It’s true what they say: The best things in life often come unexpectedly. One day at the beginning of fall quarter last year, recent graduate Monica Sheftel was practicing in the gamelan room of the music building with a group that performs music from Ghana when she met an Indian man named Abhiman Kaushal. Kaushal, […]
Author Archives: Angela Shawn-Chi Lu
Finding a voice
For Adam Bhatia, the transition from shy “Star Wars” enthusiast to award-winning trumpet player has been a long time in the making. The graduating trumpet performance student unveiled the fruits of his labors on June 7 at his senior recital, and played so exuberantly that one could have easily forgotten that it was a classical […]
Redefining jazz (literally)
One of the toughest questions to crack in American music history has always been, “What is jazz?” Jazz music has been continuously evolving since its beginnings. The problem is that a moving target is always harder to hit than a sitting one; today especially, the genre has become increasingly difficult to define, with many musicians […]
Spring Sing ropes in riveting performances
Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds is one of the most successful artists in the history of American music. He’s had a total of 119 top-10 hits in the R&B and pop music charts, and so it may initially seem strange that he found himself singing his elementary school’s alma mater to a crowd of 4,500 in the […]
Spring in their steps: UCLA Bands are jumping through hoops for 3 to 4 minutes of performing glory
“Hippity hoop lah!” At this point, there’s no turning back. The guys in the band Vain are trying everything to attract attention on Bruin Walk. “Want to be a model? Beautiful girls! Girls jumping on trampolines! No? How about girls jumping? No? Just girls?” And it continues … “Somebody find Waldo on these fliers! Did […]
Cultural exchange
Several weeks ago, Ethiopian painter Qes Adamu Tesfaw flew on an airplane for the very first time in his life at the age of 75. It would have been great, except that the flight from Ethiopia to Germany and then on to LAX was 27 hours long, and Tesfaw had a fear of flying. His […]
Trying to find their voice
It’s funny how the guys of The Deutsch-Marshack Syndicate have every lady in their audience gushing, and yet, busy playing their solos, they don’t even seem to know it. The young jazz sextet is performing on a Saturday night on the third-floor terrace of Covel Commons. It’s Casino Night in the dorms, and most people […]