Southern Sonoma Country Life

Healdsburg Jazz Announces Acclaimed Composer & Bandleader Marcus Shelby As New Artistic Director

Renowned Northern California jazz institution Healdsburg Jazz announces today the appointment of acclaimed composer and bandleader Marcus Shelby as their new Artistic Director. Shelby will lead the organization and its flagship Healdsburg Jazz Festival into its next generation of dynamic and innovative programming. Shelby takes over the new role Oct. 1, 2020 from the festival's founder, artistic director and guiding spirit, Jessica Felix, who launched the festival in 1999. Shelby has worked closely with Felix over the past decade and looks towards the future to maintain and elevate the spirit of the festival.

 

"Jessica did an incredible job building the Healdsburg Jazz Festival with first-class talent, including national and local artists," said Shelby. "She never dumbed down the programming to get more people to come. I'm looking forward to expanding her extraordinary legacy and also develop a fresh vision that reflects my interests and strengths."

 

"We are so fortunate to have Marcus Shelby on board as artistic director to help guide Healdsburg Jazz as it enters a new chapter in its history," said Jack Raineault, Board Chair of Healdsburg Jazz. "He has contributed so much to the educational component of the organization and is passionate about our mission. He knows the music scene both locally and nationally and brings the perspective of a musician to the artistic director role. Marcus has also focused on social justice issues and building community in his music and in the organizations he has been a part of. We are excited at the prospect of what new directions Healdsburg Jazz will take both artistically and in its commitment to promoting social and cultural connections under Marcus's leadership."

 

Shelby is taking the helm at a moment of unprecedented challenges for the performing arts due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, and he's already working with the festival's Board of Directors on strategizing for the 2021 festival. Beyond the lauded spring jazz festival, he's ideally suited for running the nonprofit organization's year-round concert series and education programs. Shelby has a strong track record in the picturesque Sonoma County town near the Russian River, which is one reason why Felix is so confident that Shelby is the right person for the job. "He's done a lot up here already and everybody loves him," Felix said. "He's really endeared himself to this area. He believes in the festival and believes in me."

 

Felix first met Shelby about 30 years ago, when Los Angeles drum legend Billy Higgins, a close friend of hers, recommended that she book Shelby's band Black/Note at the Eddie Moore Jazz Festival. Higgins had mentored the young group at the World Stage, the performance space he co-founded in LA's Leimert Park neighborhood, and on his advice Felix hired the quintet sight unseen. Though Shelby relocated to San Francisco a few years later it wasn't until a decade ago that he started playing an important role at Healdsburg, when Felix hired him to bring his Black History Month programming to local schools. A prestigious grant the festival received from the James Irvine Foundation enabled Shelby to create and direct the Healdsburg Freedom Jazz Choir, a 100-piece community choir that has continued over the years, perform in various settings with his big band and small group.

 

"Jessica and I have become good friends and we've worked very closely together on these projects, like working out ideas for the choir," he said. "She built the festival from scratch and she's leaving her life's work in my hands. We've spent countless hours talking about these things."

 

Shelby has deep roots in the San Francisco Bay Area arts scene. He's a composer in residence with the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival and has taken on a variety of roles at SFJAZZ, including a stint as a Resident Artistic Director. He's a teacher at the San Francisco Community Music Center and has served on the San Francisco Arts Commission since his appointment by the late Mayor Ed Lee in 2014. That's all on top of his regular gigging as a leader and a sideman.

 

On his decision to become the Artistic Director of Healdsburg Jazz Festival, Shelby comments, "Leading a major jazz festival supports and enriches my professional practice in many ways. Some colleagues who are much better known are part of organizations they lead, Wynton Marsalis at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Jason Moran at the Kennedy Center, and Christian McBride in several organizations. That inspired me to think bigger and really embrace the possibility of working with a large community of artists, and influence how this music is curated. I need to keep evolving and growing."

 

Creative growth has been the hallmark of Shelby's career. Born February 2, 1966 in Anchorage, Alaska, he grew up in Sacramento and first gained attention on the burgeoning LA scene in the early 1990s as a co-founder of the hard-bop band Black/Note (which also launched top-shelf New York drummer Willie Jones III). He earned the Charles Mingus Scholarship to study at Cal Arts in Valencia, where he also worked closely with flutist/composer James Newton and bassist Charlie Haden (both artists closely linked to the Healdsburg Jazz Festival). Black/Note recorded four albums, including 1994's Jungle Music (Columbia) and 1996's Nothin' But the Swing (Impulse!/GRP).

 

Relocating to San Francisco in 1996, Shelby quickly established himself as an essential creative force on the Bay Area arts scene. Leading both the Marcus Shelby Trio and the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra, he earned increasingly prestigious commissions from dance companies, theatrical productions, and presenters such as Intersection for the Arts, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival. No one has a closer view of his determined growth than Kate Dumbleton, his manager and co-founder of his label Noir Records.

