working in earnest with the Shakespeare Company to coordinate the concert. “We are pulling our resources together to make this happen,” he said, noting that Nino’s Ristorante will do some of the catering, It’s A Grind will bring coffee beverages, and Alsace Lorraine Bakery will bring desserts.
Borgers picked the bands slated to perform: Jack Sheldon and the California Cool Quartet and the Al Williams Jazz Society featuring Barbara Morrison.
Borgers described the music of Sheldon and the Cool Quartet. “They are straight from the West Coast sound in the vein of Chet Baker,” she said. “Jack doesn’t sound like an imitation of Chet— he has his own sound, but he does have a quartet the way that Chet did.” She explained that Sheldon plays trumpet and sings and has Joe Bagg on piano, Bruce Lett on bass, and either Dick Weller or Dave Tull on drums.
She noted that Sheldon is one of the biggest proponents of West Coast Jazz and last year he was featured in the ABC Radio documentary Trying To Get Good, the Jazz Odyssey of Jack Sheldon.
Al Williams is the producer of the Long Beach Jazz Festival and has owned two jazz clubs in Long Beach. “The Al Williams Jazz Society plays at every festival and Barbara usually performs with them,” Borgers said. “The Jazz Society features Al Williams on drums and includes piano, bass, saxophone and trumpet.”
Borgers said she was also excited by the participation of the Los Angeles Jazz Institute, which will display a large West Coast Jazz exhibit at the March 15 event. “They have memorabilia and articles, books and videos dating back to the 1950s and 1960s West Coast Jazz,” she said.
She explained that Ken Poston, who heads the Jazz Institute, has the equivalent of the Rutgers University jazz memorabilia collection on the east coast. “He is really the acknowledged authority on jazz history in Southern California,” she said, adding that Poston is a Long Beach resident and teaches music history at CSULB.
On the night of the concert, Borgers will be playing “Helen’s Picks,” about 90 minutes of recorded jazz music before, in between and after the live performances. “I am on my 30th year on KKJZ, 88.1 FM, playing straight-ahead jazz,” she said. “Over the years, I have developed my own style and obviously I won’t have time to play all my favorite tracks but I will be able to play 15 or 20 of them.”
Borgers stressed that KKJZ is the media sponsor for the event. “They are doing an awful lot for us and we really appreciate it very much,” she said. “We probably could not do it without their help.”
She also noted that since Williams’ Birdland West nightclub closed, there has been no real place to listen to live jazz in Long Beach. “We are hoping we will be able to do this on a regular basis,” she said. “Jazz is vital to our cultural sensibilities. It is America’s classical music, and more people need to be exposed to it.”
“The upcoming concert is a win-win,” Cohn said, “RDA lets us use the building to kick-start arts and culture in the neighborhood. Shakespeare comes in with its resources and makes a little money. And the BKBIA puts on the event, brings in some of the businesses and makes a little money. We want it to be a success and we want lots of people to come.”
For more information, phone (562) 595-0081 or go to www.lbshakespeare.org.
