Whew, yes, it's summer time and I'm just having a blast. Guess what? It's Leimert Park week and the showdown is few days away. The line up, too, is interesting.First, I ran into Swiss-based Congolese model, Songia Poupee, whose concept of a new women's handbag had been on display at African Treasures Gallery bargained on Melrose Trading in Hollywood, attracting curious-minded businessmen with the possibilities of funding to promote an exceptionally, unique, creative product which should be popping up on the runway sooner or later, here in Los Angeles. We spoke at length and the elegantly dressed Poupee told me she had came up with the idea in order to put something entirely different out there in the fashion world. The handbag is a three set piece clutched together in different colors with the larger part in Leopard skin hanging on a gold-plated chain.
Leimert Park, off the Crenshaw thoroughfare in the Black Township, and a place to hang out on Mondays especially with the jam sessions, notably at Babe's & Ricky's Inn known for its absolutely blues Monday nights. Before breezing in to Babe's & Ricky's, I bumped into classical bassonist and jazz enthusiast Rudolph Porter whose wealth of experience in jazz is quite telling. Porter has got a whole lot going on, and just turned 60 "I'm gonna be taking life to another level and I'm so excited I have made it this far and have never been sick. I feel good, and seriously, I do," he would say. I have encountered him in many occasions -- at jazz concerts and festivals -- but nothing much in our encounters until yesterday, August 03, 2009, when we spared some moments to talk extensively about music, jazz scholarship and what's been going on over the years.
While we stood on the sidewalk on Degnan, we talked about the big band era, be-bop and how jazz music changed dramatically over time. He talked about John Coltrane Septet (Pharoah Sanders on tenor sax, Alice Coltrane on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, Rasheed Ali on drums, Algie Dewitt on bata drum and Jumma Sanders on percussion) performing "Ogunde" at the Olatunji Center of African Culture in New York City on April of 1967. He spelled out the best jazz performers of the day, and Coltrane, without a doubt is among his best. The more we talked, the more we took a walk closer to Babe' & Ricky's for the open night blues session which had been jam packed by USC students who normally troop in there on Mondays for the blues. I saw some good performances and the last two jams were the best of the night.
Before then, I had gone to World Stage Performance Gallery to watch their rehearsals for Sunday's World Stage Jazz Festival to be held in the Vision Parking Lot of the historical Leimert Park. The line-up would include Phil Ranelin Jazz Ensemble, pianist Bertha Hope, violinist Yvette Devereaux, the Afro-Latin rhythms of the Estrada Brothers and The World Stage All-Stars Band featuring Charles Owens and Cornel Fauler. It's going to be a whole lotta fun and I sure will be there live, having a blast.
Opposite the venue of the festival on Sunday, August 9, 2009, is my normal hangout for a delicious rice and beans with curry flavored goat meat and oxtail at Ackee Bamboo Jamaican Restaurant owned by Marlene Beckford and whose new joint Adassa's Island will be opening soon for live entertainment, poetry and spoken word.
