Kirk Silsbee
Kirk Silsbee has long been recognized as a journalist who writes about jazz and culture from a Southern California point of view.
Before he heard the call to musical prayer from Louis, Duke, Billie, Bird, and Miles, however, he grew up in the middle of the Los Angeles Renaissance of 1960s pop music. He heard rock, pop, rhythm 'n' blues, soul, surf, folk, garage, folk-rock, psychedelic and even jazz over radio stations KRLA, KFWB, KBLA, KHJ, KGFJ, KDAY and XERB. Deejays like B. Mitchel Reed, Dave Diamond, Humble Harve, Wolfman Jack, Emperor Hudson, Tom "the Master Blaster" Reed, Ted Quillan, the Real Don Steele, the Magnificent Montague, Sam Riddle, Johnny Hayes, Reb Foster, Larry McCormick, Gene Weed, Roger Christian, Dick Biondi, and Jimmy Rabbit, among others, were his conduits to the music. Local television offered shows like The Cinnamon Cinder, The Lloyd Thaxton Show, Shindig!, Shivaree, 9th St. West, Hollywood a Go Go, Groovy and Shebang.
Silsbee was raised in the Imperial Village section of Inglewood, in the geographical nexus that lay between Lishon’s Records, the Tip Top Club and the home of Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson. Before he learned about the blues at the Ash Grove and jazz at the Lighthouse, Silsbee attended his first concert: Cream at the Anaheim Convention Center in May of 1968. With that kind of banquet spread before him, is it any wonder he writes about music? The kid didn't have a chance.
74 articles
List of articles in the library
Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson: Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson: Folks Called Him Mr. Cleanhead
Obituary by Kirk Silsbee, Los Angeles Reader, 23 September 1988
TWO YEARS ago Eddie Vinson took part in a sax summit show at the Music Machine in West Los Angeles. In the artist's lounge before ...
The Five Blind Boys of Alabama: Critic's Choice: The Five Blind Boys of Alabama
Report by Kirk Silsbee, Los Angeles Reader, 13 January 1989
THREE YEARS AGO, the extraordinary musical The Gospel at Colonus stormed Broadway. It brilliantly reimagined the Sophocles tragedy Oedipus at Colonus by telling the story through ...
World Saxophone Quartet: Rhythm 'n Blues (Elektra/Musician)
Review by Kirk Silsbee, Musician, September 1989
JUST AS WSQ triumphantly addressed the music of Ellington/Strayhorn on its own terms a couple of years ago, so they now tip their mouthpieces to ...
Profile and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Los Angeles Reader, 20 November 1990
AN OFT-REPEATED myth about American popular music is that the early 1960s were a fallow period, dominated by greasy teen idols named Bobby. Supposedly, domestic ...
Sleeve notes by Kirk Silsbee, Fantasy Records, June 1991
FRANK OWENS, arranger/pianist and strawboss of the music on this album, was running down his chart to the band at Sage and Sound in Hollywood ...
Billy Boy Arnold: Back Where I Belong (Alligator)
Sleeve notes by Kirk Silsbee, Alligator, August 1993
SPEAK FACE to face with bluesman Billy Boy Arnold and you have the feeling that something about him doesn't quite add up. He looks to ...
Hank Ballard and the Midnighters: Hank Ballard: A Talk With Mr. Twister
Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Los Angeles Reader, 13 August 1993
If you not movin' your hips, it just ain't happenin'. – Hank Ballard on dancing ...
Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Los Angeles Reader, 25 March 1994
For R&B Hall of Famer Mable John, Music Has Healing Powers ...
Duke Henderson: Get Your Kicks (Delmark)
Sleeve notes by Kirk Silsbee, Delmark Records, May 1994
ASK THE handful of remaining African-American performers and entertainers who were active during Los Angeles' Central Avenue heyday in the 1940s about blues singer Duke ...
After 40 Years, the Homeboys Are Still Cruisin' With Dick "Huggy Boy" Hugg
Retrospective and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Los Angeles Reader, 11 November 1994
AT LAST SUMMER'S Los Angeles County Fair in Pomona, one of the most popular attractions wasn't a thrill ride, exhibit, installation or culinary offering. ...
