A jazz haven at Catalina’s

Thank you for Lynell George’s prominent coverage of Catalina Bar & Grill’s move to its new location (“Catalina’s in the Mood to Move,” Nov. 27). Catalina Popescu deserves this recognition for her tenacious and caring promotion of live jazz, a music category that needs all the help it can get.

The comments of Ruth Price, president of the nonprofit Jazz Bakery in Culver City, about the lack of jazz club patronage are right on the money. It is a “huge gamble.” (As a member of Price’s board of directors, I can testify to the constant struggle to keep a jazz club operating.)

Thanks to the continuing support of The Times (and, in particular, jazz writer Don Heckman), Southern California clubs such as Catalina’s and the Jazz Bakery just might have a chance to continue to bring patrons the excitement and innovation inherent in the music

Patrick Collins

Westwood

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Catalina Popescu contracts with her soul, and reaches the same level her musicians do so that her visitors may achieve being “on the ninth cloud.”

Dizzy Gillespie knew, after he performed at the club, that this wonderful, warm, hip Bullocks-Wilshire Tea Room proprietress would create a venue of excitement equal to New York’s Village Vanguard.

Evenings at the club with Joe Zawinul, Toots Thielemans and our local world-class performers of America’s art form have been exquisite, and now -- not having to cross the great Cahuenga Divide -- will be a total delight.

Daniel R. Sheahan

Toluca Lake