Jazz Sets Tone for City’s ‘Renaissance’

Sika, owner of Bak-Tu-Jua gallery and a regular at 5th Street Dick’s Coffee Co., declares: “Leimert Park is the epicenter of the new renaissance in Los Angeles.”

Renaissance is a word heard often among the sharp crowd at 5th Street Dick’s, by night the hub of this bustling South Los Angeles neighborhood. It’s a place where neighbors and a growing number of in-the-know Angelenos gather for coffee, conversation and inspired jazz.

Founded on a shoestring 18 months ago by Richard Fulton, 5th Street Dick’s is a growing phenomenon whose word-of-mouth reputation has spread across the country through musicians.

“It’s something I’ve been thinking about for 20 years,” Fulton says. “Music, I feel, knits the community together and jazz knits it together with intelligence.”

The repertoire at 5th Street Dick’s has expanded to include weekly sessions of poetry, comedy and the blues, as well as a regular conversational menu of passion, politics and culture. It’s the kind of inspired creative venue without which no city can claim to be cosmopolitan.

The crowd, like the music, is deeply stylish. Patrons turn up in everything from mud-cloth jackets to fur coats and Dickensian tweed knickers--and not a fashion victim among them.

“I’m here four or five nights a week. I’ve swallowed it hook, line and sinker,” says Lissa Washington, an elementary schoolteacher. “Lots of people are here just kicking it, whether they’re doing their homework or having an intellectual discussion.”

Washington’s mother, Val Luchetti, is just as enthusiastic. “People come here for spiritual nourishment. And I never have to worry about Lissa. They always see her out to her car at the end of the evening.”

Housed in a tall, narrow space with a faux cloud ceiling, Dick’s serves lasagna, cakes and coffee downstairs.

Of the coffee, Washington says: “The Kenya AA will take you through the all-night jam session very well.”

For $5, you can take your cup and climb to a second-floor loft where serious musicians play to a seriously attentive audience, often until 5 or 6 a.m. A sign on the stairs advises: “Support jazz and jazz players. This is your music. Only you can let somebody else own it.”

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Almost everyone who turns up at 5th Street Dick’s strolls around the corner to the World Stage on Degnan Boulevard. It serves no food or drinks--just music, thank you. The spartan 50-seat concert space is more like a storefront church than a boite.

For a $5 cover, this is the place for no-nonsense jazz without distractions. And you need not leave the kids at home. On a recent weekend, the Richard Davis Quintet played to an audience that included Davis’ 8-year-old son, Richard Jr.

The Saturday afternoon jam session, hosted by the owner, drummer Bill Higgins, regularly brings out local talent as well as big-name artists in town to perform at more glamorous mainstream clubs, such as Catalina and the Bel Age Hotel.

Between sets, the musicians take the time to shake hands and ask the audience members if they’re enjoying the show. Then everyone strolls over to 5th Street Dick’s to refuel on Kenya AA.

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Where: 5th Street Dick’s Coffee Co., 3347 1/2 W. 43rd Place.

When: Jazz nightly, 9:30 p.m. to 1 a.m.; Friday and Saturday jam sessions, 1 to 5 a.m.; Saturday blues, 2 to 6 p.m.

Cost: $5 cover for upstairs. Coffee, cake and lasagna, $1.25 to $5.

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Where: The World Stage, 4344 Degnan Blvd.

When: Fridays and Saturdays, 9:30 and 11:30 p.m.; Thursday jam session, 9:30 p.m.; Saturday jam session, 2 p.m.

Cost: $5 admission.