 

"In all the years I've known Marcus he's always been poised to take the work that he does in multiple directions at any given moment," says Dumbleton, Executive and Artistic Director of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival and Associate Professor at the Art Institute of Chicago. "He's a conceptualizer. He knows how to connect history to musical ideas and storytelling. He thinks in really interesting ways about narrative. When I first met him he was really interested in working with dancers, choreographers, theater artists, and filmmakers."

 

Shelby started exploring history and narrative in his own work with the release of 2006's Port Chicago (Noir Records), a suite for his jazz orchestra inspired by the World War II miscarriage of justice that saw 50 young black seamen convicted in the largest mutiny trial in U.S. naval history (a story that unfolded in the Bay Area). Since then he's focused his creative energy on a series of hard-swinging works exploring key historical events and personalities, like 2008's two-disc Harriet Tubman (Noir Records), 2011's Soul of the Movement: Meditations on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Porto Franco), and 2018's Black Ball: The Negro Leagues and the Blues, a suite commissioned by the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival.

 

In recent years, he's also served as a musical foil for playwright and actor Anna Deavere Smith throughout the interview-driven creation of her one-woman show about the school-to-prison pipeline, Notes From the Field. "Her process is genius," he said. "As much as I can absorb from her, I'm just trying to find ways that I can use blues and swing to tell these different stories."

 

In many ways, Shelby has turned his orchestra into an exemplar of the kind of equitable society he advocates for off the bandstand. It's an ensemble that embodies the diversity that makes the Bay Area such a creative hothouse, where the horn section features veteran masters sitting next to rising teenagers. Over the years, he's become increasingly proactive in making sure that women are well represented in the band.

 

"I've thought a lot about how an ensemble can create an overall expression and the diversity of the band can really enhance that," he said. "A big band looks like a village, with good young players, older players who can serve as mentors, and everything in between."

 

The Healdsburg Jazz Festival offers a larger forum for his ideas and Shelby is committed to continuing the festival's track record as a binding force in the town. With the support of Emeritus Artistic Director Felix, who will be on call for advice, he sees a bright, innovative future for an event that has earned universal respect for uncompromising standards.

 

"One of my goals is to maintain a strong local and Bay Area presence," Shelby said. "I realize you can't book everybody. I'm really committed to making the most diverse festival possible, with the highest degree of talent. That's always going to be my goal."

 

About Healdsburg Jazz

Healdsburg Jazz celebrates the indigenous American art form known as Jazz. Over the past two decades, the Healdsburg Jazz Festival has become a favorite local tradition with a growing national reputation. The 10-day festival of public performances by world-renowned musicians in diverse settings, including the historic Raven Theater, the glamorous Hotel Healdsburg, and several boutique restaurants and wineries, has grown into one of the North Bay's most celebrated annual musical events.

 

In addition to the annual festival, held the first week of June each year, the non-profit 501(c)(3) organization sponsors numerous

music education programs in Healdsburg area schools for primary and secondary school students, and presents a series of Jazz Masters concerts throughout the year.

For more information, please visit: https://www.healdsburgjazz.org

Healdsburg Jazz Announces Acclaimed Composer & Bandleader Marcus Shelby As New Artistic Director

Renowned Northern California jazz institution Healdsburg Jazz announces today the appointment of acclaimed composer and bandleader Marcus Shelby as their new Artistic Director. Shelby will lead the organization and its flagship Healdsburg Jazz Festival into its next generation of dynamic and innovative programming. Shelby takes over the new role Oct. 1, 2020 from the festival's founder, artistic director and guiding spirit, Jessica Felix, who launched the festival in 1999. Shelby has worked closely with Felix over the past decade and looks towards the future to maintain and elevate the spirit of the festival.

 

"Jessica did an incredible job building the Healdsburg Jazz Festival with first-class talent, including national and local artists," said Shelby. "She never dumbed down the programming to get more people to come. I'm looking forward to expanding her extraordinary legacy and also develop a fresh vision that reflects my interests and strengths."

 

"We are so fortunate to have Marcus Shelby on board as artistic director to help guide Healdsburg Jazz as it enters a new chapter in its history," said Jack Raineault, Board Chair of Healdsburg Jazz. "He has contributed so much to the educational component of the organization and is passionate about our mission. He knows the music scene both locally and nationally and brings the perspective of a musician to the artistic director role. Marcus has also focused on social justice issues and building community in his music and in the organizations he has been a part of. We are excited at the prospect of what new directions Healdsburg Jazz will take both artistically and in its commitment to promoting social and cultural connections under Marcus's leadership."

 

Shelby is taking the helm at a moment of unprecedented challenges for the performing arts due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, and he's already working with the festival's Board of Directors on strategizing for the 2021 festival. Beyond the lauded spring jazz festival, he's ideally suited for running the nonprofit organization's year-round concert series and education programs. Shelby has a strong track record in the picturesque Sonoma County town near the Russian River, which is one reason why Felix is so confident that Shelby is the right person for the job. "He's done a lot up here already and everybody loves him," Felix said. "He's really endeared himself to this area. He believes in the festival and believes in me."

