Carlos Nino and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson & Steve Serrato
Influences
Los Angeles reflects the most recent evolution of world cities. World cities have always been looked to as the ultimate expression of a particular period. New York City modernism epitomized the 20th Century. Now here in the 21st Century Los Angeles is the Postmodern Metropolis.
Statistically L.A. is the newest major world city. Almost all the other megaopolises like Tokyo , Cairo , Rome , Hong Kong, London , and Shanghai have urban histories dating back thousands of years. L.A. is the instant city that grew to 20 million people in one century. The population doubled every ten years from 1900 to 1950. There are no age-old traditions to inhibit the growth of the emerging culture. L.A. 's yearning for the future is mightier than its ties to the past.
L.A. represents the culmination of global cross acculturation. The most beautiful results of the emerging culture are still surfacing. L.A. ’s underground is the new beautiful. The genres are melting & the sound defies category.
Urban theorists have called L.A. "the postmodern metropolis" & "a laboratory for the future." In no place is this more evident than in the local music and art scene. The multicultural landscape has made a canvass free for genre-bending music. Neighborhoods like Echo Park , Leimert Park , and Lincoln Heights , brim with life. All over Southern California progressive music is the standard, from Long Beach to Topanga Canyon , there is a lot more going on in Tinsel Town than just Hollywood .
Hollywood is actually, what makes it so easy for underground artists to slip below the radar in Southern California. Horace Tapscott remained mostly unknown to the world at large while being a legend in Los ANgeles for 40 years. He nurtured generations of musicians, passing the magic. Now in 2007 there are so many brilliant artists rising to the surface that it’s hard to keep track. Welcome to the other side of Hollywood , the real L.A.
The movement has been brewing for some time now. The 21st Century movement in L.A. is a culmination of mojo dating back to the 50s on Central Avenue & Avant garde giants like Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy & Horace Tapscott's Pan Afrikan People's Arkestra.
Central Avenue was once an archipelago of after-hours jazz jam sessions from Pico to Slauson, now after-hours rooftop parties go off below skyscrapers.
In these days of war, rising gas prices, inflation & gridlock, nothing is more healing than good music. The search for something more is driving L.A. musicians and artisans.
Words by Mike Sonksen AKA Mike the PoeT
3rd Generation L.A. Native
Author of “I AM ALIVE IN LOS ANGELES!”
Click HERE to download the "From LA With Love" megamix by Kutmah & Take
FROM L.A. WITH LOVE shines wide. Like the expansive land they inhabit, these music visionaries and graphic masters glow brightly. This is a celebration of creative collaboration and personal inspiration. Each piece of progressive music is paired with unique artwork collected in a beautiful 28-page color booklet. ArtDontSleep gathered these treasured sounds and sights to give you a glimpse of the greatness found in Los Angeles right now.
