Dennis Smith on June 01, 2008, at 11:25PM – #1

All I can say is ....WOW! So often these musical mishmash synthesis projects sound good on paper but don't live up to the hype. If anything, this concert exceeded my expectations and will be one I long remember. Not quite the same as doing the cumbia in the middle of Grand Avenue like last year but still the kind of musical experience that folks up in the Bay Area paid $35-$60 to see the same show the previous day as part of the S.F. Jazz Festival. Kudos and thanks to Grand Performances and I'll see you at the Ceci Bastida concert next Saturday.

Dennis Smith on June 21, 2008, at 09:33AM – #2

So how many of you were at last night's concert given by Seun Kuti and the legendary Egypt 80 band? A huge crowd swelled the facility with picnikers taking in the evening while others worked up a big sweat dancing to the hypnotic rhythms and intricate guitar lines laid down by this Afrobeat juggernaut. Again, props must be paid to Grand Performances for bringing downtown a FREE show that others will be paying to see with a concert at the El Rey tonight.

One of the most impressive sights of the evening was before I even got to the show. I got a late start and was still walking up Olive from 5th when I realized I was not the only pedestrian headed towards the Water Court. The sidewalks on either side of Olive were full of people grunting to make the schlep up that hill to the escalator at 4th & Olive.....and the escalator itself was packed, flights of 20-25 people synchronized by the timing of the lights at the crosswalk. It is that sublime urban experience in which one is given opportunity to subsume himself to the greater body politic and allow one self to become part of a collective cultural experience that is free and open to all. It is something I have experienced in New York and Chicago but is more rare here in Los Angeles. I repeat, many thanks to the folks at Grand Performances for providing downtowners, and the whole city, with a true urban gem.

Dennis Smith on September 21, 2008, at 11:35AM – #3

Ozomatli may be playing at the Hollywood Bowl tonight but we got 5/8 of Ozomatli last night as part of a hugely talented ensemble that presented the Viva Yiddish Project at Grand Performances last night. Ceci Bastida from Tijuana No!, Frank London from the Klezmatics and Walter Miranda who has played with Money Mark and Cava were some of the other notables on stage as well as some cat named Isaac Sadigursky "from the shtetl of Bell" and the young and enthusiastic Banda Juvenil led by the Valenzuela Twins. Broadway star Mike Burstyn told Borscht Belt jokes between old songs by Carlos Gardel and even older tunes in Yiddish about some poor immigrant who wants to come to America but ends up in Mexico amongst his "companeros en sombreros". WilDog Abers claimed they found Banda Juvenil practicing in some garage in Huntington Park but when you closed your eyes they could sound like a second line marching through the Treme or a klezmer band practicing in Seward Park and they helped to propel a klezmerized version of Ceci Bastida's "Pobre de Ti".

It was a brilliant, one-of-a-kind performance and just one last example of the FREE FUN that is a regular feature of weekend nights during the summer in downtown Los Angeles. We who live here have a tremendous resource and I encourage everyone, especially those families with children, to take advantage of these opportunities