Leimert Park - A Concert Anamnesis
Leimert Park - A Concert Anamnesis is a program of jazz music & poetry developed & led by bassist Trevor Ware. The songs were written based upon 30 years of experiences in Leimert Park. The concert features many of the musicians who have made Leimert Park the cultural center of Black Los Angeles playing compositions inspired by the artistry of Leimert Park.
Purchase your tickets for the April 28, 2023 livestream today at viewstub for $10. Tickets are sold first-come, first-served at the door. There will be one show at 8pm.
Leimert Park - A Concert Anamnesis
April 28, 2023 8:00pm - 9:30pm
The World Stage Performance Gallery
4321 Degnan Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90008
It seems only fitting that such a concert would be held at the iconic World Stage Performance Gallery; the venerable house of jazz founded by drummer Billy Higgins & Poet Kamau Daaood. Performers include
Trevor Ware - Acoustic & Electric Bass
Dale Fielder - Tenor Saxophone
John Rangel - Piano
Kenny Elliott - Drums
Jacques Lesure - Guitar
Munyungo Jackson - Percussion
Kamau Daaood - Poet
“It can be said that members of the band helped create much of the artistry of Leimert Park at that time”, said Ware. “Personally, I wanted to have guys who were there when these memories were created. I know we'll have no problem getting the right spirit in the room."
Most of the concert, and almost all of the songs to be played were written by bassist Ware during the recent pandemic. “Like most of us, my life was upended by Covid. I was home looking for something to do. When I got myself into a creative space mentally & physically these songs just started to emerge.”
As an active musician, Ware assumed his muse would be the violence at the hands of police which roiled the news in early 2020. However, what emerged were positive reflections on his musical past; much of it in Leimert Park. Ware continued, “I guess the way my psyche dealt with all the hate we saw in America prior to the pandemic was to find memories of a lovely, artistic community and write about it. It feels like time to share this new music with the world.”
The concert will open with Kamau Daaood reciting his poem Leimert Park and close with his 2020 update to this iconic tome. The concert will feature musical tributes to Billy HIggins, Ron Muldrow, Derf Reklaw, Horace Tapscott, The Anansi Writers Workshop, among others.
Original songs include:
Leimert Park - Kamau Daaood tribute to Leimert Park
Billy's Breeze - Tribute to Billy Higgins
New Minor - Tribute to Ron Mudrow
As A Child - Composed by & dedicated to Horace Tapscott
Degnan Nocturne - Remembering the Jazz Caravan in Leimert Park
Pheeling Pharoah - Inspired by and dedicated to Pharoah Sanders
A New Thing - 2020 Update to Leimert Park by Kamau Daaood & Tribute to Derf Reklaw
Artists of interest:
Trevor Ware
Trevor Ware is the Grammy nominated bassist for The Legendary Count Basie Orchestra who continues to travel the world delighting audiences with their swinging style of big band jazz. Much of Ware’s jazz training & development was shaped at The World Stage under tutors Horace Tapscott & Billy HIggins. Ware now teaches at CSUDH & CSUN.
Dale Fielder
Dale Fielder has led several bands based in Los Angeles. Known as a multi-reed jazz woodwind player, Mr. Fielder is also a prolific writer with over 2,009 songs composed. Fielder has released several recordings and/or compilations under his own name through Clarion Jazz.
Jacques Lesure
Originally from Detroit, Michigan & now residing in Inglewood, CA picked up the guitar at 10 years old. His classic style, along with his innovative, yet sincere approach to the music are integral parts of his signature sound. Lesure has performed or recorded with the top names in music under many genres including Pharoah Sanders, Gregory Porter, Jimmy Smith, Carmen Lundy, Clark Sisters, Little Milton, James Brown & More. He is a professor at UCLA in the Global Jazz Studies Department. His performances can be heard in the Academy Award winning movie La La Land.
Kenny Elliott
Originally from Chicago, Kenny Elliott started playing drums at 9 years old, joined the Musicians Union at 12, and started touring at 13 years old. Today , he may be best known for his decades performing with Lou Rawls. A drum prodigy, Elliott has worked with Ray Charles, Mel Torme, Stevie Wonder, Nancy Wilson, Dionne Warwick, Al Green, Lionel Richie, En'Vogue, Joe Cocker, Lee Greenwood, Ella Fitzgerald, Paul Jackson Jr., Helen Reddy & many others. He has toured with The Impressions, Natalie Cole, Aretha Franklin,Billy Preston, & many others.
Munyungo Jackson
Munyungo Jackson is recognized as one of the finest all-around percussionists across multiple genres in the world. You’ll often find his name associated with Stevie Wonder, Diane Reeves, & Kennny Loggins. Jackson has won several Grammy Awards. In addition to s concert, tour and recording work, Jackson is currently on the staff of the Watts Towers Art Center in Los Angeles where he helps to present an annual fall DRum Festival that brings together master drummers from all over the world.
John Rangel
Born in New York, John Ranel is a multifaceted musician, composer and producer. While Los Angeles was Mr. Rangel base he traveled the world playing iconic venues like Ronnie Scott’s, & the London Philharmonic.all the while immersing himself in the rich, vibrant culture of Leimert Park. Rangel is now the Music Department Chair at The New Mexico School for the Arts.
Kamau
Daaood
Equal parts Griot funk, straight ahead, blues, hip hop and hard bop, Leimert Park veritably pulsates with creative energy. From his early days in the Black Arts Movement and up to the present, Daaood has been a powerful artistic and social force, an inspired seer/seeker.
Ron Muldrow
As an emerging jazz guitarist in the early 1970s, Muldrow connected with soul-jazz saxophonist Eddie Harris and contributed to many of his Atlantic albums from 1971 to 1976 and reunited with the saxophonist on Listen Here (1982), however, Muldrow also released several recordings under his own name. He’s the father of artist Georgia Anne Muldrow.
Derf Reklaw
An original member of The Pharaohs & Rameey Lewis’s band, Derf Reklaw was internationally known for his skills as a musician, composer, vocalist and inventor.
Reklaw was a drummer, flutist, composer & the inventor of several popular dances.
Using kitchen cabinetry as drums at the age of 10 and being gifted a flute by his brother, Delano, at 13, he was a prolific multi-instrumentalist in the making
In 2016, he was recognized by the Duke Ellington Society as a “Living Jazz Legend.”
Horace Tapscott
Born in Houston, Tapscott was an American jazz pianist and composer He formed the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra (also known as P.A.P.A., or The Ark) in 1961 and led the ensemble through the 1990s.
In 1961 Tapscott formed the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra with the aim of preserving, developing and performing African-American music. As his vision grew, this became just one part of a larger organization in 1963, the Underground Musicians Association (UGMA), which later changed name to the Union of God's Musicians and Artists Ascension (UGMAA).
Billy Higgins
Higgins was born in Los Angeles, California, United States. Higgins played on Ornette Coleman's first records, beginning in 1958.[3] He then freelanced extensively with hard bop and other post-bop players, Higgins was one of the house drummers for Blue Note Records and played on over 700 recordings over many genres including rock and funk. He appeared as a jazz drummer in the 2001 movie, Southlander.
In 1989, Higgins co-founded a cultural center, The World Stage, in Los Angeles to encourage and promote younger jazz musicians. The center provides workshops in performance and writing, as well as concerts and recordings. Higgins also taught in the jazz studies program at UCLA.