 

Felix first met Shelby about 30 years ago, when Los Angeles drum legend Billy Higgins, a close friend of hers, recommended that she book Shelby's band Black/Note at the Eddie Moore Jazz Festival. Higgins had mentored the young group at the World Stage, the performance space he co-founded in LA's Leimert Park neighborhood, and on his advice Felix hired the quintet sight unseen. Though Shelby relocated to San Francisco a few years later it wasn't until a decade ago that he started playing an important role at Healdsburg, when Felix hired him to bring his Black History Month programming to local schools. A prestigious grant the festival received from the James Irvine Foundation enabled Shelby to create and direct the Healdsburg Freedom Jazz Choir, a 100-piece community choir that has continued over the years, perform in various settings with his big band and small group.

 

"Jessica and I have become good friends and we've worked very closely together on these projects, like working out ideas for the choir," he said. "She built the festival from scratch and she's leaving her life's work in my hands. We've spent countless hours talking about these things."

 

Shelby has deep roots in the San Francisco Bay Area arts scene. He's a composer in residence with the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival and has taken on a variety of roles at SFJAZZ, including a stint as a Resident Artistic Director. He's a teacher at the San Francisco Community Music Center and has served on the San Francisco Arts Commission since his appointment by the late Mayor Ed Lee in 2014. That's all on top of his regular gigging as a leader and a sideman.

 

On his decision to become the Artistic Director of Healdsburg Jazz Festival, Shelby comments, "Leading a major jazz festival supports and enriches my professional practice in many ways. Some colleagues who are much better known are part of organizations they lead, Wynton Marsalis at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Jason Moran at the Kennedy Center, and Christian McBride in several organizations. That inspired me to think bigger and really embrace the possibility of working with a large community of artists, and influence how this music is curated. I need to keep evolving and growing."

 

Creative growth has been the hallmark of Shelby's career. Born February 2, 1966 in Anchorage, Alaska, he grew up in Sacramento and first gained attention on the burgeoning LA scene in the early 1990s as a co-founder of the hard-bop band Black/Note (which also launched top-shelf New York drummer Willie Jones III). He earned the Charles Mingus Scholarship to study at Cal Arts in Valencia, where he also worked closely with flutist/composer James Newton and bassist Charlie Haden (both artists closely linked to the Healdsburg Jazz Festival). Black/Note recorded four albums, including 1994's Jungle Music (Columbia) and 1996's Nothin' But the Swing (Impulse!/GRP).

 

Relocating to San Francisco in 1996, Shelby quickly established himself as an essential creative force on the Bay Area arts scene. Leading both the Marcus Shelby Trio and the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra, he earned increasingly prestigious commissions from dance companies, theatrical productions, and presenters such as Intersection for the Arts, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival. No one has a closer view of his determined growth than Kate Dumbleton, his manager and co-founder of his label Noir Records.

 

"In all the years I've known Marcus he's always been poised to take the work that he does in multiple directions at any given moment," says Dumbleton, Executive and Artistic Director of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival and Associate Professor at the Art Institute of Chicago. "He's a conceptualizer. He knows how to connect history to musical ideas and storytelling. He thinks in really interesting ways about narrative. When I first met him he was really interested in working with dancers, choreographers, theater artists, and filmmakers."

 

Shelby started exploring history and narrative in his own work with the release of 2006's Port Chicago (Noir Records), a suite for his jazz orchestra inspired by the World War II miscarriage of justice that saw 50 young black seamen convicted in the largest mutiny trial in U.S. naval history (a story that unfolded in the Bay Area). Since then he's focused his creative energy on a series of hard-swinging works exploring key historical events and personalities, like 2008's two-disc Harriet Tubman (Noir Records), 2011's Soul of the Movement: Meditations on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Porto Franco), and 2018's Black Ball: The Negro Leagues and the Blues, a suite commissioned by the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival.

 

In recent years, he's also served as a musical foil for playwright and actor Anna Deavere Smith throughout the interview-driven creation of her one-woman show about the school-to-prison pipeline, Notes From the Field. "Her process is genius," he said. "As much as I can absorb from her, I'm just trying to find ways that I can use blues and swing to tell these different stories."

 

In many ways, Shelby has turned his orchestra into an exemplar of the kind of equitable society he advocates for off the bandstand. It's an ensemble that embodies the diversity that makes the Bay Area such a creative hothouse, where the horn section features veteran masters sitting next to rising teenagers. Over the years, he's become increasingly proactive in making sure that women are well represented in the band.

 

"I've thought a lot about how an ensemble can create an overall expression and the diversity of the band can really enhance that," he said. "A big band looks like a village, with good young players, older players who can serve as mentors, and everything in between."

 

The Healdsburg Jazz Festival offers a larger forum for his ideas and Shelby is committed to continuing the festival's track record as a binding force in the town. With the support of Emeritus Artistic Director Felix, who will be on call for advice, he sees a bright, innovative future for an event that has earned universal respect for uncompromising standards.

 

"One of my goals is to maintain a strong local and Bay Area presence," Shelby said. "I realize you can't book everybody. I'm really committed to making the most diverse festival possible, with the highest degree of talent. That's always going to be my goal."

