{"id":4803,"date":"2010-06-23T23:34:27","date_gmt":"2010-06-24T03:34:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=4803"},"modified":"2010-08-07T15:34:50","modified_gmt":"2010-08-07T19:34:50","slug":"free-is-worth-your-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=4803","title":{"rendered":"Free is Worth Your Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bloggers need no convincing on this point. And I’m not opening up a can of worms regarding, for example, whether or not to pay for online music or journalism. Obviously, we have to. I’m probably one of the few people in the nation who can claim to have ponied up $50 for subscription to the online New York Times Select<\/em> during its experimental and brief existence just so I could read Paul Krugman’s columns when they were behind the Select firewall. This is a purely noncontroversial free, in the context of outdoor summer concerts, something everyone can get on board with. <\/p>\n

So even though it’s high summer, I urge you to leave your horticultural symphony for just an evening, to lay down the garden baton and head for some outdoor concerts. If you’re in Los Angeles, the premiere outdoor concert venue is Grand Performances<\/a> in Downtown Los Angeles. This is not pop standards at your local park, though there’s nothing wrong with that, but some of the most exciting music and performing artists the world has to offer. And it’s free. Take the Metro Blue Line to the Metro Station at 7th and Flower, walk past our glorious library to the California Plaza at 350 South Grand Avenue. The city’s soft glow against the night sky, the performing artists, the neo-noirish, balmy air scented by the bloom du jour — summer in Los Angeles at its finest.<\/p>\n

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Grand Performances’ program is one of the most cutting edge outdoor concert series in the nation, in large part thanks to Ms. Leigh Ann Hahn, the director of programming at GP, who travels the world during winter attending music festivals, clubs, any and all venues where ground-breaking performing artists for next summer’s lineup can be found. <\/p>\n

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Leigh Ann Hahn is one of a dozen musical taste-makers and curators actively determining which artists from world music will be heard on American shores. In an industry of very few women, even fewer of color, Hahn has spent 18 years at the vanguard of world music and pop, turning a non-profit performing arts summer series into a world-class showcase often two seasons ahead of the curve. <\/p>\n

For the 2010 summer season of Grand Performances (which began June 4) Hahn will bring to the stage, among others, legendary Korean bboy artists Last For One, Cambodian-influenced Los Angeles natives Dengue Fever, and the Parisian electro-swing band Caravan Palace. <\/p>\n

When the sun sets and the musicians take the stage, the excitement of embarking on a journey of musical discovery crackles through the warm night air. It’s like an exotic summer vacation without the airport hassle.<\/p>\n

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MB Maher, who films and photographs the musicians and performers, briefly corralled the whirling dervish that is Leigh Ann Hahn for a short interview.<\/p>\n

What act of recent memory gave you the most pleasure in booking?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Buika<\/a>. I’ve wanted to present her for a long while. I knew that
\nthere would be a few people in the audience who knew coming into the
\nshow who she was, the uniqueness of her voice and the quality of the
\nwork, but the majority of the people there would have no idea and
\nwould walk away stunned. I knew it would be a discovery event.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Who are your most recent discoveries?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hyperpotamus, the vocalese cat that I paired with Tanya Tagaq. I think
\nhe makes interesting work. I think it was a really great pairing.<\/em><\/p>\n

What are your favorite double-bill pairings?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Putting the Nortec Collective<\/a> on in front of Kronos Quartet was
\nreally good. It was just after “Nuevo” had come out. Putting all
\nthose Kronos blue-hairs on with all those young Latino kids at the
\nplaza was a stroke of fucking genius, if I do say so myself.<\/em><\/p>\n

Was the audience young? Did attendance drop off when Kronos took the stage?
\n<\/strong>
\nThey came for both. The old farts who came for Kronos sat through
\nNortec, and a lot of the young kids who came for Nortech stayed to
\nhear Kronos. Both sets of people heard something new.
\n<\/em>
\nWhat was the reaction?<\/strong><\/p>\n

David Harrington said after the show that it was the first time in his
\nmemory that he heard an audience give applause when he named composers
\nduring the set. Because they were playing Esquivel and Revueltas and
\nCafe Tacuba and that audience knew the work. They were all Latino.<\/em><\/p>\n

Are your double-bill pairings contrary or counterintuitive in that way
\nto encourage cross-over?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our goal is to create audience and community where people don’t think
\naudience or community exists. Take Bassekou Kouyat\u00c3\u00a9 with Dengue
\nFever. People won’t understand why I put psychedelic Cambodian rock
\nwith traditional Ngoni music, but when it comes down to it, Bassekou
\nand his crew are hard-rocking sons of bitches. They throw down like
\nnobody else. It’s just not what we consider hard rockers in the
\nUnited States. There are going to be a few people who know both
\ngroups, but for the most part, the audience for Dengue Fever won’t
\nhave a clue who the Bassekou is. They, on the surface, don’t go
\ntogether, but it’ll be a great show.<\/em><\/p>\n

How much satisfaction is there packing the California Plaza with 5,000 people?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Professional satisfaction, yes. I get much more personal satisfaction
\nfrom sitting with 450 people to watch The Bad Plus<\/a>. When I have 4,500
\npeople on the Plaza, there’s no way for me to listen to the music.
\nWith 450 people, I can sit down and listen and groove out like the
\nrest of the audience.<\/p>\n

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The pleasure in my job is seeing other peoples’ pleasure. As the
\ncrowd gathers, acknowledging the group of Latinas who sit in the
\nMarina Pavillion and bring their picnics. Seeing the families that
\nyou know and that are there regularly. Seeing the people that you
\nknow and investigating what they’ve brought for dinner. The ramp-up.<\/em><\/p>\n

What is failure for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not doing the paperwork on time.<\/em><\/p>\n

What is success for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Making great art available.<\/em><\/p>\n

What is risk for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Making great art available.<\/em><\/p>\n

I can take more risks programmatically than most presenters because I
\ndon’t have to sell tickets. That’s what it boils down to. I think
\nmost presenters would be better off if they did take programmatic
\nrisks and draw different audiences, effectively doubling their draw.
\nIt makes sense to me.<\/p>\n

I don’t have a hard job. In a region of 14 million people, no matter
\nwhat you present, there’s an audience for it. The hard part is
\ngetting people to realize that we’re doing it and to show up with a
\npicnic basket — making people realize that ‘free’ is worth your time<\/em>.<\/big><\/p>\n

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Bloggers need no convincing on this point. And I’m not opening up a can of worms regarding, for example, whether or not to pay for online music or journalism. Obviously, we have to. I’m probably one of the few people … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[30],"tags":[103,102,111,151,104],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paNJ2E-1ft","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4803"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4803"}],"version-history":[{"count":82,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6354,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4803\/revisions\/6354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}