Dave Pell (2009)

Image courtesy of the Los Angeles Times, c.1957

Hot on the heels of Marc's excellent blog about the current state of "jazz journalism", has been 2 days worth of interviews (with more to come) with Dave Pell.  I have really been digging it.  Today's interview especially really puts some aspects of the West Coast thing into perspective.  Being a native Southern Californian, I love reading about the history of the area, particularly when music is involved.  There is just something about LA that gets in you and stays there. To paraphrase someone: if you don't understand, then you just don't know.

P.S. - Don't go lookin' for the Crescendo Club on Sunset...the building was razed a long time ago.  After a successful run as a Sunset Strip jazz club in the 1950s-1960s, it became The Trip in the mid-60s hosting the likes of the Byrds (who incidentally were one of my first introductions to jazz - more on that some other time).