Vanessa’s Lucky Harp

Outside on dusty Ventura Boulevard, the traffic was backed up and blaring. But inside Tarzana’s Coffee Junction, the air was cool and the music was floating.

I had been lucky enough to stumble onto the cafe’s once-a-month live performance of harp music, and in no time at all I felt my considerable road rage subsiding. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” said Arlene Epstein of Tarzana, listening at the coffee bar as harpist Vanessa Passov began an instrumental version of “Music of the Night” from “Phantom of the Opera.”

Taking a deep breath and smelling the coffee freshly brewed by friendly owners Sharon Benson and Linda Sherlin--I was inclined to agree with Epstein. So I sat back and took in my surroundings.

Coffee Junction is cute as a button with merchandise, as well as caffeine and snacks. Candles, soap and curios from the Southwest line the cafe’s well-decorated walls.

When Passov finally took a breather from her beautiful wooden 36-string Irish folk harp to have coffee, I made myself get up. The harpist, it turns out, showed up one day for an open-mike music session and has been playing at the place ever since.

Though Passov is usually too booked to appear more than once every few weeks, a group of regulars makes sure not to miss a performance.

“You know, I’m not even that great at it,” confessed Passov, 28, of Topanga. “But it’s a lucky instrument. It’s brought me lots of work.”

Marc Mangano never misses a session. The 45-year-old writer-photographer from Pacoima shows up because he’s an avid lover of Celtic music, of which “the harp is a very major part,” he says.

As Passov sat down at her instrument and brought forth new and delicate sounds, Mangano filled me in on the history of the instrument.

“The harp can bring you down or inflame you,” he explained, adding that the Irish once played the instrument to get psyched up for battle.

Winnetka resident Charles Domokos was using the music as a way to psych himself up for studying, not slaughtering.

“This is terrible stuff,” groaned the 52-year-old filmmaker and educator, pointing to a pile of books next to him that he was determined to get through. “And this music is so soft and melodic that it helps me concentrate, because it puts me in a good mood.”

Epstein, a hospital volunteer and a regular at Coffee Junction, said she leaves the harp concerts feeling “very dreamy, it sounds like a music box.”

Rick Levin, a 41-year-old art director from Tarzana, listened to the strains of classical music, sipped from a porcelain cup and looked around at the polite crowd and said, “This place is out of step with the times.”

BE THERE

Coffee Junction, 19221 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana. Open Monday-Thursday 7 a.m.-7 p.m., Friday 7 a.m.-11 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m.-11 p.m., Sunday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Live music Thursday through Sunday evenings with harp concerts one Thursday a month from 5-7 p.m. Call (818) 342-3405 for schedule.