Gary Fukushima
@garyfukushima.bsky.social
Jazz pianist
Jazz educator at CalState Northridge and Pasadena City College
Jazz Journalist, regular contributor to DownBeat Magazine
I write notes and words
www.garyfukushima.com
https://downbeat.com/site/author/gary-fukushima
Jazz educator at CalState Northridge and Pasadena City College
Jazz Journalist, regular contributor to DownBeat Magazine
I write notes and words
www.garyfukushima.com
https://downbeat.com/site/author/gary-fukushima
Pinned
Gary Fukushima
@garyfukushima.bsky.social
· Nov 20
Greetings Bluesky! Just getting started on here, and I hope to be posting regularly with the things I’ve written about #jazz for the last decade and a half.
Reposted by Gary Fukushima
World-renown cellist Yo-Yo Ma showed up in a downtown Los Angeles warehouse Sunday night to play with kids from LAUSD where about a dozen school employees maintain and repair the school district’s 130,000 instruments.
www.latimes.com/entertainmen...
www.latimes.com/entertainmen...
'Last Repair Shop' for LAUSD musicians gets $1-million gift, plus a visit from Yo-Yo Ma
The LAUSD program that provides free working instruments and was featured in the Oscar-winning doc 'The Last Repair Shop' receives $1 million to safeguard its future. Yo-Yo Ma marks the occasion with ...
www.latimes.com
April 8, 2025 at 12:21 AM
World-renown cellist Yo-Yo Ma showed up in a downtown Los Angeles warehouse Sunday night to play with kids from LAUSD where about a dozen school employees maintain and repair the school district’s 130,000 instruments.
www.latimes.com/entertainmen...
www.latimes.com/entertainmen...
Thanks to Nate Chinen for including this from Sara Gazarek’s acceptance speech:
“I want to take a second to acknowledge a very important composer and arranger, the great John Clayton, who lost his house in the fires in Altadena. He also lost the Grammy Award that he won in this category in 2007.”
“I want to take a second to acknowledge a very important composer and arranger, the great John Clayton, who lost his house in the fires in Altadena. He also lost the Grammy Award that he won in this category in 2007.”
Nate Chinen’s rundown of last night’s Grammys jazz outcomes. Congratulations to Ricky Riccardi for his well-deserved historical notes and set wins… that Oliver/Armstrong Gennett box is monumental.
Happy for some amazing jazz artists who grabbed new hardware yesterday. Otherwise, a bit less happy about it. Here's my first attempt at parsing the difference. 🏆 #Grammys2025
February 4, 2025 at 4:47 AM
Thanks to Nate Chinen for including this from Sara Gazarek’s acceptance speech:
“I want to take a second to acknowledge a very important composer and arranger, the great John Clayton, who lost his house in the fires in Altadena. He also lost the Grammy Award that he won in this category in 2007.”
“I want to take a second to acknowledge a very important composer and arranger, the great John Clayton, who lost his house in the fires in Altadena. He also lost the Grammy Award that he won in this category in 2007.”
Props to @2220arts.bsky.social for hosting this special event! Definitely doing their part to make LA a better place for creative music.
meanwhile, 'Milton + esperanza' was celebrated at a club in LA this weekend. Herbie Hancock & Thundercat dropped in to pay their respects and perform.
www.latimes.com/lifestyle/im...
www.latimes.com/lifestyle/im...
Throwing a celebration for Esperanza Spalding and Milton Nascimento was an unequivocal yes. It was the joyous event of the Grammy weekend
Thundercat and Herbie Hancock joined the stage, as we gathered to remember what was and what we’ll rebuild.
www.latimes.com
February 3, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Props to @2220arts.bsky.social for hosting this special event! Definitely doing their part to make LA a better place for creative music.
If anyone is wondering “how could this happen” regarding the disasters in Southern California, a morning spent reading this classic piece by John McPhee will tell you everything you need to know in vivid, gripping fashion.
www.newyorker.com/magazine/198...
www.newyorker.com/magazine/198...
