Cheap Dates : County Museum Offers the Fine Art of Jazz

Come by Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Friday evenings and you may see and hear a few things you don’t normally associate with fine art. Like a drum solo. Or a rhythm section in full swing. Or the tinkling of piano keys.

The source of that sound--be it swing, be-bop or some wild experimental sonic venture--is the museum’s “Friday Night Jazz” held every week on the plaza (or inside the restaurant during cold or rainy weather).

Best of all, you can keep your wallet in your pants, because unlike most of the finer things in life (such as art), this show is free.

“The museum started staying open on Friday evenings in January, 1992, so we decided to add jazz that April,” says Dorrance Stalvey, LACMA’s director of music programs. “Except for Christmas and New Year, we haven’t missed a Friday since.”

One big attraction of jazz, Stalvey says, is that “it brings in more cultures and ethnic groups into the museum than ever before.”

It also, of course, brings more people to jazz.

“People who come here don’t normally come to jazz clubs,” says sax man Michael Session, whose group, the Michael Session Quintet, is playing its second engagement at the museum. “So you get a lot of older people, younger people, different nationalities--a wide spectrum of everyday people.”

Usually a band comes in for one to four weeks. Stalvey says he books almost exclusively local talent--such as Session, Bill Perkins, Bobby Bradford and Vinnie Golia--and chooses styles from the 1950s to the present. His policy is to veer away from Top 40 jazz.

“Since we are part of an art museum, I strive to find fine art jazz--jazz that is representative of the art form and not the entertainment aspect of it,” he says. “Hopefully, it is entertaining. But the primary objective is to be compatible with the fine arts.”

The formula has proven so popular that in the height of summer, hundreds--sometimes thousands--of people crowd the museum’s plaza, where they sip cocktails and soft drinks, and chow down on the museum’s restaurant fare. Some come from viewing the exhibits and sport LACMA entry badges; others come for the music.

“It’s the best gig in town,” says Paul Snyder, a Manhattan Beach artist and jazz fan who reckons he’s barely missed a show in more than a year.

Snyder and his friends often arrive a half-hour early to snag a front row table (these get snapped up in no time) and check out the museum exhibits between sets.

Why such dedication? “There’s a variety of musicians,” Snyder says. “It seems that all the best jazz players in L.A. eventually make their way to the museum. There’s always a good crowd and, yeah, the price is right.”

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Where: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd. (213) 857-6000.

When: Fridays, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Cost: No admission charge. Alcoholic beverages, $3-$4.25. Soft drinks, 75 cents-$2.25. Sandwich plate, $4.95. Popcorn, free.