The Playboy Jazz Festival’s annual ‘Jazz on Film’ night, presented by noted jazz archivist Mark Cantor, on Thursday evening, June 10th at 7:30 p.m., will celebrate the legacy of jazz with a move to a new location in Mid-City Los Angeles this year. A longtime fixture at LACMA’s Bing Theatre, the event will be held in cooperation with the Ebony Repertory Theatre at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center on Washington Boulevard. Admission is free, although tickets are required and available on a first come, first serve basis. Tickets will be available beginning at noon on June 10th at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center box office. There is a limit of 4 tickets per person.

Known for his extensive collection of rare jazz films and documentaries, Cantor will share a series of rarely seen performances celebrating some of the most important as well as the sometimes forgotten names in jazz. The Nate Holden Performing Arts Center was formerly the site of a popular Los Angeles playhouse, surrounded by the city’s top jazz clubs during Los Angeles’ golden era of jazz in the 50’s and 60’s in the heart of city. During that time, Mid-City Los Angeles (Washington Boulevard between La Brea and Crenshaw) was home to such legendary venues as the Parisian Room, The It Club, and the Hillcrest club, where many of the greatest names in jazz came to play on a regular basis.

‘Jazz on Film’ will feature archival footage of a variety of artists who appeared at these clubs, such as Thelonious Monk, Dexter Gordon and Miles Davis to name a few. There will also be film clips of performances by such notables as Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Louis Armstrong, Mel Tormè, Dinah Washington and more. As an added bonus, Playboy will also present the award-winning jazz documentary CHOPS, after Cantor’s show. The documentary follows the quest of a high school band from the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts in Florida to prove they can ‘swing’ as hard as any band in the country--a quest that puts them onstage in front of a packed house at NYC’s Jazz at Lincoln Center and its artistic director, Wynton Marsalis.

“Jazz on Film” is part of Playboy's free community event series held in conjunction with this year’s annual Playboy Jazz Festival, set for June 12th and 13th at the world famous Hollywood Bowl. For more information about the Playboy Jazz Festival and its free events, call the Festival Hotline at (310) 450-1173 or visit www.playboyjazzfestival.com.

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About ten years ago, in my capacity as Artistic Director of the Long Beach Shakespeare Company (LBSC), I was teaching in-class and after-school drama workshops at Cabrillo High School in Long Beach, Ca. The LBSC had a four-year residency there and helped start the drama program at the then-new high school. One of my prize students, Brandon Cutts, went on to get a B.A. in Theatre from the University of California at Irvine (UCI). Now 25, he is one of the lead actors in the LBSC, garnering lots of critical and popular acclaim, and he is about to make his directorial debut with the company on May 21st, with a five-week run of Lysistrata. Brandon (or "Brando," as we call him--a name he has earned with the diverse characters he has portrayed) is not only directing the play, he has also adapted it from Euripides' classic, making it a contemporary statement about gangs in Long Beach. It's still the bawdy, comic plot of the original, just given a modern setting with rock-and-roll music. Needless to say, I am very proud of all his accomplishments, but am particularly excited about this one. It's something fresh and bold for LBSC, and there is no one better to do it than Brando! It opened May 21st, and plays through June 19th. Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm. Sundays at 2pm. Info and tickets are available at lbshakespeare.org

The California State University Long Beach Concert Jazz Orchestra, under the direction of Jeff Jarvis, has just produced a brand new CD called Great Northern Express! I got to debut it on KKJZ in Long Beach, CA, and will soon be playing it on Sittin' In. Many of these players are going to go on to become important names in the jazz business!

I want to thank Theo Saunders for hipping me to a GREAT movie called All Night Long. It's a contemporary take on Othello, with a jazz score. In fact, Dave Brubeck, Charles Mingus, Tubby Hayes, Johnny Dankworth, and other jazz musicians appear in the movie as themselves and play some great music! One of my favorite actors, Patrick McGoohan, plays the Iago-type character, who is the drummer in a band led by a sort of Billy Eckstine character who represents Othello. Richard Attenborough and Keith Michell are also in the film. Dynamite!

I have people lining up to appear on the show. Violinist Lesa Terry (Clark Terry's niece) is eager to come into the studio. She just performed a tribute to Mary Lou Williams for the Mary Lou Williams Centennial in April, and wanted a chance to talk about it. And her uncle was honored at the Grammy's this past year. She'll be a very interesting guest. I just hosted a brunch with her at the Renaissance Hotel in Los Angeles and she was fabulous!

Also, Kenny Burrell called me the other day to thank me for playing him so much on KKJZ. I admitted that our last interview, recorded backstage at the Hollywood Bowl at the Gerald Wilson/Hank Jones 90th Birthday Bash, was not air-able due to interference with their wireless microphones. I so wanted to interview Kenny and he agreed to give me another chance in the first week of March... He is being honored by NARAS this week at the Grammy Museum for his 40 plus years in the biz. Look for that in upcoming shows!