2015 Santa Monica Twilight Concert Series

SEPT S EP E P T 3, 3, 2015 2 01 5 20

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FREE R E E THURSDAY THU T HURS SD DAY N I G HT HT S NIGHTS

PM

PM att The a Th e Santa S a nta Monica Mo on n iic ca P Pier ier

REBIRTH R EB E BIR RTH RT TH T H BR B R ASS AS AS SS S BAND BA BA BAN AN ND ND wii tth w h Miles M iile l e s Mosley M o s l e y and an a nd n d The Th he e Wes W es e s t C o as a s t G et e t D own ow wn n

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Table of contents TCS HISTORY

REBIRTH BRASS BAND

FLASH BACK

P6

P10

P14-15

EVENT MAP

BAND BIOS

P8-9

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2015 TWILIGHT CONCERT SERIES

NEW ORLEANS BRASS

INDIE POP

WEEK 9 ~ SEPTEMBER 3

WEEK 10 ~ SEPTEMBER 10

REBIRTH BRASS BAND

TUNE-YARDS with AVID DANCER

with MILES MOSLEY AND THE WESTCOAST GET DOWN

'SFF 1SPHSBNT Beach=Culture Events Marion Davies Guest House Docent Tours • Art Gallery Cardboard Yacht Regatta: Aug 29 4VNNFS

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TCS builds on its sense of history

SAVE THE PIER! THE PLAY TO BE PRESENTED ON SANTA MONICA PIER oday, the Santa Monica Pier and its events, tenants, services are an iconic destination, but there was a time when the complete destruction of the pier was a possibility.

It has been almost 45 years since the fight to save the Santa Monica Pier began. There was a plan by the Santa Monica City Council to build a 35-acre artificial island out in Santa Monica Bay, then build a bridge to the island and tear down the pier.

This free one-hour play will bring to life the many colorful characters that were involved in the fight to save the Santa Monica Pier and the challenges they had getting the city council to save the pier. The play will take place outdoors on October 16, 17 & 18, 2015, at the end of the Santa Monica Pier.

The director of the play is Paul Sand, long-time Santa Monica resident and Tony Award winning actor.

Playwright is James Harris, the Deputy Director of the Santa Monica Pier and author of the book Santa Monica Pier: A Century on the Last Great Pleasure Pier. Jim Harris got interested in the pier fight of the 1970’s when writing this book, especially since so many of the participants were still around to interview.

The story of the fight to save the pier revolves around the two major groups on the pier, working independently, to rally the citizens to stop the city council’s proposal. Both groups had their share of interesting people such as Jack Sikking the political mastermind for the group based in Al’s Kitchen, a man that walked away from his life in Hollywood managing The Troubadour to manage Al’s and engage everyone in the restaurant to join the battle.

The other group was a group of pier merchants with spunky Diana Cherman as their visible leader creating petitions and confronting the city council at their meetings.

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t all started with a storm and a 60-foot by 80 foot circus tent.

Some thirty years later, the Twilight Concert Series is nearly unrecognizable from its earliest incarnation and even the name has evolved.

Originally coined the Twilight Dance Series — a dance floor inlaid the small tent where the first concerts were held — the shows began in 1985 as push to bring people back to the Santa Monica Pier, which had been damaged by storms earlier in the decade.

The first show brought 300 or so people to the tent to listen to the 17-piece Rhythm

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Kings big band, according to Katharine King who organized the event for more than 25 years.

“It grew from 300 pretty quickly,” King said. “It grew by word-of-mouth and by the end of the summer it was probably a couple thousand.”

The tent hung around for about five years, until they outgrew it. The dance floor made it another couple years after that, King said, before it just started getting in the way.

“It was always an ode to the La Monica Ballroom way back when,” King said.

“There was always dancing on the pier in the big

band era. The La Monica Ballroom could fit 2,500 couples — 5,000 people.”

The ballroom, which hosted a 50,000-person grand opening in 1924, was knocked down in 1963.

“We tried to keep that spirit alive for as long as we could,” King said. “But then it got so crowded that maybe once or twice a year we laid a parquet dance floor for swing night or salsa night.”

When Bo Diddley played the series in 1990, there was no space for a dance floor. A record-breaking 20,000-person crowd showed up, King said. The 1990 series was par-

ticularly well-attended and King toned the acts down in 1991 to avoid large crowds.

Attendance dipped over the next few years but then began to rise again.

King has loads of stories about near disasters. Tito Puente showed up late and drunk to one show. Mavis Staples’ band got stuck at the airport and so Staples was backed by the opening band.

As the pier grew, King would have to adapt. When Diddley played in 1990 there was no Pacific Park and the whole pier was wide open.

“Every year I’d go out with my measuring tape and figure out where we were going to build the stage,” she said.

The beach scene, she said, started about 12 years ago.

