Next stop Central Avenue

By Chris Young

Daily Bruin Contributor

Besides the Laker game, there was another big event in downtown
L.A. Wednesday night. Three generations of musicians congregated at
the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion to recreate the sounds of a past era
in Los Angeles: Central Avenue, the vanguard of Los Angeles’
jazz scene in the first half of the twentieth century.

This long street boasted much of the jazz scene on the West
Coast from the ’20s to the ’50s, with original sounds
coming out of the clubs, and famous names such as Charles Mingus
and Eric Dolphy getting their start here. The booming economic
conditions at the time encouraged a sizeable African American
population to settle in South Central Los Angeles and helped fueled
Central Avenue’s music scene. This street was where most of
the people, of all races, gathered to hear jazz music.

Wednesday’s concert featured the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz
Orchestra, a staple of the Hollywood Bowl, and interestingly, a
group of players from the original Central Avenue era: vocalist
Ernie Andrews, bassist Jimmy Bond, trumpeter Conte Candoli,
saxophonist Teddy Edwards, drummer Larance Marable and pianist
Gerald Wiggins. Also on the program were two UCLA students, Kamasi
Washington, a first-year music student, and Keschia Potter, a
third-year music student, who performed a piece with the orchestra
at the end of the concert with two other young saxophonists.

The Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra has some of L.A.’s
most prominent jazz musicians in its ranks, with five saxophones,
four trombones, five trumpets, a piano-bass-drums rhythm section
and three co-leaders: bassist John Clayton, his brother, alto
saxophonist Jeff Clayton and drummer Jeff Hamilton. Trombonist
Isaac Smith, a third-year ethnomusicology student at UCLA, is a
regular band member.

The program started off as the Orchestra showcased a couple
smoking tunes. Pianist Bill Cunliffe then played a Jelly Roll
Morton song, demonstrating some of the sounds that could have been
heard on Central Avenue during that era of jazz.

The Orchestra sounded like a mix of the classic big bands of
Count Basie and Duke Ellington with modern influences as well. With
a bright dynamic sound, the Orchestra swung hard throughout the
night.

Vocalist Andrews sang three spirited songs backed by the
Orchestra. He entertained the crowd too, with creative
interpretations of the lyrics and dancing across the stage.

Bandleader, composer and UCLA faculty member Gerald Wilson made
a surprise appearance and conducted a tune with the Orchestra
also.

Saxophonist and composer Benny Carter penned and debuted two
songs Wednesday night, “Again and Again,” and “A
Time To Remember,” played by the Orchestra. “Again and
Again” featured Jeff Clayton on alto sax with a beautiful
soaring melody, which Clayton complemented with graceful pitch
bends, blending the note pitches together, making them morph into
each other.

A small band featuring the musicians who played on Central
Avenue in its glory days, with Candoli, Edwards, Bond, Marable and
Wiggins then showcased a set of original tunes. They created a
mixture of old and new sounds, partly reminiscent of the older
sound when the bebop style was just catching on, and partly some
newer, more harmonically creative material as well.

The concert ended with an impressive three-movement suite
written by John Clayton for Benny Carter.

It reflects well on the music department at UCLA that Jeff
Clayton, Gerald Wilson and George Bohanon all teach music in the
jazz studies department in Schoenberg Hall, and that John Clayton
co-led the UCLA jazz ensemble last year. They help bring the
history of Central Avenue’s music, along with many other
styles and ideas, to a younger generation of musicians and
composers.

The sounds of Central Avenue were reinvigorated Wednesday night
under a relaxed atmosphere. The audience got a taste of what it
might have sounded like when walking down Central on a Saturday
night in earlier times, with music lilting through the air.

MUSIC: The Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra plays at the
Hollywood Bowl regularly. For tickets and schedule information,
call (323) 850-2000.