Angel City Jazz Festival lineup looks global for its 2015 lineup

The Angel City Jazz Festival has announced its lineup for its 2015 installment, and much like Los Angeles, it’s a sprawling affair.

Spanning the city with 13 performances in seven venues from Sept. 25 to Oct. 11, the festival again offers a mix of local and international ensembles, hitting the beloved Little Tokyo jazz incubator the Blue Whale as well as stages in Santa Monica, Northridge, downtown L.A. and Hollywood.

Leading the lineup is adventurous vocalist and frequent Steve Coleman collaborator Jen Shyu, who will perform in a group with celebrated trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and violinist Mat Maneri at the Barnsdall Gallery Theater on Oct. 3. On the bill with Shyu’s group are pianist Motoko Honda and multi-instrumentalist Vanessa Anh Vo.

Maneri will also appear at the Blue Whale with Romanian-born pianist Lucian Ban on Oct. 1 in a reprise of the duo’s “Transylvanian Concert,” which was released last year on ECM records. The West Coast’s Empty Cage Quartet will join them. Cuban saxophonist Yosvany Terry, Thelonious Monk Institute saxophonist Josh Johnson and local bandleader Jon Armstrong will also perform during the festival.

Also of note are performances by Berkeley-based bassist (and curator of the Hammer Museum’s reliably excellent JazzPOP concert series) Lisa Mezzacappa leading a multimedia song cycle on a night that also features the Mark Dresser Quartet, local drummer Alex Cline backed by his guitarist brother Nels and Cibo Matto’s Yuka Honda in a piece dedicated to Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, and Grammy-nominated pianist John Beasley with his big band MONK’estra.

The festival began in 2008 in a collaboration with Angel City Arts and the still-itinerant Jazz Bakery, which is still working toward a permanent home in Culver City. Tickets will go on sale on Aug. 1 at angelcityjazz.com.

The full lineup:

Sept. 25, LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Blvd. (presented in association with LACMA)

6 p.m. Winners of the Angel City Jazz Young Artist Competition; 7 p.m. The Miguel Atwood Ferguson Ensemble

Sept 26, REDCAT, 631 W. 2nd St.

8 p.m. Lisa Mezzacappa’s Glorious Ravage, 9:30 p.m. Mark Dresser Quintet.

Oct 1, The Blue Whale, 123 Astronaut E. S. Onizuka St., Suite 301.

9 p.m, Lucian Ban & Mat Maneri’s Transylvanian Concert; 10:30 p.m., The Empty Cage Quartet,

Oct. 2, The Ann & Jerry Moss Theatre at the Herb Alpert Educational Village, 3131 Olympic Blvd., Santa Monica (presented by the Jazz Bakery)

8:00 pm. Yosvany Terry & Baptiste Trotignon’s Ancestral Memories Quartet

Oct. 3, Barnsdall Gallery Theatre, 4800 Hollywood Blvd. (presented as part of the Ford on the Road Series)

8 p.m., Motoko Honda & Vanessa Ahn Vo, 9:30 p.m. Jen Shyu’s Jade Tongue with Ambrose Akinmusire & Mat Maneri

Oct. 9, The Edye at the Broad Stage, 1310 11th St., Santa Monica (presented in association with the L.A. Jazz Society)

8 p.m., Jon Armstrong’s “Burnt Hibiscus” featuring Sheela Bringi; 9:30 p.m., Josh Johnson’s UNREST: Confronting Collective Memories

Oct. 10, Musician Institute Theatre, 6752 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood (presented by the Jazz Bakery)

8 p.m., The Thelonious Monk Institute Jazz Performance Ensemble, 9 p.m. John Beasley’s MONK’estra

Oct. 11, Plaza del Sol at the Valley Performing Arts Center, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge

7:30 p.m., Alex Cline Flower Garland Orchestra performing “Oceans of Vows”

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