The Hammer Museum’s JazzPop Fest Features theBABAorchestra

theBABAorchestra performs August 9, at the Hammer Museum’s 13th annual JazzPOP festival. | Photo from Facebook.

UCLA’s Hammer Museum kicks off its 13th annual JazzPOP three-week festival this Thursday (Aug. 2), featuring free concerts by visionary and up-and-coming West Coast musicians/composers. Organized by San Francisco Bay Area bassist Lisa Mezzacappa, the festival showcases a colorful range of jazz, from contemporary chamber music to funkier sounds from across the world.

JazzPOP’s Week 2 (on Aug. 9) features a performance by CalArts alum Lauren Elizabeth Baba (Music BFA 12) and the band she formed while at CalArts, theBABAorchestra.

From the program:

An in-demand violinist in both commercial and experimental music scenes in Los Angeles, Lauren Elizabeth Baba formed her big band, theBABAorchestra, between string-section gigs at the Oscars, the Grammys, the Hollywood Bowl, and film soundstages. She conducts 17 of L.A.’s best and brightest improvisers through her dynamic compositions, which meld free-jazz, contemporary classical, drone rock, and Middle Eastern folk music. A recipient of the ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award, Baba tailors her writing to the unique musical voices of her bandmembers, letting the music simmer in intimate, hypnotic passages, and also letting it rage in wild collective flights: ‘she’s establishing adventurous new territory… Baba is an artist to watch’ (Downbeat Magazine).

TheBABAorchestra features several other CalArtians:

• Michael Mull (Music MFA 10), alto saxophone/clarinet
• Joe Santa Maria (Music MFA 10), alto saxophone/clarinet
• Andrew Conrad (Music MFA 10), tenor saxophone/clarinet
• Ryan Parrish (Music MFA 12), baritone saxophone
• Brandon Sherman (Music MFA 09), trumpet
• Greg Zilboorg (Music MFA 11), trumpet
• Mike Lockwood (Music MFA 11), drums
• Greg Uhlmann (Music BFA 14), guitar
• Harrison Kirk (Music MFA 10), trombone
• Steve Blum (Music MFA 10), piano
• Andrew Rowan (Music MFA 12), trumpet
• Emilio Terranova (Music MFA 11), bass

Rounding out the band are saxophonist Kirsten Edkins, trumpeter Javier Gonzalez, and trombonists Joey Sellers and Juliane Gralle.

For more information about the JazzPOP festival, visit the Hammer’s website.

Check out theBABAorchestra performing “t.i.m.e. [the immediate measure (of) energy]” in the video below: