Salsa Concert at Ford Theatre Is Called Off; Jazz Score to Back ‘Felix the Great’ Radio Story

The third annual L.A. Salsa Fest, scheduled for Saturday and Sunday at the John Anson Ford Theatre, has been canceled. According to Linda Mandel, one of the event’s promoters, poor advance ticket sales prompted the Ford managers--the Hasset family--to withdraw the show.

Mandel thought the amount of salsa featured at several Cinco de Mayo events over the May 5-7 weekend may have slowed ticket sales. “A lot of our audience went to these events,” Mandel said, “and hadn’t gotten around to thinking about ours. I was looking for a lot of last-week purchases and walk-ups, but I guess the Ford Theatre (management) didn’t want to take that chance.”

Mandel discounted the outbreaks of violence at two recent events that spotlighted salsa--the appearance of El Gran Combo from Puerto Rico at the Hollywood Palladium in mid-April and a Cinco de Mayo celebration at Lincoln Park in East Los Angeles on May 7--as a reason the Salsa Fest had only modest ticket sales. “I think most people are still going to come in droves (for salsa shows),” she said, “even though I myself might stay away. I see these (outbreaks of violence) not as a trend--at least I hope they’re not--but rather (spontaneous occurrences) that just happened in close proximity to each other.”

Efforts to reach Ford management officials were not successful. Ticket holders can obtain refunds at point of purchase.

FINALISTS ANNOUNCED: The five finalists in the fifth annual Hennessy Cognac Jazz Search, who will engage in a playoff tonight at the Palace nightclub in Hollywood, have been announced.

The groups--who were selected in competitions held in Detroit, New Orleans, New York and Los Angeles earlier this year--include Quintessence (West Columbia, S.C.), the Steve Wood Quintet (Detroit), Synthetic Earth (Toronto), the Mel Brown Sextet (Portland) and the John Basile/Brad Terry Duo (New York). More than 600 groups from the United States, Canada, Japan and Brazil entered the competition by sending in audio tapes of their work. Semifinalists for the live performances were then selected by panels of professional musicians.

The winner of tonight’s battle of the bands--which is open to the public on a limited-seating, first-come, first-served basis--receives a cash award and a spot on the line-up of the Playboy Jazz Festival’s June 18 show at the Hollywood Bowl. Past winners include the Timothy Horner group, the a cappella vocal ensemble Terra Nova and saxophonist Scott Kreitzer. Following his win last year, Kreitzer, an impressive tenor saxophonist, made his recording debut with “Kick n’ Off” for locally based Cexton Records.

“Tonight Show” bandleader Doc Severinsen, keyboardist George Duke, record exec Harold Childs and composer Allyn Ferguson will judge this evening’s contestants. KKGO’s Chuck Niles will be the emcee.

Information: (213) 201-8888.

YOUTHFUL HONOREES: Two musicians and an instrumental group from Hamilton High School in Los Angeles have received awards in the 12th annual down beat magazine Student Music Awards. Pianist Vernal Brown, Jr. was chosen as best Blues/Pop/Rock instrumentalist in the high school division, and the school’s combo was selected as the best Blues/Pop/Rock instrumental group. In addition to a plaque, Brown earned a partial scholarship to Berklee School of Music in Boston for his taped performance, which was judged on such qualities as overall sound, presence or authority, technique, improvisation and phrasing by a panel that included local composer/bandleader Les Hooper, producer/composer Teo Macero and singer/musician Don Shelton (of the Hi-Lo’s), among others.

Additionally, Hamilton’s Julian Coryell, a guitarist, received an outstanding performance citation in the Jazz Instrumental Soloist division.

JAZZ SOUND TRACK: Vermont-based writer-journalist Robert Shure has come up with an interesting twist for his 26-part radio story, “Felix the Great,” heard locally on KLON-FM (88.1 FM), Monday-Friday, 11:45 p.m., through June 5. He’s backed his story, about “a guy who wants to be a great illusionist,” with a jazz score by Finnish composer-keyboardist Heikki Sarmanto’s quintet. “The story fits the various moods of jazz,” said Shure, “so the music is not really background music. The idea is that the story is to be told by both the music and the words, so the music’s a major part of it.”

Shure met Sarmanto while doing some free-lance journalism in Finland a few years ago, and collaborated with him on “Man With a Sax,” a Shure story backed by Sarmanto’s music that was released on Cadence records in 1986. “So that prompted us to do something like this, a story I wanted heard rather than read, but much longer than ‘Man with a Sax.’ ” Ultimately, six hours of music were recorded for “Felix.”

Each episode of the drama, which is heard nationally on such NPR stations as WBUR-FM in Boston and WYET-FM in Pittsburgh, begins with an introduction that brings the listener up to date, said Shure. But, he noted, KLON is the only station airing the program nightly; other stations schedule it weekly.

**** 1/2 McCoy Tyner’s “Revelations” (Blue Note), the pianist’s first solo album in a decade, documents his compelling orchestral approach in all its splendor. Included are winsome versions of Coltrane’s “Lazybird,” the standard “Don’t Blame Me” and Tyner’s “You Taught My Heart to Sing.”

Recordings are graded on a five-star system. Five stars ( ***** ) means all but indispensable for your jazz library; one star ( * ) means forget it.