CALENDARWSC / SBSE / SFVN / SGIE / OC calendarlive.comSaturday, March 29, 2008

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Artful and highly inform-ative views of a life behind andinside the music, Daniel Lano-is’ new film “Here Is What Is”and self-released album of thesame title had their Los Ange-les premieres with a screeningand live performance at theVista Theatre on Thursday.

A roving travelogue of theproducer-engineer-guitarist’sexperiences recording in five lo-cations, the film encapsulatesthe musical philosophies anddetailed particulars of Lanois’approach to a new sound forcontemporary music, as told byhimself and his cast of high-profile collaborators, includingU2, Brian Eno and SinéadO’Connor.

The Quebec-born Lanois,56, got his initial career boostthrough collaborations withEno on several albums in theearly ’70s that emphasized sim-plicity, subtle aural resonanceand a nonintellectualized at-tention paid to process. Thepair’s work as producers for U2led to Lanois’ subsequent pro-duction jobs for artists such asBob Dylan, O’Connor, PeterGabriel and Robbie Robertson;the hallmark of Lanois’ soundwas a gift for heightened at-mosphere via emphasis on feelover technical perfection, aswell as his respect for analog re-cording equipment and vintageinstruments.

Musicmakesthe manFor producer-guitaristDaniel Lanois, it’sabout attitude and feel,as a new film shows.By John Payne

Special to The Times

Ringo H.W. Chiu For The Times

PREMIERE: DanielLanois, left, and DarylJohnson, at Vista Theatre.

[See Lanois, Page E13]

Miguel Garcia has lived inLos Angeles for 16 years but un-til recently had never visitedthe Los Angeles County Muse-um of Art. The working-classimmigrant and musician fromOaxaca had never even heardof the place. And neither hadhis two teenage sons, who playin a band led by their father, theLA Boyz.

This week, the Garcias willbecome VIP visitors to the mu-seum as stars of an unusual au-dio/video exhibit that’s part ofa landmark Chicano art showtitled “Phantom Sightings: ArtAfter the Chicano Movement,”which opens April 6. The instal-lation, called “Migrant Dubs,”takes the form of a 10-by-10cube that visitors can enter andwatch videos of the band in itshome studio. The cube ismeant to mimic the studio Gar-cia built in the converted ga-

rage behind the family’s bunga-low in South L.A., not far fromthe infamous intersection ofFlorence and Normandie thatmarked the flash point of theL.A. riots of 1992, the year afterhe crossed the border illegallyand settled here.

The sound cube is the brain-child of two artists who callthemselves Los Jaichackers(Spanglish for hijackers), be-cause they commandeer musicto transform it. They are JulioCesar Morales, 41, of San Fran-

Taking each note,making it theirsThe LA Boyz, featuredas part of a LACMAChicano show, remakemusic and messages.By Agustin Gurza

Times Staff Writer

CULTURE MIX

[See Culture, Page E12]

One of the best-kept secrets in concertmusic is going to be revealed Sunday at WaltDisney Concert Hall.

Blared, actually.The 15 trumpeters who will surround the

audience will do more than signal the openingof John (“The Red Violin”) Corigliano’s “Cir-cus Maximus” in a concert featuring wind andbrass ensembles from USC, CalArts and CalState Northridge. They’ll announce that seri-

ous band music is ready to step out from ashadowy parallel universe and enter themainstream.

Aside from maybe hearing somethingfrom the two dozen much-loved recordingsmade by conductor Frederick Fennell and theEastman Wind Ensemble in the ’50s and early’60s, many music fans who have gone to Dis-ney or other famous concert halls have beenable to spend their whole lives unaware of se-rious band music.

Part of the problem is that most perform-

Ringo H.W. Chiu For The Times

BRASS SOUNDS: Yukari Sakiya of the USC Thornton Wind Ensemble in rehearsal.

Look who’s marching inBands are coming to Disney Hall, and they’re no halftime sideshow.By Chris Pasles

Times Staff Writer

[See Bands, Page E15]

Imust confess: I hadn’tread any Anne Rice be-fore. As a Jew, I haven’tread much about Jesus ei-ther, as I patiently ex-

plained to my editor. Some-thing about “fresh perspective”was mentioned, and the secondinstallment of Rice’s “Christthe Lord” series landed in mytrembling hands.

After all, Rice is huge. AndJesus is really, really huge.What if I didn’t like either one?

I’m relieved to report thatRice brings a liveliness and pal-pable joy to the material, andit’s a page-turner even if you’repretty sure you know how it allends. Plus, it pays to know a lit-

THE SATURDAYREAD

Dealingwith Jesuslike a man

AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE didn’t create dreadful pro-ductions of the three full-length Tchaikovsky classics simplyby blind obedience to tradition. No, in revising and restaging“Swan Lake,” “The Nutcracker” and “The Sleeping Beauty,”artistic director Kevin McKenzie worked hard at clutteringthe narratives with bizarre new plot twists and special effects,even sometimes messing with the music via resequencing

and interpolation.But Thursday, when his 8-year-old “Swan Lake” returned to Southern Cali-

fornia for the start of a five-performance run at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion,his greatest crimes (or sins, if you consider the genuine 1895 “Swan Lake” to beholy writ) were those committed against his dancers.

Here were artists with enough talent, training and dedication to rise abovethe weaknesses of even this production. But they remained far below their po-tential because the company’s current level of coaching left them there. Evencompany ballet master Georgina Parkinson, who should have been helping the

others, needed coaching herself in the mime role of the Queen Mother thatwould have enabled her to ascend and descend staircases regally instead oflooking desperately ill at ease.

Forget the unfortunate corps unisons Thursday, especially in the openingbirthday party. The problem went much deeper and affected the company’s fin-est soloists. Sascha Radetsky, for instance, had an exciting command of thesteps in his expanded duties as the Prince’s friend, Benno. But instead of anelegant flow, his dancing in the pas de trois proved bumpy, his partnering evenrougher.

The McKenzie edition has two of the story’s villain, Rothbart, and both werein trouble. As the more grotesque incarnation of evil, Vitali Krauchenka swirleda long, unmanageable cape that snarled on the scenery and also chopped off oneof the ram’s horns on his head long before his death scene. Supposedly a masterseducer, the sleeker Rothbart of Jared Matthews became technically unreliablein the ballroom sequence that required him to manipulate all the foreignprincesses à la the Matthew Bourne “Swan

Gary Friedman Los Angeles Times

CENTRAL ROLES: David Hallberg’s Prince embraces Michele Wiles’ Swan Queen in the first of five performances at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

DANCE REVIEW

Back to basics, ABTKevin McKenzie strands his dancers in a cluttered, under-coached ‘Swan Lake.’By Lewis Segal

Times Dance Critic

[See Dance, Page E14]

TELEVISION

True-life crime“Green River Killer” is a rarityin a “CSI” world. Page 4

FANANA REPUBLIC

Boy band du jourNew column looks at rise ofthe Jonas Brothers. Page 6

Comics 18-19 Sudoku .......18Letters.........10 TV grid .......20

In Calendar

Christ the LordThe Road to Cana

Anne Rice

Alfred A. Knopf: 246 pp., $25.95

By Anne Boles Levy

Special to The Times

[See Book review, Page E16]

LAET_ 03-29-2008_ E_ 1_ E1_ LA_ 1_CMYKTSet: 03-28-2008 15:05