Weekend Reviews : Jazz : Recalling Central’s Heyday

Central Avenue past came to Central Avenue present Saturday for the reopening of MOCA at the Temporary Contemporary.

And it did so with style and gusto. The celebration was titled “Jazz Returns To Central Avenue”--appropriately so because the Temporary Contemporary sits at the terminus of what was, in the ’30 and ‘40s, one of the most vital musical thoroughfares in the history of jazz and rhythm & blues.

That history was vividly recalled in the highlight of the evening--an opening panel discussion by a group of Los Angeles jazz veterans: saxophonists Teddy Edwards and Jackie Kelson, singer Ernie Andrews, drummer-author Roy Porter, trumpeter Clora Bryant and bandleader-arranger Gerald Wilson.

There was a lot to remember, and the panel’s recollections were filled with colorful tales of an avenue of more than 100 blocks that resonated with music throughout the day and night. Edwards provided chapter and verse, naming club after club, from tiny corner bars to such legendary rooms as the Club Alabam, the Plantation Club, the Downbeat and the Lincoln Theatre.

An overflow crowd, seated at tables placed in the Temporary’s outdoor entry area, was enthralled by the descriptions of an era in which music seemed to be everywhere on the avenue. But their remembrances were unfortunately cut short by the need to start the evening’s performance segments in time for a live radio broadcast on FM jazz station KLON.

The first set, by the Edwards quintet, was a salute to the bebop energies that have so emphatically impacted the saxophonist’s playing. With Andy Simpkins serving as a powerful engine for the rhythm section, Edwards and trombonist Phil Ranelin romped smoothly through a boppish assortment of mostly up-tempo numbers.

Ernie Andrews, backed by the Jonny Kirkwood Quartet, revived the big-voiced, blues-based male singing style popular in the ‘40s.

Predictably, the program closed with a jam session. But the most important impression that was left after the last blues had concluded was the distinct feeling that the Temporary Contemporary has created an appealing new venue for jazz, as well as other forms of music.