A New Spot Crowds Onto a Busy Scene

It’s the first fall season of the new millennium, and, appropriately, it is overflowing with promising developments for both jazz and world music.

Start with jazz. The arrival of Knitting Factory Hollywood (grand opening, tomorrow night) provides the Southland with a third venue--with the Jazz Bakery and Catalina Bar & Grill--presenting world-class jazz artists. (see story, Page 8.) Add to that the expanding number of smaller rooms such as Rocco’s, La Ve Lee, Steamers Cafe, Club Brasserie, the World Stage, the two Baked Potato clubs and the Jazz Spot, and the jazz menu is filled with an appealing number of possibilities. A few hours away, virtually every imaginable jazz need will be met at the 18th annual San Francisco Jazz Festival, Oct. 25-Nov. 5.

On the recordings front, the release in November of the five-CD, boxed companion to “Jazz,” Ken Burns huge documentary, represents an unprecedented co-venture between two major labels, Columbia and Verve, to offer a package that is a jazz mini-history in itself. And, although it won’t be seen until January, the Burns documentary, which will unfold in 10 episodes (with 19 hours of programming), is going to illuminate jazz in living color detail for millions of Americans. The promotion campaign, which kicked off last week, will reach even more, via linkages with the NBA, Starbucks and MTV. Columbia and Verve, in addition, are each releasing eleven individual CDs from their catalogs with “best of” collections by Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Ornette Coleman, Billie Holiday, etc.

On the new release front, there will be albums from Oscar Peterson, Abbey Lincoln, Keith Jarrett and John McLaughlin, as well as an invaluable boxed set of Charlie Parker’s complete studio recordings for Savoy and Dial.

World music always abounds in the multicultural Southland, but here too Fall 2000 overflows with goodies. Tonight, Elba Ramalho, the legendary “Tina Turner of Brazil” concludes a two night run at the John Anson Ford; on Friday another Brazilian diva, Marisa Monte, brings her Brazilian pop to UCLA’s Royce Hall.

The amazing vocal textures of the Bulgarian Women’s Choir-Angelite arrive at El Camino’s Marsee on Oct. 7, followed at the same venue on Oct. 13 by the great Brazilian songwriter Ivan Lins. UCLA presents Irish fiddler Eileen Ivers on Oct. 14 and Misia, a gifted young fado singer, on Nov. 2. (She also performs at the Irvine Barclay on Oct. 29.) And, among the bounteous cornucopia of world music, there’s no safer bet for the average listener than the continuing compilations arriving on the Putumayo label. v