G R O U P  H I S T O R Y

     Jazz Avenue was formed in October 2000 by the four current members of the group: Monte Alexander, Chip Moyer, Garland Campbell, and Larry Stubbs. Chip and Larry first met during May of 2000 at the Raytheon/Boeing employee park in El Segundo. Larry needed a guitar player to complement his keyboards for an R&B gig. Garland was brought in to play bass on this gig by one of the saxophone players in the band.

     The catalyst that formed the group was a Wednesday night poetry slam at the Current Affair in Inglewood sponsored by the Theater Perception Consortion. TPC wrote the play North on South Central Avenue (click here) which has been playing to rave reviews in the Los Angeles area. Chip was asked to form the house band and asked Larry to join him as a keyboard player. The purpose of the group was to back the various poets and singers performing at the venue. After a while, Larry decided that he wanted some bottom end to the music and asked Garland to bring his bass and sit in. Monte Alexander would show up in the audience to support one of the other groups, 2 + 2, which performed regularly at the event. Wanda Ray Willis was a featured singer at the poetry slam and an actress in plays written by TPC.

     From there, Larry went and bought a drum set to again pursue his first instrument, Garland bought a new bass amp, Monte settled in on the vibes, and Chip started using his hollow-body guitar for its original purpose. The quartet started rehearsing as a straightahead jazz combo and decided to name themselves Jazz Avenue. After a few gigs for the TPC at the current affair, the group recorded a demo CD in April 2001, took a group photo, and started sending out press kits to get gigs.

     The year 2001 found the band performing a concert series at the Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church during the summer and doing private events for the City of Inglewood and other Inglewood organizations during the Fall. In December of 2001 the band started a monthly engagement at the Elephant Walk in Leimert Park which is still going strong.

     In 2002, the band had a breakout year and performed at public venues such as the Luxe Hotel in Beverly Hills with Wanda, Xinh Doi restaurant in Redondo Beach, and The Reef restaurant in Long Beach. In addition, the band did numerous private gigs for organizations such as The Los Angeles Neighborhood Housing Services (LANHS), Toyota, the LA Junior Philharmonic, and the Southeast Communities Prevention and Intervention Programs. The end of the year found the band doing private parties and playing a regular Sunday gig at the Ports O'Call restaurant in San Pedro.

    2003 found the group performing at the Ports O'Call through February and still performing at the Elephant Walk. Some private gigs have included a few with LANHS and a concert at SOKA University in Orange County. The group is currently contemplating taking some time to write some new songs to take into the studio to record a full length CD.

Jazz Avenue on a typical night at the Elephant Walk in Leimert Park