The Jazz Bakery goes Grammy (Museum)

This Sunday marks the first of a planned series of tribute concert / fundraisers at the Grammy Museum for the still-homeless jazz venue, and the bakery's fans are bound to recognize some familiar faces. Guitar great and UCLA faculty member Kenny Burrell leads the way along with Hubert Laws, Alan Bergman, the Alan Broadbent Trio, Tierney Sutton, Bill Henderson and Mike Melvoin.

"Curb Your Enthusiasm's" Jeff Garlin hosts this evening, which should add some levity to what will probably be a slightly bittersweet affair given that there's no word yet on the bakery's permanent home, but fingers crossed all around. If you close your eyes while Garlin speaks you'll almost be able to hear the determined captain from "Wall-E" introducing one of the players onto the old Culver City stage, an illusion buoyed by the fact you can even hit downtown's own BottleRock after the show. Everybody wins!

-- Chris Barton

Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $40; $35 for members, and available at the museum box office. For more information, call the Jazz Bakery at (310) 271-9039.

Photo of the Jazz Bakery's old lobby by Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times

Michael Jackson fans flock to Grammy Museum exhibit

The display is a new version of the one the L.A. institution had shown since February.

Jeanne LaCroix of Woodland Hills gazed with a wistful smile at the images unspooling across two giant screens inside downtown L.A.'s Grammy Museum: a teenage Michael Jackson surrounded by his brothers as they announced the name of a winner at the 1974 Grammy Awards ceremony.

When the montage shifted to the moment 10 years later when he strode onstage in a knockout blue sequined jacket with blinding gold epaulets to collect the producer of the year trophy he shared with Quincy Jones for their work on "Thriller," LaCroix's head snapped around to the glass display case immediately behind her.

"Do they have that jacket in there?" she said to her 13-year-old daughter, Brianna.

No, but there were four other equally dazzling specimens from Jackson's spectacular wardrobe: the turquoise jacket decorated with Swarovski crystal from the Jacksons' 1984 Victory tour; a midnight blue and gold number he wore to the unveiling of his star on Hollywood Boulevard's Walk of Fame; the blood red jacket with sparkling gold piping he chose for an American Music Awards show; and the red, white, blue and gold model he put on for the United We Stand concert after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Positioned amid the glitz-heavy jackets and two sequined gloves circa 1988 -- both right-hand only -- was a simple white Hugo Boss suit. LaCroix and other visitors to the museum Wednesday were momentarily puzzled at the uncharacteristically plain outfit until they recognized it as the one Jackson wore on the cover of the "Thriller" album.

"It's amazing to see these," said a wide-eyed Michelle Wallace, on vacation in L.A. from Waverly, Iowa, with her husband, Scott, and teenage daughters Bailee and Courtney. Michelle wore a black T-shirt with Jackson's image and the words "In Loving Memory -- Michael Jackson."

Colombian music star Fonseca expresses his 'Gratitud' at the Grammy Museum

Juan Fernando Fonseca is pop powerhouse in his native Colombia. He leads a modern Latin band outfitted with electric guitars and a synthesizer. And his songs, about love, are pop confections with catchy hooks and infectious melodies — sometimes dipped in jazz and R&B. He became a pop phenomenon in his home country with his self-titled debut album in 2002. By 2006, he won a Latin Grammy for his hit song “Te Mando Flores” off his second album, “Corazon.”

Today, he wraps up a 12-city U.S. tour — which sold out nine dates — to promote his latest album, “Gratitud.”

And earlier this week, he performed at the Grammy Museum in front of roughly 200 people. The music seduced many out of their seats to dance, demonstrating why Fonseca is the first Latin artist to perform at the museum.

The 30-year-old singer-songwriter, known by his surname Fonseca, follows the trail blazed by the international success of his countryman Carlos Vives, who merged rock guitar and drums with vallenato, the fast-paced, pump-push style on the button accordion that surfaced in Colombia’s Caribbean north coast.

“There is nothing like vallenato,” Fonseca said in an interview prior to his museum performance. “It moves you. It goes through your body and makes you feel. That’s what makes music so great. When you can feel it and connect with it.”

Fonseca's profound connection with music is what led him to participate in the Canta Conmigo (Sing With Me) program last year. The musical project, co-organized by the Presidential Council for Reintegration, aims to rehabilitate former paramilitaries and guerrillas and help them reintegrate into Colombian society. Auditions were held in more than 30 cities, seeking former rebels who have a musical background. Twelve were selected to be trained as professional musicians, leading to making an album and performing a concert in April. It’s a project that Fonseca said he hoped to expand to include Colombian army soldiers.

'Amanda Leigh' gives fans Moore of Mandy at the Grammy Museum

Mandy Moore is a grown-up. The lanky girl with long blond hair singing coyly while doing eight-count steps in a parking lot about how she’s addicted to her skateboarder crush like  “Candy” is gone. She’s been replaced with a gal in skinny jeans and a cropped tuxedo jacket who likes having her tousled brunette mane in her face when she sings.

On Thursday, Moore performed a handful of folksy, retro-pop songs off her new album -- including “Pocket Philosopher” and “I Could Break Your Heart Any Day of the Week" -- before a sold-out crowd at The Grammy Museum in downtown Los Angeles.

But actually, the name's Amanda Leigh … just don’t call her that. Though her given name serves as the title of her sixth studio album -- released in late May as a follow-up to 2007’s “Wild Hope” -- it wasn’t an attempt to update her identity.

“Amanda Leigh is my given name, my legal name,” said the 25-year-old singer in a pre-performance interview with Robert Santelli, executive director of the museum. “But other than that, I really have no connection to it. I’ve been Mandy my entire life. It wasn’t one of those sort of really heady artistic decisions like, ‘I want to be taken seriously. I want this music to reflect the real me.’ I understand when artists do that, of course; this wasn’t the case. It was a bit more flippant, actually, than that. Mike Viola [co-writer and producer of the album] called me Amanda Leigh in the studio a lot and, for some reason, it stuck in my head and it was really synonymous with the time.”