A few years ago the alumni magazine at University of the Pacific (UOP) asked me to write profiles of several outstanding dentists who were also accomplished artists in outside fields. One man was a professional actor in high demand on regional stages, and one woman, still an active musician, had once played violin for the New York Philharmonic. Another dentist was a master watercolorist, and another a symphony choir singer.
But the one who stood out most in my mind was a 35-year-old jazz guitarist who split his week among long sessions at a private dental practice, then administering a program at UOP, and performing at night as a solo-gig artist and occasional trio member at private functions.
As we talked he said that he’d originally started as a rock guitarist, intrigued like any young man by the power of rock’s signature instrument to pound out driving cords and rhythms, to say nothing of its girl-attracting powers. But, he confessed, there came a point when rock no longer satisfied. “It became repetitive, with the same chords and notes in predictable combinations.”
Looking for an alternative, he began listening to such jazz guitar greats as Wes Montgomery and Al Dimeola. The technical aspects of jazz – its variety, spontaneity and tonality – impressed him. He soon picked up a jazz guitar and never looked back.
His decision is one that few guitarists make these days. Rock ‘n’ roll, God bless it, “has swept this whole wide land, sinkin’ deep in the heart of man,” and is unlikely to ever be dethroned by jazz. But jazz persists, a small but powerful companion stream of music that surprisingly is more likely to add its flavor to rock than the other way around whenever the occasional breach lets the two momentarily mingle.
So, it seems fitting that a jazz festival would take place on an island that, like the music it hosts, is both an essential part of the place it belongs to yet is set apart. The festival is the Catalina Island JazzTrax Festival, which will take place over three weekends in Avalon, 26 miles from Los Angeles Harbor, October 5-20, at the town’s fabled art deco Casino Ballroom.
The concerts will take place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings, as well as Saturday and Sunday afternoons. The artists who will appear show how vast jazz has become, ranging from trumpeter Greg Adams, formerly the arranger of funk band Tower of Power’s percussion section, to jazz guitarists Strunz & Farah, to saucy young saxophone player Mindi Abair, to Latin jazz drummer, arranger and perennial Pete Escovedo.
The venue, the Avalon Casino Ballroom, is one of the most distinctive landmarks in California. Its carefully restored and maintained art deco interior is sumptuous, with all of the flowing forms, bright, contrasting colors, sculpture-like sconces and dramatically backlit spaces that make art deco so appealing even 70 years after its heyday.
Now in its 16th year, the festival has a smooth, accomplished air about it. Its web site (see the URL at the bottom of this article) is well organized, information-rich (seating charts, downloadable order forms) and linked to virtually any useful site a visitor to Catalina might need, such as travel packages and ferry tickets.
Festival organizers know that Catalina Island will exert as much of a draw as their line-up of guest performers. The island has always been a part of the romance of Southern California, a not-to-distant retreat where solitude, quiet and a touch of wildness contrasts with the mainland’s hectic, crowded pace.
In the late 1950s, the Four Preps climbed the pop charts with “26 Miles,” a paean to Catalina that was very catchy but also wildly inaccurate. With such lyrics as, “A tropical heaven out in the ocean, covered with trees and girls,” the boys got it almost all wrong. The island is Mediterranean, not tropical, and the “trees” are California’s classic low-profile chaparral dwarf forest. There are occasional groves of pine and eucalyptus, but certainly no forests. The land is hilly and steep, climbing as high as 2,000 feet, and the beaches can get socked in fog. What makes it attractive (along with the girls that “cover” Avalon’s main drag) is its accessibility and rugged, mountainous profile.
During the Ice Age, Catalina was joined, along with its sister members of the Channel Islands group, to mainland California. Later, after the seas rose as the glaciers melted, the islands were cut off. Native Americans settled the island about 7,000 years ago, living abundantly off fish and birds, and using the island’s oil-rich chaparral for cooking fuel.
Since the arrival of the Spanish, Mexicans and Americans, Catalina has been used variously as a smuggling entrepot, otter hunting ground, land-grant cattle ranch, mining site, campground, movie lot, private estate and, now, resort and nature preserve. In the 1920s, the Wrigley family of chewing gum fame took ownership of the island. The Wrigleys constructed the casino in 1929 (which never became a gambling site but did become one of the best-known ballrooms in America), and began running buffalo on the 75-square-mile island’s interior. The beasts served a dual function as targets for hunters who’d pay to pursue them, and as extras in various Hollywood movies that were filmed on Catalina because of its virtually pristine “Old California” look.
In the 1970s, the Nature Conservancy and the Wrigleys reached an agreement where almost 90% of the island would be ceded to the environmental group as a nature preserve. In the years since, the Nature Conservancy has labored to restore the island to its pre-European condition. Non-native species, both plant and animal, have been removed or eradicated. (The buffalo remain, but are kept at a controlled number to minimize their effect on the landscape.)
All of this effort has created a place that easily rates a two-day visit. Catalina’s port town of Avalon, a one-square-mile village that curves around its namesake bay and climbs back into the hills is Southern California’s version of an Italian or French Riviera fishing village. Within view of the casino at the north end of the harbor, visitors to Avalon can hire a fishing boat, go parasailing, take a glass-bottomed tour boat, shop (there are many artists in Avalon), eat at restaurants that run from simple fuel stops to haute cuisine, rent bicycles or amble around the waterfront.
Beyond Avalon there’s the Wrigley botanical garden, horseback riding, golf, mountain biking and guided Nature Conservancy jeep tours into the island interior. At the opposite end of the island, facing west toward the Pacific, is Two Harbors, Catalina’s “other town.” Two Harbors is a small settlement with resort and fishing facilities that is a great destination for sailors coming up from Avalon or out from Los Angeles. It can also be reached overland from Avalon.
So, it seems fitting that a jazz festival would take place on an island that, like the music it hosts, is both an essential part of the place it belongs to yet is set apart. The festival is the Catalina Island JazzTrax Festival, which will take place over three weekends in Avalon, 26 miles from Los Angeles Harbor, October 5-20, at the town’s fabled art deco Casino Ballroom. 