Cholly Atkins: The Man Who Taught Motown How to Dance
Retrospective and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Los Angeles Reader, 20 January 1995
CHARLES "CHOLLY" ATKINS has had two careers, and he has flourished in both. In the golden age of tap, he was half of one ...
Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Los Angeles Reader, 24 February 1995
VOCALIST DARLENE Love's career is filled with ironies. She is most closely identified with Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" recordings, made in Los Angeles in ...
The Beatles: A Hard Day's Documentary: You Can't Do That! The Making of A Hard Day's Night
Retrospective by Kirk Silsbee, Los Angeles Reader, 3 March 1995
FILM CRITIC Roger Ebert ranks it "among the five best musicals I've ever seen." Andrew Sarris dubbed it "the Citizen Kane of jukebox movies." ...
Excello: It Came From the Swamp
Overview by Kirk Silsbee, Huh, September 1995
ONE OF the hallmarks of a great regional record label is the ability to define a time and place in the mind's ear. Think of ...
King Cotton: Bad Acid, the Bonedaddys and the Blues! King Cotton Has Lived Through 'Em All
Profile and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, BAM, 25 July 1997
IF YOU happen to find yourself at B.B. King's at the Universal Citywalk on a Sunday night, you'll encounter an unusual musical aggregation. ...
Shooting Stars: Denny Bruce Produced Plenty Of Legends – But Never Became One
Profile and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, LA New Times, 11 September 1997
STROLL THROUGH Denny Bruce's home on a hillside north of Sunset Boulevard, and you wander through mementos of a career spent nurturing greatness. ...
Geoff Muldaur: Nightstick: Geoff Muldaur
Profile by Kirk Silsbee, New Times Los Angeles, 4 February 1999
AN UNSUNG GIFT from a bygone era, the Jim Kweskin Jug Band had many things to recommend it: Kweskin's anachronistic, roughhouse vocals; Mel Lyman's stirring, ...
Rick Holmstrom: Gonna Get Wild (Tone Cool)
Sleeve notes by Kirk Silsbee, Tone Cool, October 1999
IF YOU'VE partaken of the thriving blues scene in Los Angeles in the last 15 years, you've probably crossed paths with guitarist Rick Holmstrom. ...
Tom Rush: Nightstick: 'No Regrets'
Report by Kirk Silsbee, New Times Los Angeles, 18 November 1999
CAN'T REMEMBER exactly when the seminal folkie Tom Rush was last heard around here, but Saturday's show at McCabe's is definitely a case of long ...
Otis Rush: Peoples is Peoples: The Otis Rush Interview
Interview by Kirk Silsbee, House of Blues Online, January 2000
THERE WERE three young guitarists in 1960s Chicago who moved the blues forward to new areas of expression: Buddy Guy, the late Magic Sam (Samuel ...
Lonnie Johnson: The Unsung Blues Legend (Blues Magnet)
Review by Kirk Silsbee, New Times Los Angeles, 20 July 2000
SO THOROUGHLY has the myth of the hell-bound Mississippi Delta bluesman captured the public's imagination that it's narrowed the definition of just what constitutes a ...
Shuggie Otis: Nightstick: Shuggie Otis
Report by Kirk Silsbee, New Times Los Angeles, 5 July 2001
THE GUITAR-PLAYING son of R&B pioneer Johnny Otis was a genuine Los Angeles success story in the early 1970s. ...
Roy Gaines: Backside of the Blues: Roy Gaines at the Chalkboard
Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Senior Life, March 2003
IF EDUCATORS WERE to design a college course on the history of the blues, they could do a lot worse than study Roy Gaines. ...
Interview by Kirk Silsbee, LA CityBeat, 28 August 2003
WHEN BRUCE Springsteen slipped into his Baptist-preacher mode and acknowledged E Street Band members at the Forum in Inglewood last year, he concluded his round-robin ...
Love: Caught in the Act: Love Reprises Forever Changes
Live Review by Kirk Silsbee, DownBeat, September 2003
Love: Royce Hall, UCLA, Los Angeles ...
Ornette Coleman, Charlie Haden: Jazz Critic's Choice: Ornette Coleman and Charlie Haden
Profile by Kirk Silsbee, LA CityBeat, 4 November 2004
IN 1954, IF you had stepped through the door at 309 N. Main St. in downtown L.A., you would've entered a netherworld of vice called ...
