CLUB REVIEW : Hollywood’s Cosmos: Try the Intimate ‘Umoja’ Night

If you were to look up cool in the dictionary, a picture of the Lilliputian-size Hollywood club Cosmos might serve as a definition.

On Monday nights, Cosmos is transformed into “Umoja,” an African term for family unity, and a cooler coupling of live jazz and recorded dancehall reggae and hip-hop doesn’t exist around town.

After a three-hour fusion of songs from contemporary urban artists--Jeru the Damager’s “Come Clean,” Intelligent Hoodlum’s “Grand Groove,” a Def Shadow import, Shabba Ranks’ “Shine and Criss” and KRS-One’s “Slam Them Up”--the Umoja Quintet gets up on the tiny stage and plays hard bop, a hard-driving, post be-bop sound, till closing.

The quintet, made up of members of Columbia Records group Black Note, gives the club an intimate, salon-like atmosphere, inspiring patrons to stop chatting and focus on the music. The layout of the airy, two-tiered club, which is located at the site of the old Gaslight, makes the music accessible from every corner. You can lounge on one of the room’s numerous couches and feel as if the quintet were playing in your living room.

At night’s end, you leave with an expanded music vocabulary, and you might wonder how you survived without this sonically rich scene.

* Cosmos, 1608 Cosmo St . , Hollywood, (213) 466-7800.