In Our Past....
CPJC Presents "ERA" on July 13, 2008
Hollywood Studio Bar & Grill in Hollywood, California
California Pop and Jazz Council presents More Souls Of Jazz in the production
of "Era" covering the history and music of the '30's & '40's. "Era" is a narrated
musical presentation featuring vocalists Ann Mack, Maryanne Reall, Sidno Garner,
and Vince Brocato, and narrated by Ann Roberts, written and directed by Logan
Johnson,Jr. Also featuring Rick Hils (piano), Bill Markus (bass), Noel Kendricks
(drums), Billy Kerr (sax), and Guy Mack (trumpet).
Next General Meeting and "Meet the Greats": Sunday, March 30, 2008
• Minutes from General Meeting on Sunday, October 14, 2007
• Minutes from General Meeting on Sunday, June 3, 2007
A new venue of ours is the Hollywood Studio Bar & Grill, at Sunset and Gower,
every 6-8 weeks. A beautiful room, with a grand piano and great food, houses our
group of performers fantastically!
The CPJC now has a gig every last Friday at The Spot in Pasadena! We are
featuring 5 of our performing members, along with a great trio!
Our "home" for the special "Four Souls" show is The Jazz Bakery in Culver City.
This is a wonderful performance venue, one of the best in L.A. See our event page
for more information on these events.
Our membership is growing! When the Jazz Vocal Coalition, an organization with
similar goals, dissolved in October 2006 after being together for several years,
some of it's members joined us. One of our founders, Cathy Segal-Garcia, was one
of the co-founders of that organization also.
We had a great turn out at the Benefit for Bili Redd and Van Gray on July 8,
2007 at the Sportsmens Lodge. Kevin O’Neil brought a couple of members from the
Radiant Voices Choir’, Patrice Quinn and Michole White and gave a great
performance. Patrice Belmaster gave a stirring performance, as did many others
who turned out for the guys. Some of the vocalists that performed included Cathy
Segal Garcia, Ann Mack, Robert Walker, James Geralden, Lucy Blanco, Linda
Smith, Dini Clarke and we can’t forget the guests of honor themselves. Van Gray
entertained us from the comfort of his Congo drums with some of his original poetry
and Bili Redd touched our hearts with a great rendition of “Willow Weep for Me.”
Before he was done a big group of us singers joined in to take the piece out with
some background vocals. It was a moving and heartwarming experience. The very
talented Gayle LaRone and James Geralden held a very entertaining auction of
some classic jazz records from the private collection of Cathy’s husband, Gary
Hoffman.
We also had a great turn out of musicians. The house band was led by pianist Eddie
Olivieri, Gerald Ballard on drums and Kevin O’Neil on bass. Other musicians that
came out for the cause and joined in the musical festivities were Joshua “Natural
Sounds” Spiegelman, Guy Mack, Jack LeCompte, Hideyatsu Karose, Michael
Andrews, and many others. All in all it was a wonderful afternoon, and we
accomplished our mission to raise the spirits in honor of two very special soldiers of
jazz.
The California Pop and Jazz Council would like to recognize the following
contributors to this event:
Denise Anya Cynthia Askew Margie Atkins
Patrice Belmaster Lucy Blanco Ed Bradley
Dini Clarke Thomas Davis Catherine Diallo
Samuel Dress Marilyn Forrest Leroy Gaines
Cathy Segal Garcia James Geralden Tracy Gore
Chera Holland Stine Hollowell Bill Jackson
Pamela Jackson Hee-day Karose Bill Kerr
Nancy Kerr Danny Kaplansky Gayle LaRone
Jack LeCompte Ann Mack Guy Mack
Akimejune Nako Chris Perez Pamela Perry
Diva Perry Fatima Price Patrice Quinn
Connie Schuman Richard Schuman Marv Robinson
Cathy Segal-Garcia Nikki Segal Linda A Smith
Joshua Spiegelman Robert Walker Michole White
Hanna Zylebeberg
On behalf of Bili Redd Thedford and Van Gray, we thank you for your support!
In March of 2007 we had our First Annual Awards Event, held at the world famous
Jazz Bakery in L.A. Our Event honored composer/pianist/singer/teacher/actor Dini
Clarke... a local hero! We also honored Rose Gales, a major contributor in our
music family in L.A., and clubs such as The Jazz Bakery, The Spot, The Sportsmen's
Lodge, The World Stage, Giannelli Square, and the jazz paper...The L.A. Jazz
Scene. We had in attendance 200 friends and fans from Los Angeles and the
surrounding area. Food, drink, speeches, music performances by members,
including Obba Babatunde... a magnificant time was had by all! We look forward to
continuing events from this great group of people!