The California Jazz Foundation (CJF) presents its annual “Give the Band a Hand” Gala fundraiser on Saturday, April 26, at 5:30 p.m., at the Omni Los Angeles Hotel, 251 S. Olive St. in Los Angeles.
CJF is a nonprofit organization started in 2006 to aid and assist California jazz musicians in financial and medical crisis. To date CJF has touched the lives of more than 500 jazz musicians, providing rent and mortgage payments, housing relocation, arranging for medical and dental care, in-home nursing, discount prescriptions and helping with other emergencies as they arise.
The evening, hosted by jazz radio deejay LeRoy Downs, will feature live and silent auctions, a gourmet dinner, video tributes, award presentations and live music. The concert will feature leading jazz artists paying musical tribute to our honorees.
Some of the talented musicians expected to appear include Hubert Laws with musician siblings Ronnie, Debra and Eloise Laws and singer Tierney Sutton. Pianist Joe Alterman, a longtime friend and student of the late Les McCann, will also perform with McCann band alumni including drummer Donald Dean. Jazz educator Fernando Pullum’s student group will also perform.
Hubert Laws will be honored with the Nica award, which is given to individuals who exemplify the legacy of Baroness Pannonica (Nica) de Koenigswarter, the iconic patron of such great jazz artists as Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk. Laws is an internationally renowned flutist and National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master.
He was selected the number one flutist in the famous DownBeat readers’ poll ten years in a row and was the critics’ choice for seven consecutive years. Laws has appeared in clubs, concerts and festivals around the world, including the Montreux, Playboy and Kool jazz festivals.
As a recording artist Laws has garnered three Grammy nominations. He has recorded more than 23 albums including collaborations with such great artists as Chick Corea, Quincy Jones, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney and Carly Simon.
CJF will honor the late pianist, composer and vocalist Les McCann with the Heritage award. McCann was an innovator in the soul jazz style, fusing jazz with funk, soul and world rhythms. His influential music has been sampled by many top hip-hop artists including Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and The Notorious B.I.G..
McCann enjoyed a long relationship with Atlantic Records, releasing a dozen albums on the legendary jazz label from the late-‘60s through to the mid-‘70s. During that run, McCann released “Swiss Movement” with frequent collaborator saxophonist Eddie Harris. The album earned a Grammy nomination for best jazz performance and included the hit protest song “Compared to What.” McCann also discovered and mentored superstar pop singer the late Roberta Flack, signing her to Atlantic where she had multiple hits in the 1970s.
Photographer Bob Barry has been documenting the jazz music scene in Los Angeles, Kansas City and venues around the USA and Europe for 28 years and is a longtime member of the CJF board. Barry will receive the inaugural President’s Award, created to recognize volunteers who have made a multitude of contributions to CJF and to the jazz community.
Barry’s jazz photography is held in the permanent collections of the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City and the Mayme Clayton Library and Museum in Culver City, California. A collection of his work is on permanent display in the Henry Mancini Building at the NBC Universal Studios in Los Angeles. He has also published a book of his photos chronicling legendary guitarist John Pisano’s 22 year-long live jazz guitar series “Guitar Night.”
Michael Dolphin is a Los Angeles jazz historian and vice-president of the California Jazz Foundation. For more information on the Gala, call 818-261-0057 or visit www.californiajazzfoundation.org.
