Finding the Roots of Jazz in L.A.

When it comes to the history of jazz, New Orleans, New York and Chicago get most of the copy. But Los Angeles has a tradition almost as long.

There were jazz clubs in Culver City in the mid-1920s, including the Alabam and Frank Sebastian’s Cotton Club, where Louis Armstrong made his first Los Angeles appearance.

One of the first jazz recordings was made in Los Angeles in 1922, when Kid Ory’s Sunshine Orchestra recorded “Ory’s Creole Trombone” and “Society Blues.”

Swing was born here--when Benny Goodman’s orchestra and his rocking arrangements caused a sensation at the Palomar in 1935. And, much later, so was “fusion.”

The Lionel Hampton and Stan Kenton bands also were launched here.

And in the 1940s and 1950s, Central Avenue in South-Central Los Angeles was just as lively as Bourbon Street or 52nd Street.

Musicians like Dexter Gordon, Charlie Mingus, Eric Dolphy, Bobby Hutcherson and Buddy Collette (all raised in Watts) went from the Plantation and Suzy Q to the Jade Room and the Downbeat Room.

“Oh, music all over,” reminisced one sideman a few years ago. “You leave your gig, go to another one.”

So Charlie Parker hated the place (“I can’t begin to tell you how I yearned for New York”). You could still hear the wide-open jam sessions at Billy Berg’s on Vine Street, or the latest be-bop sensation down on Central.

Much of this is commemorated in a free exhibit at the Honnold/Mudd Library of the Claremont Colleges entitled “Saxophones in the Smog: A History of the L.A. Jazz Scene.”

Using narratives, photographs and album covers, the exhibit seeks to tell the story, from the 1940s premier of Duke Ellington’s musical “Jump For Joy” to the diverse group of Los Angeles musicians of the 1990s.

The exhibit is open 8 a.m. to midnight on Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to midnight Sunday, through December. The library is at 800 Dartmouth Ave. Information: (714) 621-8150.