Clips

The Athletics will next be in action at the Surf City Tourneys Summer Showcase, to be held July 7-9. In other action featuring some of the area softball players, Gahr graduates Sophia Magcale (University of Redlands), Hailey Sanchez (California State University, Northridge) and La Mirada High’s Amber Valdez were on the Explosion, which went two and out. After the loss to the Athletics, the Explosion fell to the [Tracy] All American Sports Academy-Clark 7-4 later in the day. Hailey Sanchez went a combined three for seven with two runs scored and a RBI, while Magcale had a pair of hits in four at-bats. -- Los Cerritos News

She went to college at California State University Northridge and studied guitar performance. When she graduated in 1982, however, “there were only a few people making a living doing it at that time.” -- Beverly Press

Whittington, who turns 87 next month, grew up in Los Angeles and started to play boogie-woogie style piano by ear when he was 4. Although he attempted to stick with classical piano lessons, he preferred to teach himself by copying the jazz and popular music of the 1940s that he heard on radio and records. He studied with exceptional jazz piano teacher Sam Saxe by the time he was 16, learning more about keyboard harmony and improvisation than he would from any other teacher at that time. By analyzing the music of Charlie Parker, Bud Powell and other great jazz pianists, Whittington developed quickly and by the time he finished high school he was able to sit in with many of the best musicians on L.A.’s South-Central jazz scene. While earning his college degree in elementary education at CSU Northridge he was working gigs with Bobby Hutcherson, Sonny Criss, Barney Kessel and Charles Lloyd. Later on he worked as an accompanist to singers Anita O’day, Ernestine Anderson, Dinah Washington and Mel Torme. -- Monterey Herald

White is both a CSUN student and retired. -- Santa Clarita Valley Signal