 

About Healdsburg Jazz

Healdsburg Jazz celebrates the indigenous American art form known as Jazz. Over the past two decades, the Healdsburg Jazz Festival has become a favorite local tradition with a growing national reputation. The 10-day festival of public performances by world-renowned musicians in diverse settings, including the historic Raven Theater, the glamorous Hotel Healdsburg, and several boutique restaurants and wineries, has grown into one of the North Bay's most celebrated annual musical events.

 

In addition to the annual festival, held the first week of June each year, the non-profit 501(c)(3) organization sponsors numerous

music education programs in Healdsburg area schools for primary and secondary school students, and presents a series of Jazz Masters concerts throughout the year.

For more information, please visit: https://www.healdsburgjazz.org

Discover More Award-Winning Wineries, Craft Breweries, Cideries and Micro Distilleries with the New Sonoma County Tasting Pass

Good news for staycationers and wine country visitors alike. In an effort to showcase the vast diversity of the local craft beverage community, Sonoma County Tourism (SCT) has rolled out the “Sonoma County Tasting Pass,” featuring award-winning wineries, renowned craft breweries and cideries, and unique micro distilleries.

The Sonoma County Tasting Pass is a collection of tasting flights and discounts, presented by over 20 craft beverage producers throughout the County. Offered for purchase on SCT’s website, consumers have three pass options, at different price points: 1-day for $44.99; 3-day for $79.99; or 90-days for $149.99. After purchasing the pass, it is instantly delivered to the purchaser’s phone via text and email and is ready to use immediately. When visiting a participating business, consumers simply present their phone to the staff member to redeem the special offer.

Each participating business is offering enticing deals, including discounts on purchases. For example, boutique winery Armida is offering a tasting flight plus 20% off six bottles and more, while Ace Cider is offering a tasting flight and 25% off the total bill.

“As a distillery deeply committed to quality and innovation in making and serving the best grain-to-glass spirits in the world, Spirit Works is proud to be highlighted among such an amazing group of creative, artisan producers,” says Ashby Marshall, owner and spirit maker at Spirit Works Distillery, which was named ‘Distillery of the Year’ by American Distillery Institute in July 2020. 

The pass is the result of a partnership with Bandwango, a travel technology platform, that creates access to places and experiences for both visitors and locals to enjoy. Bandwango works with over 85 destinations throughout the U.S. and Canada, creating passes of all kinds, with great success.   

“We are excited to launch the Sonoma County Tasting Pass,” said Todd O’Leary, vice president of marketing and communications at Sonoma County Tourism. Our partnership with Bandwango is creating new opportunities to package and promote Sonoma County to visitors and residents alike.”  

For more information about the Sonoma County Tasting Pass, visit: https://explore.sonomacounty.com

Once Upon A Time There Were Four Little Rabbits . . .

Pictures via Pinterest 

“There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they'll take you.”

Beatrix Potter 

Where shall we go on our Easter weekend rambles? Not the beach, not the park, not to friends and family. Seeing as we're all on lockdown together, apart, I thought I'd take you on a little romp around Beatrix Potter world!  Writer, illustrator, natural scientist and conservationist, Beatrix Potter was born in Kensington, England in 1866 and was educated by governesses, isolated from other children. (click here for more about Beatrix Potter)

Her love of landscape, flora and fauna and the woodland creatures who make their homes in its midst make her hugely successful children's books amongst the most endearing and enduring stories of all time. 

We may learn a lot from Beatrix while we're sequestered, young or old. Simply look around, into and under the trees in our yards or outside of our apartment windows. There's a magical world out there and within our imaginations if we listen to the birdsong long enough. 

I've always loved maps, ask Nicky Ovitt, who hand illustrated the map on the back of my second book, Fog Valley Winter. Maps take us place we never dreamed of. 

Beatrix left behind quotes of how she perceived her childhood gifted her the way she looked at the world and the treasures it, in turn, produced. 

Happy Easter, and Passover friends. 

“Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were--Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter. ”

“I hold that a strongly marked personality can influence descendants for generations.”

“Believe there is a great power silently working all things for good, behave yourself and never mind the rest.”

“Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.”

“I cannot rest, I must draw, however poor the result, and when I have a bad time come over me it is a stronger desire than ever.”

“Thank goodness my education was neglected.”

“I remember every stone, every tree, the scent of heather... Even when the thunder growled in the distance, and the wind swept up the valley in fitful gusts, oh, it was beautiful, home sweet home.”

“It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is 'soporific'.”

“Thank God I have the seeing eye, that is to say, as I lie in bed I can walk step by step on the fells and rough land seeing every stone and flower and patch of bog and cotton pass where my old legs will never take me again.”'

“In Summer there were white and damask roses, and the smell of thyme and musk. In Spring there were green gooseberries and throstles [thrush], and the flowers they call ceninen [daffodils]. And leeks and cabbages also grew in that garden; and between long straight alleys, and apple-trained espaliers, there were beds of strawberries, and mint, and sage.”

“The place is changed now, and many familiar faces are gone, but the greatest change is myself. I was a child then, I had no idea what the world would be like. I wished to trust myself on the waters and the sea. Everything was romantic in my imagination. The woods were peopled by the mysterious good folk. The Lords and Ladies of the last century walked with me along the overgrown paths, and picked the old fashioned flowers among the box and rose hedges of the garden.”

 

Travel into the Mojave Desert with Music and Film by Dominic Rivetti Vino Production B8B Studios

 

Travel into the Mojave Desert with Dominic Rivetti and his fellow U.C Davis student, Mao. Explore the arid rain-shadow desert, the driest desert in North American southwest, primarily within southeastern California and southern Nevada.

Small areas also extend into Utah and Arizona. Dom spent his spring break last year hiking and exploring this part of the country. This spring break he spent making music, writing original song lyrics, editing and art in his student house in Davis.

“Everything’s gonna go crazy, baby, maybe we could just go love everyone...”  at 5.48 into the video, lyrics written during this current crisis we are all in. “Everything’s gonna go crazy, baby, maybe we could just go love everyone...”

I miss Dom and his brothers and I can't wait to see them all again soon. 

 

Take An Armchair Tour of The Tastiest Little Place on Earth — Fog Valley Winter, A Farmstead Fireside Companion, Pioneer Heritage, Backroad Rambles & Vintage Recipes

This week an email request came in from a book group in Petaluma that has selected my second book, Fog Valley Winter as its upcoming read. I'm delighted to be hand delivering signed books to the host and this served as a reminder to me of how proud I am of Fog Valley Winter, the research and writing and sharing of our micro-region's food history and culture and the wonderful, lasting journey it is taking me on in my career as an author.

I have several cartons of Fog Valley Winter and am happy to deliver locally. I took it off my Paypal page on the home page of Southern Sonoma Country Life as quite a few people were ordering it by mistake when they were ordering my newly released novel, Big Green Country. You can order my novel via Paypal here on my homepage, but to avoid any mix up, if you'd like a copy of Fog Valley Winter for yourself or for a gift, simply reply to this post and I'll arrange for payment and pick up or delivery. 

Both books are available on Amazon but if you're ordering locally, it's much better for everyone, the environment especially if you order directly from me. 

Alternatively, click here for my store on Bookshop which is a great way to go if you are outside of the area and I encourage everyone to check it out as a great alternative to the big online booksellers, given that it has raised over $100,000 to donate to brick and mortar indie bookstore partners since the current crisis began.

 

Downtown Los Angeles Revivalist Visitor's Guide for History & Heritage Lovers

In the words of one of my most favorite authors, Bill Bryson on his return to his native USA: "I'm a Stranger here myself."

And for the longest time, I've felt that way when I venture out of my familiar Northern California territory. 

I may have made my home in the Bay Area some 30 years ago this May, but Southern California, particularly LA has remained somewhat of an enigma to this British-born ex-pat, despite the fact the oldest of my three sons has made Los Angeles his home for the past seven years. Well, he's been busy, I've been busy and it was about time I made a long-overdue trip down to his adopted home town. 

If I'm to be honest, I guess greater Los Angeles overwhelms me and even more-so than New York in many ways. San Francisco and wine country provided me a  moss-cushioned, oak-tree-canopied, certainly more slow-paced entry into this American life. From the air, LA's sheer land mass of urban sprawl and astonishing amount of gridlocked concrete is way beyond my imagination still, given my childhood in rural England. Driving into and within LA is another story entirely and it's not a good thing for anyone, least of all me if I'm the one behind the wheel without a few days to acclimatize to the general hustle and bustle of the city's love-it or hate-it freeway system.

So let's start by saying that other than being ferried around by my darling first-born, whose half-Italian genes are proving ideally suited to negotiating the shortest routes through and around the City of Angels on wheels, Lyft is my friend when in LA.

This time, because he has a house filled with room mates, I treated myself to a tiny room at the historic Hotel Figueroa in Downtown Los Angeles, close by multipurpose sports and entertainment arena, The Staples Center, the Grammy Museum and The Original Pantry Cafe, LA's most famous, casual, cash-only 24-hour diner since 1924. 

Famed for its stylish bars and pool area, Hotel Figueroa is an iconic little landmark in its own right, having withstood the changing fortunes of downtown and fairly recently been spruced up inside and out to meet a demand in boutique stays in one of the oldest neighborhoods of Los Angeles. 

To quote its website: "The hotel was the largest commercial building funded by women for women when it opened in 1926 by the YWCA as a safe haven for solo female travelers, who were prohibited from checking into most hotels without a male chaperone. Hotel Figueroa gave women the freedom to live uninhibited lives among other like-minded women and this paradise of feminine energy attracted professional women from all over the world, turning the coffee shop and salons into diverse and intellectual women’s collectives that produced powerful art and activism alike. The hotel fully embraced its social conscience, holding press conferences and political rallies against sexism, racism, and other social issues. Within the walls of the Hotel Figueroa, progress was possible". 

Click here for KCET's great article on the history of the Figueroa Hotel 

Some of the Hotel Fig's first guests back in the 1920s.

As a history buff, I make a point to read up on the heritage of any place I am visiting and though I love to see what's new and notable in person, I come away with a deeper understanding and sense of place if I've had the time to peel back the layers.  