Los Angeles Against the Mountains
John McPhee’s 1988 report about life in the San Gabriel Mountains, in northern Los Angeles County, which were disintegrating into rock porridge at a rate that was among the fastest in the world.
www.newyorker.com
January 24, 2025 at 6:07 PM
If anyone is wondering “how could this happen” regarding the disasters in Southern California, a morning spent reading this classic piece by John McPhee will tell you everything you need to know in vivid, gripping fashion.
www.newyorker.com/magazine/198...
www.newyorker.com/magazine/198...
This was a difficult piece to write, quite personal to me as many of those affected by the #wildfires are people I have known, interacted or even played with over the years.
#altadena
#palisades
#socalstrong
#jazz
#jazzsky
#allaboutjazz
downbeat.com/news/detail/...
#altadena
#palisades
#socalstrong
#jazz
#jazzsky
#allaboutjazz
downbeat.com/news/detail/...
Southern California Fires Hit the Jazz Community
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he heard someone banging on his front door. “Our neighbor said, ‘You gotta get out, ...
downbeat.com
January 23, 2025 at 8:02 PM
This was a difficult piece to write, quite personal to me as many of those affected by the #wildfires are people I have known, interacted or even played with over the years.
#altadena
#palisades
#socalstrong
#jazz
#jazzsky
#allaboutjazz
downbeat.com/news/detail/...
#altadena
#palisades
#socalstrong
#jazz
#jazzsky
#allaboutjazz
downbeat.com/news/detail/...
Reposted by Gary Fukushima
For musicians in the LA Area - please pass this to anyone you think could use their help musicares.org/get-help They are providing assistance to those affected by the fires. #jazzsky
Get Help with MusiCares | MusiCares.org
MusiCares helps grant short-term financial assistance for personal or addiction needs that have arisen due to unforeseen circumstances. Such as rent, car payments, insurance premiums, utilities, medic...
musicares.org
January 10, 2025 at 3:26 PM
For musicians in the LA Area - please pass this to anyone you think could use their help musicares.org/get-help They are providing assistance to those affected by the fires. #jazzsky
Ringing in the new year with a summary thread of my #Downbeat articles from last year:
#Jazz
#JazzSky
#JazzMusic
#AllAboutJazz
#Jazz
#JazzSky
#JazzMusic
#AllAboutJazz
1. A look into the Los Angeles jazz club Sam First, and their designs on becoming the “Village Vanguard of the West” through their new label featuring high quality live recordings of their performances:
downbeat.com/news/detail/...
#Jazz
#JazzSky
#JazzMusic
#AllAboutJazz
downbeat.com/news/detail/...
#Jazz
#JazzSky
#JazzMusic
#AllAboutJazz
Musicians 1st at Sam First
The back entrance opens into a cozy, darkened room, leather-cushioned benches snaking around the irregular, rounded perimeter walls. The furniture and decor are elegantly crafted, as if it were a feat...
downbeat.com
January 6, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Ringing in the new year with a summary thread of my #Downbeat articles from last year:
#Jazz
#JazzSky
#JazzMusic
#AllAboutJazz
#Jazz
#JazzSky
#JazzMusic
#AllAboutJazz
Starting 2025 with a glance back to my DownBeat articles over the past year:
#Jazz
#JazzSky
#JazzMusic
#AllAboutJazz
#Jazz
#JazzSky
#JazzMusic
#AllAboutJazz
1. A look into the Los Angeles jazz club Sam First, and their designs on becoming the “Village Vanguard of the West” through their new label featuring high quality live recordings of their performances:
downbeat.com/news/detail/...
#Jazz
#JazzSky
#JazzMusic
#AllAboutJazz
downbeat.com/news/detail/...