Report and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, LA CityBeat, 24 February 2005
THE BAR AT THE RITZ-CARLTON in South Pasadena has hand-rubbed wood on the walls and a copious amount of plush sofas and chairs. Bookcases ...
The Malibooz: John Zambetti's Endless Summer: The Malibooz
Retrospective and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Senior Life, August 2005
MOST OF US HAVE keepsakes from our youth. A toy, a doll, a baseball glove – some 'Rosebud' object that once meant the world to ...
Book Review by Kirk Silsbee, LA CityBeat, 18 August 2005
HE GAVE UP writing because playing jazz seemed like an easier way to make a living. In the era dominated by Charlie Parker, he developed an ...
Stardust and Sawdust Nights: Los Angeles Bars of a Bygone Age
Guide by Kirk Silsbee, LA CityBeat, 8 December 2005
Martoni's ...
Freddie King, Howard Tate: Freddie King and Howard Tate are the Soul of Gospel and Blues
Report by Kirk Silsbee, Pasadena Weekly, 16 February 2006
TOO OFTEN we're reminded that soul – the fundament of black gospel and blues—is fast slipping away from us. Losing Wilson Pickett and Lou Rawls in ...
Report and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, LA CityBeat, 3 November 2006
FLYING INTO Kansas City, Missouri, you see a huge patchwork landscape of eccentric green and brown shapes that is farmland acreage. These are both separated ...
Live Review by Kirk Silsbee, LA CityBeat, 9 November 2006
OUT OF CURIOSITY and love of a good story, I've had a longstanding parlor question for jazz-minded friends on the far side of 60. What ...
James Brown: Caught in The Act: James Brown's Soul on Top
Live Review by Kirk Silsbee, DownBeat, December 2006
WHEN SOUL shouter James Brown released his big band album – Soul on Top – in 1970, it was received as neither fish nor fowl ...
Kansas City: Sorry But I Can't Take You
Report and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, JazzTimes, December 2006
KANSAS CITY, MO – It was like a scene out of The Godfather or Goldfinger, only it was on the storied corner of 18th and ...
John Densmore: Opening New Doors
Live Review by Kirk Silsbee, LA CityBeat, 21 December 2006
SANTA MONICA'S THIRD STREET PROMENADE got an extra measure of holiday cheer last Wednesday evening. Drummer John Densmore's Tribaljazz convened in front of the ...
At Hatikvah Music, the Whole World is Jewish
Report and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, 23 December 2006
BOXES ARE SCATTERED around the floor of Hatikvah Music International at 436 N. Fairfax Avenue. Stacks of CDs, reams of packing plastic, mounds of mailing ...
The Beach Boys: David Anderle's California Nights
Profile and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Life After 50, May 2007
"WATCH YOUR HEAD," cautions David Anderle. The retired record industry executive-turned-painter is leading the way down a steep, narrow stairway in his classic Spanish-style home ...
Maria Muldaur: Sweet and Sassy, Bawdy and Blue
Profile and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Detroit Metro Times, 29 August 2007
WHEN SINGER Maria Muldaur takes the stage at this week's Detroit Jazz Festival, it will be a culmination of a chain of events that run ...
Comment by Kirk Silsbee, LA CityBeat, 4 October 2007
HOW MANY of us wish we could have seen and heard Ellington's Jump For Joy musical at the Mayan Theatre, Charlie Parker at the Finale ...
Bob Dylan: Stories and Questions
Comment by Kirk Silsbee, Life After 50, March 2008
Well I'll be damned; here comes your ghost again... (Joan Baez, 'Diamonds and Rust') ...
Up From the Ashes: Ed Pearl's Art and Activism
Profile and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, 18 April 2008
IT'S ELEVEN A.M. and Ed Pearl is the first customer at Masa, his restaurant of choice in Echo Park. The owner, Tom, greets him warmly, ...
Anat Cohen: Jazz clarinetist Anat Cohen — so many roads
Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, 28 July 2008
JAZZ STAYS VITAL by virtue of the young players who step up and bring something new to the music. One of the most delightful "arrivals" ...