I think its pretty fair to say there's a universal misconception outside of Los Angeles that there's not a lot of history and heritage outside of the movie industry. That couldn't be farther from the truth. 

In fact, the Los Angeles Basin was first settled by the Chumash people circa 8,000 BC. By the 16th Century, the main village of the later in-coming Tongva Indians who arrived around 500 BC was situated close to present-day Los Angeles City Hall.

Though Portuguese and Spanish explorers checked out the California coastline quite thoroughly in the 1500s and 1600s, it wasn't until 1769 that Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portola explored the area to open up a land route to the port of Monterey, establishing the first Spanish settlement in the area.

According to Discover Los Angeles' Historical Timeline, it was these first non-native settlers who named the local river Rio de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula (River of Our Lady Queen of the Angels of Porciuncula).

In 1771 Father Junipero Serra established the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, which was later moved to the present-day city of San Gabriel. And in 1781, a group of 11 families comprising 44 Mexicans settled by the river. Mission San Fernando, named for the king of Spain was established in 1797. It later became home to the largest adobe structure in California, hosting 30,000 grape vines and 21,000 head of livestock. 

By 1841, according to the first census in the area, the population of Los Angeles had risen to all of 141 people. However, the following year's first discovery of gold in California at Placerita Canyon, near Mission San Fernando, prompted the city's first population boom. Los Angeles area rancheros were in the right place at the right time to supply beef to the swelling masses of Northern California during the Gold Rush that began in 1849. 

Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality in 1850, and California became the 30th state in the union.

In 1913 Cecil B. de Mille shot the first Hollywood movie, Squaw Man. 

The Hollywood Sign, world-famous icon of LA was created in 1923 as an advertisement for a local real estate development called "Hollywoodland,". And in 1923 a  young cartoonist named Walt Disney arrived in Los Angeles from Hermosa, Chicago with $40 in his pocket.

By 1924, the population of Los Angeles topped one million. Today it is the most populous city in California, home to about four million people and second only in population in the nation, after New York City.

An explosion of commercial growth Downtown LA took place during the 1910s, '20s, and early '30s. Many of the historic buildings near Pershing Square are from this period. The city's strict height limit on buildings was lifted in 1957, triggering another era of boom. However, as skyscrapers altered the city's skyline, regional shopping malls, entertainment complexes and business parks were luring residents and consumers away from the city center and sending Downtown into a rapid decline.

A Renaissance of historic Downtown launched with the opening of Staples Center, home to the Los Angeles Kings, Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Sparks and the passing of the Adaptive Reuse Ordinance in 1999, with obsolete and vacant office buildings being upgraded and converted to other, mostly residential purposes. 

Nowadays visitors are discovering or revisiting the architectural gems of historic LA by taking a hike in the city, either self-guided or with Conservancy Walking Tours.

Regular walking tours include Historic Downtown; Modern Skyline; Broadway Theatre and Commercial District; Art Deco; Downtown Renaissance; Union Station. 

Top of my list for a few days hanging out with my son, Rocco, was a museum marathon. It's a good thing to note that many of the museums in Los Angeles are closed on Tuesdays. After we figured that out, an afternoon in the Last Bookstore was a great way to while away as many hours for as good an example of mother-and-son bookworms as any! 

The Last Bookstore is California's largest new and used book and record emporium, as quirky and enthralling as any large-scale bookstore could be, with stores-within-a-store creating a sense of stumbling into a magical time warp where bibliophiles of all ages read to their hearts delight on comfy velvet couches after browsing floor-to-ceiling wobbly shelves of written and recorded wonder. 

It does any reader/writer the world of good to experience a packed bookstore on a weekday afternoon. I particularly loved visiting the rare book room pictured above. 

Wednesday came around and the museums reopened after their collective day-off. First stop was The Broad, which I had visited three summers ago, but was due another pit-stop. It's a world-renowned gorgeous space and now in its fifth year showcasing a collection of contemporary art from the 1950s to the present.

This dynamic collection features in-depth representations of influential contemporary artists, fostering appreciation of art of our time by advancing education and engagement through exhibitions and diverse public programming to enrich, provoke, inspire. The Broad is home to 2,000 works of art in the Eli and Edythe Broad collection, which is one of the world’s leading collections of postwar and contemporary art.

Thanks to a generous recent endowment, The Broad and other Los Angeles museums are now free to enter, though pre-booking is required. 

By the time Thursday rolled around, there was a few of us Rivettis in town and I tasked Rocco with picking out a quintessential downtown LA dinner venue for us to gather. 

My British/Italian sister-in-law from Philly and an old friend of hers from the UK were delighted by his choice of Papa Cristo's Big Fat Greek Night Family Night Dinner.  

The same family has been feeding the Greek community from its popular market since 1948. It's as old-school as it gets!

Across the street from The Broad, I was happy to catch the seasonal special exhibition With Pleasure: Pattern and Decoration in American Art 1972-1985  in the  The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA).

