This is somewhat after the fact, but I just wanted to type a few words about my recent trip to the L.A. area. My eternal thanks to Kakki for her graciousness and wonderful company. We packed alot of great night music and daytripping into a few days.
Saturday night Kakki, Rick, Brad and I had martinis at Les Deux, we adjourned to the Catalina Bar and Grill in Hollywood for dinner and the jazz Crusaders where Clark. It is always something special to hang out this this SoCal gang. The Crusaders were perfect for my music mood. Street life... The Karla Bonoff event at the El Encanto Hotel above Santa Barbara was dreamlike. Kenny Edwards, Tom Kell and Karla herself were amazing in their beautifully subdued musicianship and perfect harmonies. Such an intimate performance in a beautiful garden setting with a view. There couldn't have been more than 20 people there. I got a kick out of thinking Paz would be eating his heart out about all this quality time I was getting with list beauties Kate and Kakki. And the music...piano, guitar, mandolin and bass...enchanting and truly classic. "someone to lay down beside me," "isn't it always love" "home." Just wonderful. Talking to Karla at length after the show was a special treat, too. Sorta funny synchronic type things happened, as usual. Coyote Rick couldn't make it to SB. I thought I saw a funny look on Karla's face when I asked her to sign the CD we got for him to "Coyote Rick." I figured it must've struck her as a bit of an odd request. It wasn't till later, when I was perusing the CD liner notes on the trip back to L.A., that I read that Karla is an avid cat lover, like Joni, and that she had written a song on the CD to her beloved lost cat, like Joni, called "I'll Miss You." (Rhymes with "big boo hoo"). Karla is quoted in the liner notes as saying "I think the coyotes got him (sniff)...we have them around here." Oops. :-) Another anecdote in the liner notes talks about a song Karla wrote that Linda Ronstadt was trying to record. Karla got a call from Linda's producer who was at the studio. He was saying they need Karla to come over to the studio because they couldn't get the guitars just right. Her reply: "It's in open tuning." Monday night at the Joint was a stone groove. The guitar player in the band had recorded with Karla, coincidently. Thanks for bearing me and reading to here. I'm working on my brevity challenges. Really. I'm off to New Orleans on a red eye tonight to hang with Paz for the first weekend of the Jazz and Heritage Festival . There'll be so much music. Brian Blade is doing a tribute to Stevie Wonder in the Jazz tent, among many, many other acts. I hope to have good things to report soon. My best to one and all. -Julius