#Jazz
#JazzSky
#JazzMusic
#AllAboutJazz
Musicians 1st at Sam First
The back entrance opens into a cozy, darkened room, leather-cushioned benches snaking around the irregular, rounded perimeter walls. The furniture and decor are elegantly crafted, as if it were a feat...
downbeat.com
January 2, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Starting 2025 with a glance back to my DownBeat articles over the past year:
#Jazz
#JazzSky
#JazzMusic
#AllAboutJazz
#Jazz
#JazzSky
#JazzMusic
#AllAboutJazz
Reposted by Gary Fukushima
One of the best new album covers in recent years, in my view. By LA-based David Haskell. Rarely in history of jazz or rock do you get to see a whole band playing in one photo. Inspired music too.
November 28, 2024 at 7:26 PM
One of the best new album covers in recent years, in my view. By LA-based David Haskell. Rarely in history of jazz or rock do you get to see a whole band playing in one photo. Inspired music too.
Here’s a fun piece I did last year on saxophonist Jon Irabagon, winner of the 2008 Thelonious Monk Saxophone Competition. He’s recorded a lot of excellent and unusually varied albums since then!
downbeat.com/news/detail/...
downbeat.com/news/detail/...
Jon Irabagon’s Absurdist Tendencies
If ever there were an artist who has earned the label “enigma,” it would be saxophonist Jon Irabagon, whose hyper-genre career has warped repeatedly between the narrow straight ahead paths and wide-op...
downbeat.com
November 26, 2024 at 4:56 PM
Here’s a fun piece I did last year on saxophonist Jon Irabagon, winner of the 2008 Thelonious Monk Saxophone Competition. He’s recorded a lot of excellent and unusually varied albums since then!
downbeat.com/news/detail/...
downbeat.com/news/detail/...
This really made my evening
Brian Bromberg’s well-written and insightful article stays in my mind. I also like your sly humor that appreciates Jon Irabagon’s “gallows humor” and slips in puns like “way out West” in Mark Turner’s review. You really listen and refer to meters and theory. Downbeat need your West Coast balance.
November 25, 2024 at 7:14 AM
This really made my evening
This was my first cover story for DownBeat for the July (Father’s Day) issue. I visited the home of bassist John Clayton, which is where his son Gerald
Clayton also grew up. It was a memorable conversation with both of them.
downbeat.com/news/detail/...
Clayton also grew up. It was a memorable conversation with both of them.
downbeat.com/news/detail/...
John & Gerald Clayton: Serving the Music
Altadena, California, is nestled into the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains, a companion-community to its better-known neighbor, Pasadena. Spacious roads lined with quaint homes carve neat gridli...
downbeat.com
November 24, 2024 at 10:44 PM
This was my first cover story for DownBeat for the July (Father’s Day) issue. I visited the home of bassist John Clayton, which is where his son Gerald
Clayton also grew up. It was a memorable conversation with both of them.
downbeat.com/news/detail/...
Clayton also grew up. It was a memorable conversation with both of them.
downbeat.com/news/detail/...
Wanted to bump this piece I did for DownBeat last year, as Pharoah Sanders was honored by the magazine’s writers, who voted him (posthumously) into the DB Hall of Fame:
downbeat.com/news/detail/...
downbeat.com/news/detail/...
Pharoah Sanders Enters the DownBeat Hall of Fame
The moment happened on a cloudy September evening in Los Angeles, in darkness around the neon-lit outline of the Hollywood Bowl. Some 12,000 people sat silent, lost in thought and reverence, held rapt...
downbeat.com
November 22, 2024 at 8:44 PM
Wanted to bump this piece I did for DownBeat last year, as Pharoah Sanders was honored by the magazine’s writers, who voted him (posthumously) into the DB Hall of Fame:
downbeat.com/news/detail/...
downbeat.com/news/detail/...
Greetings Bluesky! Just getting started on here, and I hope to be posting regularly with the things I’ve written about #jazz for the last decade and a half.
November 20, 2024 at 5:52 PM
Greetings Bluesky! Just getting started on here, and I hope to be posting regularly with the things I’ve written about #jazz for the last decade and a half.