Sharing Music, Memories at Central Avenue Jazz Fest

For saxophonist Teddy Edwards, the chance to perform at this weekend’s Central Avenue Jazz Festival might be considered a return engagement.

But the famed Central Avenue that Edwards cut his musical teeth on decades ago no longer exists. Gone are the late-night jazz clubs, the fancy eateries and the theaters that forged a magical era in the Los Angeles jazz scene.

“We had wonderful moments there, but they are memories,” said Edwards, 73, who last played on Central Avenue in 1948. “It was really swinging. There were people on the street everywhere. It was music until daybreak every morning.”

When World War II ended, he said, much of what was unique about the community disappeared. Blacks, who had migrated to Central Avenue from the South, moved out as racial restrictions ended in nearby communities. Employment and educational opportunities added to the exodus.

The Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department organized the festival last year to pay tribute to that era and celebrate the cultural contribution of the predominantly African American community.

The free concerts continue through today in front of the famed Dunbar Hotel on Central Avenue between 42nd and 43rd streets.

Councilwoman Rita Walters, whose district includes the Central Avenue corridor, said the festival was organized to honor both the old and the new.

Today’s Central Avenue reflects the presence of a different wave of migration--the large influx of Latinos whose influence is now felt throughout the community.

Across the street from the Dunbar Hotel is the Guadalajara Meat Grocery, which specializes in selling products from Mexico.

“This area has undergone a cultural change,” Walters told the audience of several hundred. “There is room for all of us in making the boulevard the dynamic place it once was. This event is a way to make bridges between the two communities.”

And so it was.

Saturday’s lineup of acts reflected a mixture of Latin jazz, salsa and Mexican ethnic dance mixed in with African American blues and more traditional jazz.

The audience was receptive to both cultures, dancing and erupting into applause when Johnny Polanco’s 10-piece Latin band played the popular “I Like It Like That.”

Listeners also waved and gave shouts of approval to blues singer Jeanne Cheatham’s rendition of “Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do.”

Cheatham had many roaring with laughter when she introduced the tune “In the Dark” by recalling the tradition of raising money to pay the landlord with “rent parties.”

“You remember those parties when every light was out in the house but the one on the front porch,” she said.

Before the performing began, the musicians warmed up the audience with a panel discussion about life along Central Avenue during the glory days.

Edwards remembers coming to Los Angeles from Tampa, Fla., with a busload of musicians at 3 a.m. in November 1944.

The 17-piece orchestra spent its first night at the Dunbar Hotel until it could arrange cheaper accommodations, he said.

It was the start of his musical journey. Edwards played all the local clubs, the Alabam, the Last Word, the Down Beat.

Eventually, the reed man landed gigs and a recording deal with Dizzy Gillespie, Howard McGhee and Earl “Fatha” Hines.

He recently returned to his Central Avenue roots from the south of France, where a musical festival was held in his honor.

Clifford Soloman, now 66, also had fond memories of those early years.

“No one called it Central Avenue, it was just The Avenue,” said Soloman, another saxophonist, who went on to play with Ray Charles, Ike and Tina Turner and the rock group the Monkees.

“My mother owned a beauty shop and my father was a bartender. I was just drawn to the world of music. We would hear music all the time.”

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Particularly inspirational, he said, was a visit that Edwards made to perform at his junior high school.

“He played in the style of Charlie Parker,” Soloman recalled. “That was it, I was hooked.”

Even though the Central Avenue of old may be gone, some said that events like the festival offer a way to continue a tradition of inspiring the young.

“There is history here,” said Jose Rizo, who has a Latin jazz radio show on KLON-FM (88.1). “The children are here checking this out. This is rich in culture, and it is being passed along.”

But for people such as Willie Roebuck, a 67-year-old longtime resident of Central Avenue, it was rich in something else.

“It brings back memories,” she said, tapping her foot to the music.