Los Angeles has a long and storied history of maverick artistry. From the vibrant murals of Venice Beach to Simon Rodia's monumental Watts Towers, the landmarks of LA scaffold the daily lives of Angelenos with reminders of the region's rich cultural legacy. Laboring in the shadows of these behemoths are LA's musicians - composers, instrumentalists, sound artists, and improvisers.
Easily invisible but no less significant than the streets and symbols that surround them, LA's homegrown musicmakers are part of what give Southern California its unique heartbeat. To some, Los Angeles is best remembered as the hotbed of West Coast jazz - and as a stopping point on Ornette Coleman's journey to change the world at New York's Five Spot Cafe. The area later gave rise to hip-hop and rock music of incalculable import. To many, however, Los Angeles reverberates with names that are weighty, if somewhat unheralded: Horace Tapscott, John Carter, Vinny Golia, and so on.
The record that you hold in your hands is meant to commemorate both the bright lights and deep, darkened corners of Los Angeles. It remembers the plight of impoverished strivers, of rebels against unjust authorities, of young people seeking new lives in a world that feels both forbidding and magical. It understands Los Angeles as a place that people call home, and not just some romantic ideal.
My family lived in Los Angeles from 1978 to 2021. For a very long time, it was the only place that I could credibly call home. The child of two Filipino immigrants, I felt that Los Angeles was the exact midway point between my time in the San Francisco Bay Area and my ancestral
province of Iloilo. It is because of this deep connection to LA that this album brings me so much pride. It features members of my band Grex, all of them with strong ties to Southern California, as well as two trailblazing LA artists: the multitalented William Roper and legendary cornetist Bobby Bradford.
I write this under the pall of the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires. Both Bobby and Roper lost their homes in this conflagration, and we set up two crowdfunding campaigns to help them recover. I will never forget the sheer number of people who donated their money, time, and kindness in the wake of this tragedy. This record is dedicated to Bobby, Roper, and the people of LA. They remind me, again, that living in Los Angeles is a source of hard-won pride.
-Karl Evangelista, 2025
