The Real Stars

Commentary — By Buddy Sampson on June 18, 2013 at 12:20 pm

By Buddy Sampson

Whew! It’s been a hectic couple of months. We now have our event to benefit Children’s Hospital Los Angeles in full force, to take place June 22^nd. We have a lot of people to whom we are grateful, for making this project happen. First we thank The Creator. Arsineh Alenkin, Betrice Coleman, Maro Nercessian, Cindy Schoonover, Lamar Webster, Jennifer Robin Laskey and Deborah Hayter are among the people we express gratitude for finally making this happen.

I’d love for you to attend. There are still tickets available.  But many of you may ask why I wanted to do an event like this one. Well, it was to debut my band and show others love through music, and try to help someone in the process.  So we talked about charities and we chose Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. The hospital does outstanding work every day, caring for thousands of children under very challenging circumstances.

We always talk about stars, but the real stars are the staff at hospitals like Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, who are in the trenches, dealing with situations none of us could even imagine. As a guest, on the June 22^nd show, we have Irina Alfonso-Hildalgo, from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. She works in the cardiology unit there and I’m excited to hear her story and you will be too, if you come to the event.

Our host for the evening is the legendary Lee Bailey, a radio icon. You may remember Mr. Bailey as doing the radio show Lee Bailey Radioscope. We are excited to have him. Opening the show are The Scribes, a group formed of three writers, Scott Yanow,  Richard Ginell and I. Scott, who plays tenor saxophone, clarinet and melodica has been writing about jazz for several years. His recent work is a book, “The Great Jazz Guitarists,” that music critics are raving about. Richard has written for the Los Angeles Times and the Daily Variety, among others, but his piano and keyboard chops will be on display June 22^nd. We borrowed Ted Schumacher on trumpet from Louie Prima, and Dean Rohan, who plays in several jazz ensembles around town.

Singer Javelyn will take the stage next, followed by my group, “Buddy Sampson and Friends,” which features Rachel Grace on violin, myself on bass, Joseph John on keyboards, Curtis Sanford on drums and Lamar Webster on additional bass. In a sneak preview, we have the American Ballet of Los Angeles, who will dance to an original composition of mine. We also have other surprise musicians that may take the stage that night. Closing the show is CrossTown Traffic, Lamar Webster’s sensational group, who will help you dance the night away.

We hope you support us. You may buy tickets at this link:

http://jazzandblueswbuddysampson.eventbrite.com/

Support a great cause and have fun as well. I hope you come and I promise to do my best to entertain you. But remember, the real stars are people like the staff at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. We love you and God Bless you!

Buddy Sampson

Publisher, The Scoop LA