Jane Monheit loves L.A. and the Catalina Jazz Club, and that's no snow job

Ordinarily, neither wind, sleet nor snow could  prevent Jane Monheit from showing up for a scheduled concert. But the monster blizzard that blasted New York, New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania and other parts of the United States over the holidays was no middling cold front.

So, like tens of thousands of other would-be travelers, the 33-year-old jazz singer has spent the last few days trying to book a flight out of the New York area. She was supposed to play an extended gig, starting Tuesday night, at the Catalina Jazz Club but had to cancel the first of her scheduled performances there -- an experience that, she said, was as disappointing as it was unprecedented for her and her trio.

"We've played that club as much as we've played any club in the world," she said Tuesday, speaking by cellphone from an intreprid SUV bearing Monheit and several family members on a grocery-shopping expedition, their first since being snowed in on Christmas Eve at her parents' Long Island home.

"It's the jazz club in L.A.," she continued. "Has been for years. A lot of great singers have come through there." As for Los Angeles, Monheit said, it's "really a second home in a lot of ways."

Read more on Monheit's thoughts about L.A.'s jazz scene and her latest album, "Home." And if you're a jazz aficionado, keep your fingers crossed that the dodgy weather descending on L.A. this week doesn't once again put a damper on Monheit's travel plans.

-- Reed Johnson

Photo: Jane Monheit. Credit: Vincent Soyez

 

Comments

[Quasimodo]

Love the decolletage, but can someone fix the eyebrows?

[Donald Frazell]

Actually, while Catalina has been one of the two true jazz clubs in lA for decades now, the Jazz bakery has alway been the singers place, as Ruth Price is a singer. Nina Simone, Mose Allison, Oscar Lee Brown and many others were there, though i have heard Carmen McRae and perhaps my favorite, Betty Carter at Catalinas. Back in the day it was Martha's or the Parisian Room for singers, now apost office while players went to Concerts by the Sea and the Lighthouse.

We need at least two jazz clubs so we get choices, but pople gotta grow up past this pop fluff. Two generations have wasted their time on pop whores like Beyonce, who markets her striptease to preteens, not adults as a Tina Turner used to. We need that too, but music is as corrupt as art is now, the producers run all, and their funds have been cut to their are grabbing every morsel they can, even when totally immoral, as the vermin they are.

We need adult music, but that is up to us to grow up. our problems come form us, not the government. We need to be responsible, commited, and sacrifice. Words unheard of for decades in our entittled time.