With Pleasure: Pattern and Decoration in American Art 1972–1985 is the first full-scale scholarly survey of this groundbreaking American art movement, encompassing works in painting, sculpture, collage, ceramics, installation art, and performance documentation. Covering the years 1972 to 1985 and featuring approximately fifty artists from across the United States, the exhibition examines the Pattern and Decoration movement’s defiant embrace of forms traditionally coded as feminine, domestic, ornamental, or craft-based and thought to be categorically inferior to fine art.

We took a ride on the world's shortest railway down to bustling foodie haven Grand Central Market, which has been feeding Angelenos since 1917. Angel's Flight, featured in more than one hundred movies and books and after gathering dust for four years, the legendary, century-old funicular has been rehabbed and restored to its early 1900s glory. Its famed orange and black cars run up and down Bunker Hill.

My husband, Timo had joined me for the latter part of my visit and was keen to walk through The Bradbury Building, not far from Grand Central Market. This is not only the oldest commercial building remaining in the central city and thus one of Los Angeles’ unique treasures, it has earned itself a pop-icon cult status for international fans of Ridley Scott's Scott’s vision of a dystopian 2019 in the 1982 movie Bladerunner. I couldn't help but feel sympathy for those who work in the building today as they navigate groups of gawking tourists taking selfies on the part of the vintage 1893 staircase they're permitted to walk up. 

Behind its modest, mildly Romanesque exterior lies a beautiful light-filled Victorian court that rises almost fifty feet with open cage elevators, marble stairs, and ornate iron railings. 

There's a lot more to see on the history trail of Downtown LA including cultural hub Union Station, the "Last of the Great Railway Stations" built in the United States. The structure combines Art Deco, Mission Revival, and Streamline Moderne style. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. I took a train into Union Station last time I was in LA and look forward to exploring even more of this part of the city next time I visit. 

Click here for a free map that features a 4-mile trail of 17 cultural & historic sites in Downtown LA, starting at Grand Park and ending at the 7th Street Metro Station. Or, start at the trailhead of your choice for a 1- to 2-mile trail! The LA Conservancy, the largest membership-based local historic preservation organization in the country, is dedicated to preserving and revitalizing historic places throughout Los Angeles County. 

Meanwhile, nearby Pasadena is home to the Norton Simon Museum and sculpture garden which Rocco and I visited after a short hike in the Altadena hills. Influential entrepreneur, industrialist, philanthropist and art collector Norton Simon said in 1972: "One of the most profound means of human communication is the visual arts. By establishing a meaningful dialogue between an artist's vision of the world and our own perceptions, art can help us to understand ourselves more fully. Moreover, art at its finest gives us a deep sense of history, tradition, and the true potentialities of man's creativity. In today's world where often scientific development is regarded as the highest goal and where the individual frequently feels alienated from himself and those around him, the role of art becomes increasingly important in keeping open the lines of communication."

Over a period of less than 30 years, Simon amassed what is widely regarded as one of the world's greatest private art collections. His interest in art began in the 1950s with the works of Degas, Renoir, Gauguin and Cézanne. In the 1960s he shaped a major art collection of Old Masters, Impressionists and Modern works which expanded in the 1970s to include Indian and Southeast Asian art.

The Getty Center was on my must-see list for a first-timer during this visit, though it called for a serious detour from downtown. The extraordinary campus of the Getty Museum and other programs of the Getty Trust cost some $1.3 billion to build and opened to the public on December 1997. It is famed for its architecture, gardens, and views overlooking Los Angeles and deserves a post of its own. We barely touched on taking it all in and I'm going to have to make a full-day return visit to write about it in more depth. 

That said, if you go and you're staying downtown, bear in mind, it's a 16-mile drive which may take you between 20 minutes and an hour or more depending on traffic. Direct public transportation is lacking so plan accordingly time-wise if driving and parking and taking the tram up to the center and gardens. The views alone are breathtaking. Make it a whole-day itinerary. 

 

 

 

 

Big Green Country Goes to Bodega Head — Literary Locations — Sonoma Coast, Northern California

When I wrote my novel, Big Green Country's timeline with road trip action at the start of the book taking place during the month of February, I never imagined blue skies as bright and clear as the February day I returned to the spot where characters Bridget and Bobby, Maggie and Marcus pull up in their truck to eat fresh crab sandwiches, overlooking the Pacific Ocean and Bodega Bay at Bodega Head. 

It was pouring with rain in the story and a serious storm was headed their way. 

As you can see from these photos and (rather windy) video clip, if the weather had cooperated as well for the McCleery women and their companions, the story would have taken a very different turn.

If you are familiar with the rugged landscape of the Sonoma Coast and tucked-away Bodega Harbor, with its fleet of salmon and crab fishing boats and small, bustling seafood shacks, you'll immediately identify with the sights, sounds and flavors of this part of the book. 

If you've never been in these parts, you'll feel like you have as soon as you open the pages of Big Green Country. 

Northern California has its own distinct microclimates from coast to valley to mountain, depending on impact of Pacific fog and topography and it has been thrilling to write about the geography and natural history of the region from the Sonoma Coast, through the Russian River watershed and up into the Emerald Triangle of Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity Counties.