Baaba Maal, a Senegalese musician, was one of her alltime favorite acts.

“The first time he played I was just blown away,” she said. “Then there are the people I just like so much personally, like Queen Ida and people like Bo Diddley. Poncho Sanchez is just a wonderful person.”

King enjoyed attending the concerts as much as setting them up.

“My whole attraction to it was that it was a real ritual,” King said. “It still is although the whole tenor has changed in recent years. It’s still the kind of thing where people have meeting places. It’s a true town square. Everyone has there way of doing it. They have their secret parking places. Whether you ride, you bike, or park somewhere, you know where you find your friends.”

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The am-brass-adors of New Orleans avid Simon, the former newspaper crime reporter who created the critically acclaimed “The Wire” television drama, puts a premium on authenticity. So back when he started making “Treme,” another HBO show about New Orleans musicians in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, he turned to one of the city’s most veteran ensembles to introduce the city’s essence to viewers.

“The first episode, in that very first scene, you’re looking at the Rebirth Brass Band,” says Keith Frazier, one of the group’s founding members. “It’s always been a city where music and culture are important.”

With more than 30 years of experience, Rebirth can be trusted as an ambassador of the New Orleans sound when it arrives at the Santa Monica Pier for the Twilight Concert Series on Sept. 3.

The group’s brand of traditional brass is infused with contemporary elements of jazz, funk, hip-hop and reggae, yielding a vibe that has resonated with listeners for decades.

“It’s lively, it’s upbeat and it makes you want to dance,” Frazier says. “We do everything. It’s not strictly New Orleans jazz. We incorporate all different genres into our music.”

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The band’s catalogue is extensive and multidimensional, which could create problems when building a set list. But the Rebirth Brass Band sidesteps the issue altogether, reading the audience in an improvisational approach that makes live concerts even more enjoyable for the members of the group.

“We have a few songs ready and take it from there,” Frazier says. “You don’t want to get bogged down with a list of songs. This makes it really spontaneous and exciting. The audience doesn’t know what we’re going to do.

We don’t even know what we’re going to do.”

But while Rebirth might not know what it’s going to do, it knows what it’s doing. The group won its first Grammy award in 2012 with “Rebirth of New Orleans,” and last year’s follow-up “Move Your Body” builds on a discography that spans more than three decades.

The band has played on the streets of the French Quarter and at festivals around the globe, performing alongside the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Grateful Dead, among many others. “just saw THE REBIRTH BRASS BAND, unbelievable,” Chili Peppers bassist Flea tweeted in 2012. “hard as hell, free as a

ray of light, there is not a band on earth that is better. stunning.”

For Frazier, who founded the band with his brother Phil and then-trumpeter Kermit Ruffins, building on the rich tradition of New Orleans jazz is a blessing and an honor. All members of the band were born and raised in New Orleans.

And with so many players in the group bringing riffs and rhythms to their jam sessions, a democratic process is important.

“One person comes up with an idea, and then we ask for the other guys’ opinions,” Frazier says. “We try to make it a collective effort. That guides every song that we do, pretty much.”

As for the key to Rebirth’s longevity, Frazier says it’s a mental approach that the group has honed over the years.

“Treating every gig like it’s the first one,” he says. “We want to make it feel like the first time all the time.”

At least some elements of the pier show will feel fresh for Rebirth, which has played in the Los Angeles area on several occasions but which Frazier says has never performed for a live crowd in Santa Monica. The group’s West Coast swing also includes dates in Northern California, Portland and Seattle in early September.

Of course, there will also be a special place in Rebirth’s collective heart for New Orleans. Members of the band were in different cities when Katrina hit, including Dallas, Houston and Memphis, but the hurricane’s impact continues to weigh on current and former residents of the so-called Crescent City.

“A lot of people are still displaced, and they can’t come back because the cost of living has skyrocketed,” Frazier says.

Frazier says Katrina did not necessarily have a direct effect on the band’s music but that it forced the musicians to change their perspective.

“It made us take our music a lot more seriously,” he says.

Of course, that doesn’t mean it won’t make you dance.

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2015 Twilight Concert Series bios NEW ORLEANS BRASS

WEEK 9 ~ SEPTEMBER 3

REBIRTH BRASS BAND with MILES MOSLEY AND THE WESTCOAST GET DOWN The Grammy Award winning NOLA soundtrack straight from the streets of Treme.

Rebirth Brass Band have continued their innovative, contemporary approach to New Orleans music following up 2012's The Grammy Award winning album Rebirth of New Orleans with 2014's Move Your Body which was released on Basin Street Records this past June. Since its release, the record hit #1 and has been at the top of both the CMJ & Jazz Week Radio charts. Whether seen on HBO's Treme or at their legendary Tuesday night gig at The Maple Leaf, Rebirth Brass Band is a true New Orleans institution.

