Clips

The Soraya, a new epicenter for jazz in L.A., launches its second annual Jazz at Naz Festival with five nights of the best of Jazz performances kicking off on Thursday, February 2 with Christian McBride’s The Movement Revisited: a Musical Portrait of Four Icons. A performance commemorating Civil Rights heroes at the very beginning of Black History Month. Powered by a relentless energy and boundless love of swing, eight-time Grammy Award-winning bassist Christian McBride leads a Big Band and Gospel choir in an exuberant and powerful musical tribute to Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, and Barack Obama. Honorary Chair for the Jazz at Naz February 2 opening night will be LA City Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson. -- NoHo Arts District

After attending Lake Highland Prep in Orlando, Phillips went to Yale University where he played on both sides of the ball (cornerback and running back), ran track and majored in Psychology and minored in Religious Philosophy. A Yale graduate in 2001, he acquired two masters degrees from an MBA from Wagner College (MBA) and Cal State Northridge (MS in Kinesiology Biomechanics). -- Herald-Tribune

The overwhelming majority of mass shooters in the Violence Project report were men. This likely reflects the social pressure on males to “be stronger, tougher and have the final word, with that final word sometimes being violence,” said Vickie Jensen, a professor of Department of Criminology and Justice Studies at California State University, Northridge. -- The New York Times

In honor of California's iconic and beloved redwood, sequoia and Joshua trees, Hammer Theatre Center will invite audiences to Treelogy, a musical tribute created in response to the wildfires that ravaged the state's ancient forests in 2020, which continue to impact the lives of Californians today. Commissioned by The Soraya at California State University Northridge, this three-part concert features works by lauded Grammy- winners Steven Mackey, and Billy Childs, and exciting new composer Gabriella Smith. Mackey taps into his Northern California roots with his tribute to the coastal redwood, while Smith's work will focus on the Joshua tree, and Childs composition will explore the giant sequoia. -- Broadway World, San Francisco