I'm thankful that Big Green Country is making its early rounds in book groups in Sonoma and Marin Counties and there has been such a lot to discuss given the contemporary subject matter of this novel which touches on so many major elements of modern life in this part of the world, not least, a family struggling to maintain its multi-generational ranch property, while its youngest member has gone missing after leaving home to trim weed in the north. 

Without throwing in any significant spoilers, the part where the four adults stop for a bite to eat at a favorite crab shack is a fictionalized version of Spud Point Crab Co in Bodega Harbor. 

I made a pit-stop for mid-day lunch and to think about the characters in my book who I've talked about and analyzed with so many readers that they feel quite real to me now. 

Big Green Country is available in print and via Kindle on Amazon.com around the world, at Barnes & Noble.com, Bookshop.org and to order at indie bookstores, and also directly from me via the Paypal button on the homepage of this blog post. 

Please take a few minutes to post a review on Amazon or Goodreads or Barnes & Noble, or Bookshop.org if you've already finished reading your copy. Let me know if you are within driving distance and your bookgroup is interested in a visit from the author. 

Lots of people have asked me about the McCleery ranch and house. Is it real? Does it actually exist? Where is it? It's not one actual ranch but an imagined homestead that I conjured in my mind from my many journeys around coastal Sonoma County. I've always been intrigued by the dilapidated old Victorian ranch homes with their rustic grandeur and long-forgotten beauty. 

The McCleery ranch is, in my mind and in the book, somewhere remote in setting though not all that far to the north of the small coastal town of Tomales, tucked into the rolling hills, overlooking the Pacific. 

Bodega Bay is about a nine mile drive from this fictional ranch, which would take about 20 minutes on the winding roads.

 

 

 

 

Exceptional Trip Tip — Writing Italy — A Week of Writing Masterclasses Deep in the Tuscan Countryside Oct 4th-10th 2020

Here's something special for my writer friends here in Sonoma County and reader/writers elsewhere in the world. Who wouldn't love to find themselves in a writing class deep in the Tuscan countryside for a week, this fall?

This wonderful retreat is on my radar via my dear friend, Michael, a fellow British/American Petaluman who is friends with one of the co-hosts and tutors, award-winning and Sunday Times best-selling author, Helena Attlee.

Close your eyes and take your fingers off your keyboard. Now picture yourself with six days of masterclasses await amidst the comfort and bohemian atmosphere of a 13th-century castle deep in the Tuscan countryside.

Guided by Helena and acclaimed biographer and travel writer Julian Evans, what an extraordinary opportunity to forge new writing skills and ways of seeing and experiencing your surroundings. Whether you wish to write about travel, history, biography or autobiography, landscape, food or nature – any form of creative non-fiction – six days at Castello di Potentino would be an ideal moment to start a new project or look at an existing one with fresh eyes.

During the week you'll view Tuscan shepherds making cheese, taste wines made from the castle vineyards, explore unspoiled landscapes with a local botanist, learn to make pasta and immerse yourself in village life at the market: lived experiences to capture on the page. Working in a small group, learn crafted techniques to strengthen your writing voice and enable you to create storytelling truth from fact. Helena and Julian will also offer one-to-one tutorials.

Special guests include Rachel Roddy, whose weekly column in the Guardian has won her many fans, and Derek Johns, who has recently stepped down from running London’s oldest literary agency.

This six-day stay is priced at around $2000 per person all-inclusive (give or take exchange rate), except for travel to and from which you'll cover the cost of yourself. This seems very reasonable considering the quality of accommodation, meals and instruction. October is a great time to travel to Italy from the U.S. Flight prices aren't too prohibitive after the summer season wraps up.  

Click here to learn more about Castello di Potentino, an ancient castle built on an Etruscan site in a secret valley. 

Click here for more information on how to sign up to attend.

        

 

 

Journey into the Ancient Redwood Forests of Northern California in A Big Green Country Video Excerpt With Author, Frances Rivetti

Pleased to release a book trailer featuring yours truly reading from Chapter 22 (Maggie) of Big Green Country — my newly released novel.

Thanks to trailer director/producer Rocco Rivetti for making this happen at the tail end of his busy Christmas visit home to Sonoma County from LA. We spent a lovely morning together in magical Armstrong Woods. Part of the action of Big Green Country takes place along the Russian River en-route through the Redwood Curtain of Northern California's Emerald Triangle. 

Dominic Rivetti recorded my sampling from a chapter that fit the video recording location perfectly and just as he was leaving home to head back to UC Davis. It's a family production!

This is me wandering the redwood forest in all its mid-winter glory and perusing the landscape of which I've been writing. Enjoy! 

If you haven't yet ordered a copy, head down to your favorite local bookstore and ask them to order you one, or hit the online bookstores, Barnes & Noble, Amazon . . . reviews are coming in online and I'm ever so grateful for all who've taken the time to race through reading Big Green Country and to post reviews on Amazon, AmazonUK and Goodreads. Readers are reaching out from Australia, Spain as well as my native UK. 

Please do share this excerpt with your friends on social media.

Best,

Frances