Summer Jazz Will Fill the Athenaeum Thursday

Los Angeles-based Lounge Art Ensemble, featuring drummer extraordinaire Peter Erskine, saxophonist Bob Sheppard, and bassist Darek Oles, will play the Thursday at 7:30 p.m. 

Originally created by Bob Sheppard and bassist Dave Carpenter as a creative composing and improvising laboratory, the Lounge Art Ensemble has released two albums with Peter Erskine and toured extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe.

Following Dave Carpenter's untimely death, Darek Oles was recruited to keep the band alive and the group has flourished with his addition. Using time-tested jazz standards as a jumping-off point, the LAE continues to explore the possibilities of the horn trio in a most modern and refreshing way, as evidenced by such “unstandard standards” as “I Hear a Rap CD” and “Jung at Heart.”

It is West Coast jazz with a vengeance and an East Coast edge, the music wry, well balanced, and swinging. The group brings together three top West Coast-based musicians: Peter Erskine, one of the preeminent drummers in jazz; Bob Sheppard, known as “a suave, sophisticated player, with a seductive suppleness and sheen to his sound” (DownBeat); and Darek Oles, whose many associations include Charles Lloyd, Bennie Maupin, and Brad Mehldau.

Tickets are $21 for members and $26 for nonmembers. To reserve tickets call 858-454-5872.

The Athenaeum Music & Arts Library is located at 1008 Wall St., La Jolla, CA 92037.

–Athenaeum Music & Arts Library