Klezmer Jazz, Salsa Under Clear Skies
The Playboy Jazz Festival kicked off its annual series of free community concerts Sunday afternoon with performances by the Hollywood Klezmer Jazz Quintet and the Bobby Rodriguez Salsa Orchestra at the Beverly Hills Civic Center Plaza. Blessed with clear skies and warm temperatures, the event drew a crowd of more than 600 listeners to the attractive, open-air setting.
“Klezmer” and “Jazz” may seem to be an odd coupling, but there are considerable similarities between the two genres, including dance-like rhythms, spontaneous ensemble interaction and improvisational solo inventions.
The Hollywood Klezmer Jazz Quintet’s front-line clarinetist, Leo Chelyapov, has more traditional roots, but his inspired soloing at the Beverly Hills performance was alive with an early-jazz sort of communicativeness. Using a colorful catalog of trills, note smears, glissandos, laughing sounds and gurgles, he transformed every solo into a high-flying musical excursion--doing so, at one point, while walking through the capacity crowd in Kenny G’s best reach-out-and-touch-your-listeners fashion.
“Bie Mir Bist Du Schoen” was on the menu, of course, but there were other, less familiar items as well, often showcasing other individual players: guitarist Jordan Charnofsky, bassist Larry Steen, drummer Robert “Jake” Jacobs and violinist Bob Korda. Further highlighting the set was the appearance of Rodriguez as a guest performer, his trumpet adding a clarion voice to the proceedings, his solo style emphasizing the Sephardic elements of the music.
When he brought his own orchestra to the stage, Rodriguez was even more entertaining. Matching his trumpet artistry with his equally engaging entertainment persona, he sang, did a few salsa steps and persuaded members of the audience to show off their own dance routines. All this to the accompaniment of his big, roaring ensemble, with solo spots for veteran percussionist Alex Acuna and talented young pianist Gerald Clayton in tunes ranging from a salsa-drenched arrangement of “Blue Skies” to the body-moving rhythms of the son montuna, “Josefina.”
*
The next free Playboy Jazz Festival event is Friday: The Multi-School Jazz Band, directed by Reggie Andrews, in a Watts Senior Citizens’ concert, Phoenix Hall, 10950 S. Central Ave., 11 a.m.-1 p.m.