Formed in 1983 by the Frazier brothers, the band has evolved from playing the streets of the French Quarter to playing festivals and stages all over the world. While committed to upholding the tradition of brass bands, they also extended into the realms of funk and hip hop to create their signature soul moving sound. Their signature brand of heavy funk has not only won over several generations of music lovers, it has become the soundtrack to an entire city.

Rebirth Brass Band's album “Rebirth of New Orleans” earned them the title of the first brass band ever to win a Grammy. ”Rebirth of New Orleans” reached #9 on the Billboard Jazz Chart and #1 on the CMJ Jazz Charts.

Rebirth has several cameos on the hit HBO series Treme as well as many soundtrack contributions.

Rebirth Brass Band has shared the stage with Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Grateful Dead, The Meters, The P Funk All Stars, Maceo Parker, Dr. John, The Ohio Players, Ani DiFranco

INDIE POP

WEEK 10 ~ SEPTEMBER 10

TUNE-YARDS with AVID DANCER Merrill Garbus has performed as tUnEyArDs since 2009, and that band name has always been synonymous with forward movement — whether because of her explosive performance style or the alwayssurprising way in which her songs unfold.

First gaining notice with the debut BiRdBrAiNs, Garbus forged a reputation as a SEE BIOS PAGE 13

REBIRTH BRASS BAND

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BIOS FROM PAGE 12 formidable live presence through relentless touring. In 2011, tUnE-yArDs released its second album, w h o k i l l, a startling and sonically adventurous statement that led to a whirlwind period where Garbus and bassist Nate Brenner accrued accolades from critics, performed in front of increasing numbers of rapturous crowds around the world, and collaborated with the likes of Yoko Ono and ?uestlove.

Callbacks to the past are all over Nikki Nack, the bands third album. Garbus’s vocal performance on ‘Wait For A Minute’ recalls Quiet Storm balladry, and the song also contains a direct callback to her own past: A wobbly keyboard line provided by a Casio she received as a gift when she was nine years old. ‘Left Behind’ is underscored by a jittery nostalgia, the playground chant from which the album’s title is taken eventually giving way to a chorus where Garbus’s voice is masked by glossyyet tarnished production that brings to mind the radio reigns of Lisa Lisa and En Vogue.

Nikki Nack has uncertainty about both the past and the future, but that’s in keeping with Garbus’s overall aesthetic of constantly questioning and burrowing for a “new way,” tempered by the joy that goes hand in hand with new discoveries.

AVID DANCER

TUNE-YARDS

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Flash back INDIE POP

WEEK 7 ~ AUGUST 20

ARIEL PINK with THE MYNABIRDS

Marina del Rey

Historic Harbor Tours

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CONTEST IS NOW THROUGH SEP. 9TH Just go into one of our locations and fill out an entry form. The winner will be notified and invited to the September, Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce Mixer and presented with their new wheels!

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July 3 – September 7, 2015 In celebration of Marina del Rey’s 50th birthday, the Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors is offering Historic Harbor Tours this summer!

FRIDAYS: 11AM • 12PM • 1PM SATURDAYS, SUNDAYS & LABOR DAY: 10AM • 11AM • 12PM • 1PM

$1.00 PER GUEST • 45-minute tour narrated by vessel captain • Information about Marina del Rey landmarks, history, amenities, and recreational opportunities • A look at marina animals and seabirds • Adult beverages, soft drinks, and snacks, as well as books from the Marina del Rey Historical Society, available for purchase

TICKET BOOTH & BOARDING LOCATION: Hornblower Cruises & Events • 13755 Fiji Way Marina del Rey, CA 90292

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Flash back INDIE POP

WEEK 8 ~ AUGUST 27

JEFFERSON STARSHIP with PURPLE MOUNTAINS MAJESTIES ~ RUSTY'S EAC WINNER

SUSTAINABLE

SANTA MONICA SEPTEMBER EVENTS

Sept 12

Sept 26

Wellbeing/Buy Local Festival

Citywide Yard Sale

Civic Parking Lot 11a-4p

Citywide, times vary

Sept 12-20

Sept 30

Buy Local/Give Local Week

DamNation – A Sustainable Movie

buylocalsm.com/events

Aero Theater (1328 Montana Ave) 7:30p

Sept 18-19

All Month

10th Annual Alt Car Expo

Social Media Photo Contest

Civic Parking Lot 10a–5p

We want to see how you are sustainable.

Win prizes.

Sept 19 Coastal Clean-up Day Santa Monica Beach near Pier 9a–noon

Facebook: @SustainableSantaMonica Twitter: @sustainableSM Instagram: @sustainableSM

Sept 24 2015 Green Prize for Sustainable Literature presents Paul and Anna Cummins : A Father and Daughter in Conversation Santa Monica Main Library 7p

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