This year’s performance schedule is unusually orderly, so far…
Classical: I will be in the bass sections of the Santa Monica Symphony, the Vicente Chamber Orchestra, and the LA Lawyers’ Philharmonic for their spring concerts.
Jazz: My group, the Soapbox, plays at the Industry Cafe & Jazz in Culver City’s Arts District on the third Friday of each month. 6:30-9PM, no cover. I am lucky to have a pool of excellent players available, over the last few months the most common lineup has been Charles Sharp (reeds), Robert Jacobson and Kristian Aspelin (guitars), and Peter Valsamis (drums), and our sets have emphasized inside-outside material by Ornette Coleman, Sun Ra, Miles Davis, Carla Bley, Karl Berger, Eric Dolphy, David Murray, etc. I’m also in the edition of Dave Williams’ Rhythm Agents that plays on the first Sunday of the month at Water’s Edge Winery in Long Beach. 3-5PM, no cover. This is a slightly more “classic jazz” take on Dave’s mix of straightahead standards and funky originals.
Improvisation and New Music: On April 4 Intangible (with gamin (Korean reeds), Robert Reigle (tenor sax), and Tim Feeney (percussion)) will be part of the Wonder Valley Experimental Music Festival. We’re on the virtual night, which means we are appearing via pre-recorded video. The next day I’ll be at the Soundwaves concert series I run at the Santa Monica Public Library, playing in two bass ensembles: a quintet for John Luther Adams’ “Darkness with Scattered Light” and a trio for the “Flying” section of Christopher Roberts’ “Trios for Deep Voices.” July 6 is the final show of the Soundwaves series, and I have taken the liberty of booking the Present Quartet, a improvisation-focued group I organized with Ellen Burr (flutes), Anne LeBaron (harp), and Charles Sharp (winds).
I look forward to seeing you at some of these shows, and I expect there will be some additions to these plans…
Jeff Schwartz (bass) 