Love: Orange Skies Over the Castle
Retrospective by Kirk Silsbee, New Angeles Monthly, October 2008
"Love – featured tonight in the Diamond Mine! On display in the psychedelic department store!" –Dave Diamond, KBLA, June 16, 1967 ...
Ian Whitcomb: The Troubadour Of Lost Time
Retrospective and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Arroyo Monthly, January 2009
POET HOLLY PRADO once observed: "A city either wants you or it doesn't." Ian Whitcomb was a history student at Dublin's Trinity College with ...
Buffalo Springfield: R.I.P. Buffalo Springfield's Dewey Martin
Obituary by Kirk Silsbee, Goldmine, 12 March 2009
68 YEAR-OLD Dewey Martin, the steady percussive hand behind the drums in Buffalo Springfield, one of the most legendary 1960s rock bands, died Feb. 1 ...
The Seeds: Real Gone: Sky Saxon
Obituary by Kirk Silsbee, MOJO, September 2009
SKY SAXON, the colorful lead singer and sometime bassist of the Seeds, one of the great Sunset Strip bands of the 1960s, died June 25 ...
Burt Bacharach, Dionne Warwick: Déjà Vu: The Unstoppable Dionne Warwick
Retrospective and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Arroyo Monthly, June 2010
You could be a good singer from now 'til hell and back and if you haven't got material, you're just standing there with your mouth ...
Book Excerpt by Kirk Silsbee, 'A Perfect Haze' (Santa Monica Press), 2011
THE UNTOLD STORY of 1960s rock is the often-uncredited role that studio musicians played in the records that were the soundtrack to the era's youth. ...
Report by Kirk Silsbee, Los Angeles Downtown News, 17 October 2011
JAMES BROWN HAD a signature piece of stagecraft that he honed over the years, beginning in the 1950s when he worked his way up through ...
The Beach Boys: Good Vibrations and Endless Summers: The Beach Boys in Hawthorne
Retrospective by Kirk Silsbee, South Bay, Summer 2011
YOU HAVE TO look for it. Nothing on 120th Street gives an indication as you drive along the north side of the Hawthorne Airport. ...
Obituary by Kirk Silsbee, L.A. Weekly, 19 January 2012
BANDLEADER, drummer/pianist, talent scout, club owner, broadcaster, recording executive, writer, and recording artist Johnny Otis passed away Jan. 17 at the age of 90 in ...
Dave Porter: Uncompromising Composer, Master Mood Setter, Studio City Dweller
Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Our Ventura Blvd, September 2012
AMC'S taut, psychological thriller, Breaking Bad, has short bursts of action, but it's explosive action. The story of a chemistry teacher diagnosed with terminal cancer ...
Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Our Ventura Blvd, November 2012
By day, you'll find him on the quiet streets of Toluca Lake. But at night, DJ Vice, one of the most popular disc jockeys in ...
Laura Nyro, Mark Winkler: Mark Winkler Finds Healing in the Songs of Laura Nyro
Report and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, 7 June 2013
ASK JAZZ SINGER and songwriter Mark Winkler which of his parents he favors and he's unequivocal. "Oh, I'm definitely my mother's son," he grins. "My ...
Book Excerpt by Kirk Silsbee, Turn Up the Radio!... (Santa Monica Press), 2014
MOST AM RADIO DEEJAYS of the 1960s used airtime to cultivate their own images between records; very few paid serious attention to the music they ...
George Harrison, Ravi Shankar: Ravi and George in the Angel City
Book Excerpt by Kirk Silsbee, 'It Was Fifty Years Ago Today', 2014
GEORGE HARRISON is credited with bringing Indian music and Ravi Shankar to the attention of the larger public, through his sitar playing on 'Norwegian Wood', ...
Report by Kirk Silsbee, Times Times 3, 23 February 2014
LIKE EVERY fourth Sunday of the month, I showed up at Inglewood First Presbyterian Church early today to handle the sound system duties: setting up ...
Sun Ra: The Solar Myth Revisited: Sun Ra's Centenary Observed
Report by Kirk Silsbee, Glendale News-Press, 4 April 2014
HIS BIRTH certificate said Birmingham, Alabama but the man who called himself Sun Ra declared that he was from the planet Saturn. Miles Davis set ...
