laveleejazzclub

Imagine eating your favorite Mediterranean dish of Spanakopita, along with stuffed grape leaves, pita and humus and then suddenly having the urge to get up and do the Samba. If you have every had the pleasure of hearing live music played by such legends as Sheila E. and her father Peter Escovedo dueling it out on percussion, alongside Peter Michael and Freddie Ravel, at La Ve Lee Jazz Club, then you have no doubt had all of your five senses stimulated…at once.

What sets La Ve Lee apart from many other Jazz venues are several things. Its ambiance is a throwback to the days when musicians like Miles Davis would perform for an intimate gathering in his East Village loft in New York City. There’s nothing grandiose about La Ve Lee. It’s Jazz music, with a little Salsa and Brasilian thrown in, as it was meant to be heard. Although the acoustics are a cut above the majority of clubs in the area, the experience of being so close to the band that you can actually touch them is the first thing that makes La Ve Lee unique. Sit at their long bar and tap your foot on the barstool or at a table that hugs the stage and either way, you are up close and personal with some of Jazz music’s heavy hitters.

Dark on Sundays and Mondays, La Ve Lee Jazz Club is open Tuesday thru Saturday from 7:00 to 1:00 a.m. However, these are loose hours. If you are around for the last set of the evening, you’re not leaving at 1:00 a.m. If you’ve seen many a live gig, you know that just as a musician is just hitting his or her stride, regardless of the time, no clock is going to pull him or her off that stage. Can you even imagine asking Ricky Lawson, in the middle of his drum solo to “exit stage left?” Call the babysitter. This is going to be another late night for you!

The dress code can best be described as casual chic. While no suit and tie are required of its patrons, please don’t show up in a holey pair of Levi’s. A trendy pair of jeans is fine, but keep in mind that Jazz is by nature classier than Rock and Roll. Thinking back to the days when Jazz was just getting its footing, seeing these cats on stage, they often wore their best suits. Even today as rock musicians are donning their best rags, singers like Brenda Russell and Kátia Moraes or saxophonist Michael Paolo are dressed in something sophisticated and elegant when they’re performing at La Ve Lee Jazz Club.

Reservations are strongly recommended. This venue is as popular as it is small and intimate. Whether it’s a Tuesday or a Saturday night, if you want to guarantee being able to hear Marcus Miller, Steve Tavaglione, Daryl Hayott, Vinx or Scott Kinsey, you will want to call ahead and get your name on the list.

If you are wondering whether this is the same La Ve Lee Jazz Club where you saw Latin Jazz Super Star “El Rey” Tito Puente and Jazz Fusion’s Jaco Pastorius perform, you would be correct. Over the last 25 years, the list of famous singers, piano players, bassists, drummers and percussionists who’ve graced her stage is both long and extremely impressive.

Located at 12514 Ventura Boulevard in Studio City, California. Their phone number is: 818-980-8158.

For an opportunity to eat the best humus and hear live music performed by some of the most extraordinary in Jazz, Latin Jazz, Samba and occasionally Rock n Roll, call La Ve Lee Jazz Club today.

Try as you might, it is impossible to put the musician and composer Vinx into a box. Some call him a Jazz artist, others call him Afro-Cuban, and still others might see him as a little Pop mixed with a little Rock and a lot of soul. Whatever box you want to place him in, it may work for the moment, until you hear the next song on the album you’re listening to.

This is probably why he’s toured and recorded with everyone from Wayne Shorter, Sting, Sting, Sheryl Crow, Teena Marie, Brenda Russell, Taj Mahal, Branford Marsalis, Roscoe Lee Brown, Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Hornsby, B.B. King, Herbie Hancock and Stevie Wonder. If you were to try and lump him into one genre of music based on the aforementioned list of “heavy hitters” who have requested his percussive talents and beautiful singing voice, given that they all appeal to such different audiences, you’d be hard pressed.

It would figure that the man who can’t be boxed into one musical genre can lay claim to two full names – born Leslie Jackson Parette, Jr., he also goes by the name Vincent D’jon Parette. And so to distinguish him from his father, the late Leslie Jackson Parette, Sr. whom he credits as being his greatest musical influence, it’s just easier to call him Vinx.

