We showed love to the Levitt Pavilion concerts by throwing a few bucks in the donation bucket every time we attended a concert this summer, but now that the season has ended, we wanted to shout out some love for one of the greatest gifts to the region: Free concerts, five nights a week, in a beautiful setting in Old Pasadena, featuring a wildly diverse range of artists of considerable talent.
So THANK YOU, Liz Levitt, and thanks to your amazing team, especially artistic director Eddie Cota, who did such a great job of programming this summer, and C.J. Whitcomb, the savvy executive director.
We’re also going to use this moment of gratitude to make some requests for next summer, and we’d like you to join us—we’ll pass along the requests to Eddie Cota. What musicians would you like to see next summer? Be realistic—Levitt does pay its performers, but they can’t pay Lady Gaga prices. They’re looking for outstanding bands and performers who have talent and showmanship but don’t sell out the Greek Theatre. And they’re particularly looking for specialists in jazz, world music, roots Americana and children’s. Please post your requests and we’ll pass them along. As for us, we’re hoping they can book roots-bluegrass singer Tim O’Brien, Irish rockers Gaelic Storm, L.A. band Dawes and great L.A. singer-songwriter Jill Sobule. We’d also love love love it if they could snag Ozomatli, one of the greatest party-music bands L.A. has ever produced.
And if you’re needing just a little more night music, head down to Levitt’s other Southern California venue in MacArthur Park—the free concert season there goes on until September 12th, with some pretty terrific sounding acts, including the closing-night all-female mariachi band. Here’s the calendar.
Dancing at twilight
Bonnie Prince Billy
Bobby Bare, Jr.
Eels
Steve Tyrell
and
James Raymond’s jazz quartet – they are local and they are fabulous. I don’t know what they call themselves but I’m working on finding out.
Blues – Homeade Jamz
Rock – Beth Hart
World – Jai Utal
Latin – Ozomatli
our favorites this year were la santa cecilia and dengue fever (and can I say double bill?? those two would bring down the shell together — bring them back!!!) ; they could possibly get the international Les Nubians and the incredible Sidestepper, both of whom have played at the rather humble (in attendance and cost but not talent) Luckman series (another winnner!!!) . Ollin are terrific if still together. It would be great to have a battle of the local bands by age group, including the geezers. tap into the sangeet world.
Ozomatli is always good
Soft Pack – alternative local band
Contact me regarding a middle eastern dance show!
More dance! Loved the Bollywood!
Nutty. They fuse classic rock songs with classic jazz tunes. http://www.nuttyjazz.com
The jazz quartet is called lit by fireflies
They will be playing at The Coffee Gallery in Altadena on October 22 – You really want to see this band!
David Arnay is a great local jazz pianist. He’s at Arroyo Chop House most weeks, & has a great bassist & drummer too.