Book Review by Kirk Silsbee, DownBeat, July 2014
AMERICAN POP MUSIC from the no-man's-land after The Day The Music Died (Buddy Holly's fatal 1959 plane crash) and before the arrival of the Beatles ...
Alon Nechushtan: Jazz music with Israeli roots
Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, 9 July 2014
THE HISTORY of jazz is rife with junctures where the music received an infusion of creative innovation from the far-flung provinces: Louis Armstrong turned Chicago ...
Leonard Cohen: Tea and Oranges on High Holy Days
Retrospective by Kirk Silsbee, Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, 17 October 2014
LIKE MANY OF us, author Harvey Kubernik first heard Leonard Cohen through his interpreters. Judy Collins recorded Cohen's obliquely lyrical 'Suzanne' and the sardonic suicide ...
Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Glendale News-Press, 12 March 2015
EPIPHANIES can be spurred by the most unlikely occurrences, and that can certainly hold true for practitioners of the blues. ...
Bobby Fuller Four, The : Let 'Em Dance: The Bobby Fuller Four Recalled
Retrospective by Kirk Silsbee, Artsmeme.com, 21 March 2015
THE HOLLYWOOD Renaissance of the 1960s didn't need the Bobby Fuller Four. That unique conflagration of bands, managers, impresarios, producers, studios, engineers, session players, record ...
P. F. Sloan: P.F. Sloan: Requiem For An Icon of Song
Retrospective by Kirk Silsbee, Glendale News-Press, 2 January 2016
SONGWRITER P.F. Sloan died in November of pancreatic cancer, at age 70. Though the general music audience has seldom known his name, among singers and tunesmiths ...
Eden Ahbez: Legend of The Lost
Retrospective by Kirk Silsbee, L.A. Weekly, 8 July 2016
SOME PEOPLE only have one hit record in them. History's one-hit wonders make up a long, sometimes colorful and often tragic legion. Eden Ahbez got ...
Ella Fitzgerald: 100 Songs For a Centennial (Verve 2016-00957)
Sleeve notes by Kirk Silsbee, Verve Records, February 2017
AT FIRST BLUSH, a hundred songs from any artist seems like overkill. In the case of Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996), whose recordings number in the thousands, ...
Terry Gibbs: House Terry Gibbs built at Age 92 delights jazz fans
Retrospective and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, 14 June 2017
UNTIL A FEW YEARS AGO, vibraphonist Terry Gibbs was the oldest performing headliner in jazz. But at 91, he decided to cover his vibes for ...
Avishai Cohen: Trumpeter Avishai Cohen among Israelis on jazz scene
Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, 30 August 2017
TO GET AN idea of the collective impact that Israeli musicians have had on American jazz in the past two decades, consider that when the ...
The Doors, Jim Morrison: Jim Morrison at Thee Experience
Book Excerpt by Kirk Silsbee, 'The Doors: Summer's Gone', September 2017
AFTER THE DOORS had tasted success, Hollywood was Jim Morrison's playground. The Whisky a Go Go in West Hollywood, which launched the band, showcased all ...
Cory Beers Cimbalom Band: A musical mix from Hungary: Cimbalom at Union Station
Report by Kirk Silsbee, Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, 22 September 2017
UNION STATION HAS long been a repository of emotional memory and civic history. ...
Fred Hersch: Open Book May Rewrite Hersch's Grammy History
Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, 3 January 2018
TOP CONTEMPORARY JAZZ pianist Fred Hersch, who is nominated for two 2018 Grammy Awards, has long channeled his turbulent life into his work. The 62-year-old ...
Ella Fitzgerald: An Angel Sings: Ella Fitzgerald's Live at Zardi's
Sleeve notes by Kirk Silsbee, Verve Records, Spring 2018
"Zardi's spares absolutely no expense to bring you the greatest. As I mentioned before, for two-and-a-half weeks, now, it's been my pleasure to make this ...
Mark Sebastian: Trick Of The Light
Sleeve notes by Kirk Silsbee, Black Sheep Global Records, February 2024
FROM TIME to time, Mark Sebastian's well-meaning comperes have cautioned him about the lyrical content of some of his songs. Sebastian's literate and sophisticated songs ...
back to LIBRARY