Vinx didn’t, however, start out as a singer, percussionist and arranger. Accepted into Kansas State University on a track scholarship, Vinx had his eyes on becoming an athlete. Unfortunately, for every event that he won, he attracted the type of attention nobody wants – hatred and envy. Fueled by racism, a group of people (to this author’s knowledge, Vinx hasn’t publicly accused anyone) burned down the houses of his neighbor and his family’s. Severely burned by the fire, it all but ended his hopes of being a professional athlete. Determined as he was, Vinx three years later would return to make the world’s second longest leap in the triple jump; qualifying him for the Moscow Olympics of 1980. However, politics got in the way of realizing his Olympic dream when President Jimmy Carter boycotted the US’s participation in the games that year.

Vinx, who had dabbled in deejaying in College, moved to Los Angeles and while working as a personal trainer to several celebrities, caught the attention of Ernie Watts who was just headed to the studio to record. And the rest, as “they” say, is history. Calls started coming in from artists such as Rickie Lee Jones, Herbie Hancock, Sting and numerous others. The next thing you know, he’s recording album after album, touring around the world and being asked to perform at the prestigious Montreaux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, where he was sandwiched between Miles Davis and Wayne Shorter.

When Vinx isn’t in the studio recording (he has 7 solo CDs to his credit, along with hundreds of collaborative efforts), he teaches at the Berklee School of Music.

It’s no surprise that Vinx has performed seven times at La Ve Lee Jazz Club. Each time, although build as a solo act, you just never know who would share the stage with him. With a résumé as impressive as his and with all the people who ask him to record and tour with them, several people have made cameo appearances with him.

If you aren’t already “hip” to Vinx, by all means, download, Rooms in My Fatha’s House, I Love My Job, The Storyteller, Lips Stretched Out, etc. etc. And after you have listened to his music, see how many boxes you check when trying to categorize him.

Whether or not you listen and can appreciate Latin Music, be it Salsa, Latin Jazz, Samba, Merengue or Cumbia, you’ve likely at least heard of percussionist Tito Puente. Born on April 20, 1923, in Harlem, New York City, to Ernest and Ercilia Puente, both native Puerto Ricans, Puente has a musical career that spanned over 50 years before his death on June 1, 2000. With over 60 albums to his credit, several of which were released posthumously, it’s no wonder he received five Grammy Awards and two Latin Grammy Awards. Three years after he died, his estate was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

After serving three years in the US Navy during World War II, Puente was honorably discharged in 1945 with a Presidential Commendation having served in nine battles. Accepted to the prestigious Julliard School of Music in Manhattan, he received a Bachelor’s in conducting, orchestration and theory.

As Afro-Cuban music was beginning to take root outside of the Caribbean, Puente was at the forefront of this movement. Responsible for helping to introduce the world to such unique sounds as the cha-cha-cha and the mambo, indeed until his death, many assumed him to be Cuban. The fact that he recorded numerous singles and two full length records with the Queen of Salsa Celia Cruz, is likely another reason why people thought he was Cuban, as was she.

Among the myriad of awards Tito Puente garnered in his lifetime, they include:

In Luis Muñoz Marín Park, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, an amphitheatre was named in his honor (a double honor, given what Sr. Luis Muñoz Marin means to Puerto Rico – who was the beloved first Governor of the Caribbean island, as well as an accomplished poet).

For the 1996 Summer Olympics held in Atlanta, Georgia, Tito Puente performed at the closing ceremonies. This is as much a statement about the politics of the day; given the sometimes ill will that Americans have held for those of any Latin culture.

In 1990 Puente received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He was then garnered with the National Medal of Arts Award in 1997. And then in 2005, Union City, NJ honored him with a star on their walk of Fame in the park named after Celia Cruz.

Four documentaries have been produced about El Rey, which he can add to his most famous concert footage when he played at the Montreal Jazz Festival – “Live in Montreal”.

But arguably the most notable of all the recognition Mr. Puente has garnered, it surely must be his numerous guest appearances on the beloved animated program, The Simpsons. Having an opportunity to show of his comical side, the episodes Puente appeared on had extremely Nielson Ratings.

Numerous times during his career Tito Puente performed at La Ve Lee Jazz Club. Every single appearance was sold out and standing room only. Hopefully you were among the fortunate to see him in such an intimate setting. Although Puente has performed in myriad of larger settings, there is nothing quite like seeing him so close, you can touch him. The world owes a debt of gratitude to the genius behind El Rey del Timbal.