Los Angeles – the City of Los Angeles Presents Jazz at St. Andrews Recreation Center, hosted by City Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Southwest Neighborhood Council and Assemblymember Autumn Burke.
This hot Summer Jazz Festival was held on Sunday, July 1, 2018. The return of Jazz at St. Andrews Recreation Center has also been dubbed Function at the Junction.
Several thousand people gathered at St. Andrews Recreation Center for a relaxing afternoon of jazz, R&B and soul music. A mosaic of colorful blankets, chairs, umbrella’s and canopies dotted across the grass.
Radio Personality James Janisse returned to serve as Master of Ceremony. Board member Brent Page greeted and welcomed the crowd to this family friendly event on this awesome afternoon in Southern California. Dr. Turner Roberts got the festival underway with an Opening Prayer.
The live musical portion of the festival got going with a dynamic set of straight ahead jazz provided by the Michael Session Quintet. The group was led by Michael Session on saxophone, Maia-flute/harp, Zekkereya El-Magharbal-trombone, Tateng Katindig-keyboards, Trevvor Ware-bass and Mekela Session-drums. People were bopping and swaying throughout the grounds of the Recreation Center on the tunes “Double Up” by Lee Morgan, “Road to Cairo,” “Pretty Eyes” by Horace Silver with Maia on vocals. They concluded their tight set with two tunes by the late great Nate Morgan pianist/composer, “Dred Scott,” and “Donde a la Shea?”
The Elliott Caine Quintet continued in a straight-ahead mode with a crowd pleasing set of all originals on the tunes “Le Super Cool,” “La Resentencia,” and a Latin tinged “La Verdad es La Verdad” to name a few. The band consisted of Elliott Caine-trumpet/flugle horn, Scot Gilmon-tenor sax, Rick Olsen-piano, Trevvor Ware double duties on bass, and Kenny Elliott-drums.
The crowd got livelier and were getting their groove on during the captivating performance by Keschia Potter, on alto saxophone. Keschia Potter played material fro her latest CD Rebirth of the Soul- The Awakening. The crowd was able to connect and rekindle their souls throughout her high-octane set on the tunes “Happy People” by Kenny Garrett, “Mo Better Blues,” “Knocks Me Off My Feet” by Stevie Wonder, “Free to Be” by Keschia Potter featuring talented vocalist Maiya Sykes, “Crazy,” and a tight arrangement of “Winelight” by Grover Washington Jr.
Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson presented former NBA great Norm Nixon for the engaging basketball clinic for the youth of the community.
R&B/soul group Switch took the crowd down memory lane with some of their popular hits from their catalog. The crowd was up and dancing and singing along to the following songs “There’ll Never Be,” “Call Your Name,” “I Wanna Be With You,” “Love Over & Over Again” to name a few.
R&B soul Balladeer/Crooner Kenny Lattimore closed out the 3rd Annual Jazz at St. Andrews Recreation Center with a wonderful set featuring tunes from his latest CD as well as past favorites.
This year’s festival was made possible by the generous donations of the following sponsors Assemblymember Autumn Burke, Brotherhood Crusade, Empowerment Congress Southwest Area, Farmer John, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles Parks and Recreation and Los Angeles City Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson.
Ricky Richardson is a Southern California based music reviewer, writer and Photographer. Contact him via: [email protected]
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