Let's hear it for Peter Gurnz and his Factory for supporting artists from Latin America this weekend with an exhibit titled "Beyond the Unveiled Frontier: Loud Voices from Fresh Latin American Art."  This weekend's exhibit will showcase installations by a dozen or so artists and live performances by performers such as Palenke Soultribe. Gallery Eight has an expansive downtown space and the shows are, even if not all aesthetic tastes gel with your own, entertaining and fresh. The thing that makes the arts thrive in any city is for artists to constantly create and also for others to create spaces to experience this creative output. My hats off to Peter for creating such a dynamic space in today's downtown and for promoting local artists. We need more of this kind of thing if LA is to continue to be viewed legitimately as one of the pillars of modern art & culture. As Angelenos, we need to support these efforts as well. 

Outside the Colburn School of Music in Downtown L.A. sit four young men enjoying a fading blue sky after a rigorous three-hour rehearsal. This is the Calder Quartet - violinists Ben Jacobson and Andrew Bulbrook, cellist Eric Byers, and violist Jonathan Moerschel - artists in residence at Colburn since Fall 2007, where they landed fresh from a two year residency at the Juilliard School of Music in NYC. On the classical music scene, they have established a national presence. In the last year, the quartet's presence in LA has been palpable. In late May, the Calder Quartet made their debut at the Walt Disney Hall opening a program featuring the music of modern composer, Thomas Adès. That same day, they released their latest record, "Maurice Ravel-Thomas Adès-W.A. Mozart" (available on Itunes). "We love every piece on the album and picked pieces that would flow together and complement Thomas Adès' "Arcadiana," the centerpiece of the record." The album also gave the quartet a chance to promote other great arts organizations in town; they recorded it at the Colburn School and commissioned original album artwork by Dave Muller, a local artist from MOCA's permanent collection. The Calder Quartet is helping to bridge the gap between the classical and the modern and making it relevant and provocative for a new generation of listeners. Earlier this month, they could be heard live on KCRW's "Morning Becomes Eclectic" and at the El Rey, performing both times with indie rock sensation, The Airborne Toxic Event. On December 5th, they will perform and dazzle at Colburn's Zipper Hall. For ticket info, visit www.colburnschool.edu or www.calderquartet.com. 

Celebrated as one of the worlds most electrifying and influential bands, Azymuth is known for their trademark sound, 'Samba Doido,' meaning Crazy Samba. Hailing from Rio de Janeiro's vibrant studio scene, in the late sixties, keyboardist and songwriter Jose Roberto Bertrami and legendary drummer Ivan 'Mamao' Conti met bassist Alex Malheiros in 1972. Their first session together was on the "Mustang Cor de Sangue" album with Marcos Valle, in 1973. Bertrami's wild impassioned keyboards combined with Mamao and Malheiros' risky rhythms quickly attracted attention. It was only a matter of time before their brand of new Brasilian music would find its own audience. Their first self-titled album was recorded, in 1975, was an instant classic and re-released, in 2007, by Far Out Recordings in the UK. Following an astounding live performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival, in 1977, they inked an international deal with Milestone Records, bringing Azymuth a larger worldwide audience. Their first Milestone's outing Light As A Feather spawned the single "Jazz Carnival," which sold over 500,000 copies and held the UK top 20 spot for eight weeks. It's a dance floor and proto-house classic still getting spins. Samba Doido is their swing! The world finally understands what crazy samba means in their feet and hearts. In the ensuing years, there have been many albums, solo, covers and collaborations, including a recent album with Madlib and Mamao titled Sujinho. In 2008, Azymuth are still as poignant as ever! With twenty albums under their belts and a few more grey hairs, the energy still hasn't stopped and the trio is a force to be reckoned with! 

For more info on Azymuth and the show, please visit:http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=71953245

From Tokyo to NYC to LA, the name Kofie rings out like a cosmic wave.

He's been commissioned to put his one-of-a-kind stamp on creative studios across Southern Cal. He creates live art during shared performances with wicked talented DJs and renowned musicians.  His own downtown studio pulses with the sounds of Sun Ra as the master organic creator sets to work. He creates an urban garden setting, a city seen from a place high up in the sky, a place where industry and nature interweave in complex harmonies. This Scorpio was born in LA and thank god he has no plans to relocate any time soon. Kofie is one of the few urban LA artists who can claim to make his living as an artist. His current collage he describes as "very therapeutic." For him, it's all about the process.  Doing what comes naturally that it feels like a self-portrait. "I like to build, so the form is very structural but organic." Back in high school, he was voted as most artistic, Young Kofie was a skater, illustrator, graffiti artist. The name KOFIE was born in 1993. He began experimenting with brush painting.  If you visit the corner of Melrose and Martel, you'll see one of his house paintings called Hummingbirds. He listens while he paints to "anything between '59-present. old skate rock, punk, jazz, funk, soul, Indie hip-hop." Artists do not appreciate labels or definitions. He's an all around creative. To label him solely an artist would not justify the vast creative universe contained within.

For more on this amazing artist, visit keepdrafting.com. Check out this coming art exhibit this Thursday Aug 15th.

One of my greatest loves on earth is rock-n-roll. It's awesome the vast emotion and energy it inspires. For me, rock never ages. I think that's because, in its pure essence, rock music is soul or spirit. And spirit is timeless. It could be said that the same holds true for a brilliant photograph; whatever the subject (a woman, a building, a mountain), it tells a story and reflects back a spirit or energy captured in time. If it's a great image, it inspires no less feeling today than fifty or one hundred years from now.



I'm in Venice CA, standing in the studio of a famous photographer - make that, a legend - who is best known for shooting many of rock's legends: The Doors, Bob Dylan, Jimmy Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and The Rolling Stones, just to name a few. These spacious studio walls hold timeless images of one the most dynamic times in American history - a 1960's California: electric, alive, spacious, rebellious, creative and free. This is Guy Webster's studio and for more than forty years, he's captured the greatest musicians, actors, writers, athletes, artists, activists, and directors of the 20th Century.

To define Guy as a rock'n'roll photographer renders too narrow a definition. His Hollywood portfolio is just as extensive, classic, and romantic. Guy captured both the beauty and essence of many of the greatest actors who have ever lived: The delicate vulnerability of Natalie Wood. The devilish slyness of Jack Nicholson. The brooding introspection of Dennis Hopper.



All of this said, I'm a little nervous about my interview with Guy - as a journalist, I've been programmed not to show it. Any uneasiness disappears the minute Guy Webster drifts into the studio, fresh from a motorcycle ride around Venice beach. We sit down in his comfy salon to talk and I actually take off my heels.



Maybe it's the ocean air blowing through the open doors or maybe it's the fact that Guy exudes a calmness that is contagious. Whatever it is, the shoes (and formalities) are gone. For the next hour, Guy and I talk about the life he's lived...a life so amazingly vibrant and charmed that after our session is over I'm left with a feeling of inspiration...closer to awe, really.

My profile piece on Guy Webster and excerpts from my interview will be published in the mid-June issue of Hollywood Weekly. I can't underestimate the honor it is for me to profile Guy in our magazine.
I hope that my words can somehow capture the loving spirit, brilliant talent and amazing life of an American legend.



Images courtesy of Guy Webster. www.guywebster.com Zsa Zsa Gabor, Dennis Hopper, Ed Ruscha, Truman Capote