Meet Rocco Somazzi of Angel City Arts

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rocco Somazzi.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I started presenting music in 1998 when I opened my eponymous restaurant & jazz club in Bel Air, which was located where Vibrato is now operating. After selling the business in 2001, I kept presenting music at various spots around LA, from the Lillian Theatre in Hollywood to Cafe Metropol in DTLA and Royal/T in Culver City to name a few. In 2007 I had this idea of producing a jazz festival to feature some of my favorite musicians I had worked with up to that point and in 2008 I presented the very first Angel City Jazz Festival at Barnsdall Art Park, featuring 10 bands on two stages performing live sets from 2pm to 11pm. In 2009, in partnership with Cryptogramophone Records’ founder Jeff Gauthier, we formed a non-profit organization name Angel City Arts and started developing the festival into a multi-day and multi-venue celebration of creative Jazz from around the world.

The festival has now grown into a multi-week event at some of the best venues in LA such as The Ford, REDCAT, 2220 Arts, Zipper & Thayer Hall & LACMA.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Keeping the festival going has been a constant struggle. I’m actually surprised that I was able to keep doing it 15 years in a row (including a virtual festival in 2020). Creative Jazz in all its iterations (which are many) is for the most part a style of music that is generally ignored by the population at large. Fortunately, there is an amazing (albeit small) community of great musicians and enthusiastic music lovers who have continued to work with us and support our activities through the years.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Angel City Arts is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with a stated mission of cultivating and revitalizing jazz culture in Los Angeles. We’re best known for producing the annual Angel City Jazz Festival, which usually happens in October at various venues throughout LA. We consistently feature the most innovative and original jazz musicians working today, balancing established artists with emerging talent and focusing on west coast creative jazz, past, present and future.

What sets us apart is an uncompromising commitment to presenting the highest level of music regardless of commercial success or any other factors. The music you’ll hear at our concerts is very different from the music you hear all over the radio, TV or at conventional/pop concerts, the main reason being that the music we like is not crafted to please the lowest common denominator; instead, it is a genuine personal expression of highly accomplished musicians who know how to communicate deep thoughts and feelings through their music. Not everyone will like all of the artists we present, but when you connect with music that resonates with you, the listening experience can become truly transcendental and unlike anything else.

The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
As live concerts came to a stop during the pandemic, we had to figure out how to keep supporting LA-based jazz musicians and keep producing and presenting music. Instead of jumping on the live streaming wagon that most people resorted to as a viable alternative to live performances, we decided to explore VR technology and see if we could create immersive VR content that replicates the experience of listening to live music at a concert. Over 2020 and 2021 we produced over 20 hours of VR concert footage that is viewable through a Quest 2 headset. We believe this technology still has a lot of potentials and we’re currently looking at ways to expand our VR music productions.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://angelcityjazz.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/angelcityjazz/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/angelcityarts/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Angel_City_Jazz
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@angelcityjazztv

Image Credits
Photos by Myles Regan