The 2023 Jewel City Concert Series, formerly known as the 222 East Concert Series, will take place at the Artsakh Paseo (127 N. Artsakh Ave., Glendale 91206) from Sept. 30 through Oct. 28.
The series of five free concerts will take place on Saturday evenings at 5 p.m., featuring Southern California musicians. Performances run approximately 60 minutes without intermission. While seating is not provided, visitors are welcome to bring a chair.
The concerts are sponsored by the Glendale Arts and Culture Commission through funding from the Urban Art Program, with support from Glendale Library, Arts & Culture. Visit GlendaleArtsandCulture.org/JewelCityConcertSeries for more information.
- Sept. 30, 5 p.m. — Louis Van Taylor Band, led by Saxophonist Louis Van Taylor, has been a staple of the funk music scene. Best known as the saxophonist with Kool & The Gang, Van Taylor is also known for playing in the Billy Vera Big Band, Gerald Wilson Orchestra, Charles Wright, and the Watts 103rd St. Band.
- Oct. 7, 5 p.m. — Firebird Balalaika Quintet was founded in 1995 with an accomplished group of musicians performing on Russian traditional instruments. The quintet plays the domra, a string instrument with a thin, fretted neck and round body first appearing in written records at the end of the 15th century; the balalaika, a triangular-bodied Russian instrument well known to Western audiences from the film “Doctor Zhivago”; and the bayan, a member of the accordion family popular in Russia and Ukraine. Firebird’s repertoire ranges from traditional Russian and Eastern European songs to well-known classics and works of contemporary composers.
- Oct. 14, 5 p.m. — Shiri & the Shiribims was founded by Shiri Goldsmith-Graziani. The group creates a musical snapshot of the magical era when Klezmer music migrated from the Old World to the streets of New York, and fuses effortlessly between Klezmer, Yiddish song, vaudeville, hot jazz and European Cabaret music in their own charming way.
- Oct. 21, 5 p.m. — The wholesoul string quartet of classically trained musicians, who draw great inspiration from artists of Hip-Hop, R&B, Soul and Jazz genres, are on a mission to expand the art of string playing. They represent the next generation of string quartets, delivering the recipe for what they believe will become the defining string sound of the 21st century.
- Oct. 28, 5 p.m. — Jake Knox is a Los Angeles-based artist whose music style is described as Edgy Alternative Hip Hop meets EDM Pop with a sprinkle of trombone. Knox’s album “Jake is Dead” has been heavily featured on Spotify and said to be an “energizing and anthemic song that balances reflective storytelling with big hooks and dense instrumentation.”
First published in the September 16 print issue of the Glendale News-Press.
