Guitar

Lolita Harper HILLSIDE DISTRICT -- Musician Gabriel Kavaloski was able to find a silver lining in his guitar case after being burglarized recently. When thieves stole his guitar out of his girlfriend's car two weeks ago, it was banged up, dirty and without strings. But when he got it back, it was clean and had brand-new strings, he said. "That was kind of cool. I guess the guys who stole it knew they couldn't sell it like it was and fixed it up. So I got free strings for my guitar," Kavaloski said.

Liza Carbe and Jean-Pierre Durand each had successful music careers before they met. Now, this Glendale husband and wife are making beautiful music together with the band Incendio. “We call our music Latin guitar world fusion,” Durand said. “It’s all instrumental upbeat Spanish guitar. The most popular act that is doing our style of music is the Gipsy Kings.” The band’s music is a mix of styles, Carbe said. “It’s more world elements and rhythms, like Middle Eastern music, Celtic, jazz improvisation,” she said.

Family and friends toasted guitar legend Randy Rhoads on Sunday during a release party for a Cabernet Sauvignon that bears his name. Rhoads was the lead guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne and Quiet Riot before he was killed in a plane crash while on tour with Osbourne in 1982. The D'Argenzio Winery created the 2005 vintage at the full production facility in Santa Rosa, and the wine is being exclusively sold there and at the family's tasting room in Burbank. Kathy Rhoads D'Argenzio, who is married to Richard D'Argenzio, has been trying to come up with a way to honor her brother.

Molly Shore When Angela Val Verde came into this world, doctors didn't have to spank the newborn, her mother, Mariaelena Hernandez-Val Verde, said. "She came out screaming, and the doctors said, 'She will probably be a singer,' " Hernandez-Val Verde said. Val Verde, 31, is a Burbank chanteuse who won the round two competition Thursday in the World Championships of Performing Arts at the Hilton Burbank Airport and Convention Center. Val Verde moves up to this evening's final competition in vocals, in which she is the only American competitor.

Prince of Persian Pop stops at Alex Theatre GLENDALE -- Andy Madadian, known as the Prince of Persian Pop, will appear at 8 p.m. Sunday at The Alex Theatre in Glendale. He will be debuting songs from his new album "And My Heart ..." on the Mondo Melodia label. He has created a fusion of sounds that combines traditional Middle Eastern instruments with the Western world's drums, bass, guitar and technology. Aside from his Persian-Armenian heritage, Andy combines Arabic melodies with African rhythms, which he seasons with Indian and Spanish flamenco guitar licks and European techno.

La Brie’s Bar in Glendale, formerly the Scene, played home to Foo Fighters’ lead guitarist, Chris Shiflett, on the last leg of his solo tour that spanned up and down the West Coast, but it was his opening act, folk singer-songwriter Audra Mae, who blew the moderate-sized crowd away with her strong and soulful voice and lyrics. With a single guitar chord, the Oklahoma native who wrote the only original track off Susan Boyle’s debut album, “I Dreamed a Dream,” hushed the crowd and sang “The River,” a poignant song about sin and regret.

Katherine Tolford, Enjoy! GLENDALE -- With the help of his lucky charms, including a 30-year-old Ovation guitar, Glendale resident Eddie Cunningham strummed his way to victory, winning the eighth annual Jim Beam Country Band Search on Nov. 11. Cunningham, who used the same guitar for two previous contests at the Grand Ole Opry, hoped the third time would be the charm. "I took it out of the closet and said 'We're going back to Nashville,' " said the 36-year-old Cunningham, whose songs have been featured on the "Made in America" soundtrack and the "Gram Parsons Notebook CD."

The walls of Burbank High School’s auditorium throbbed with adolescent angst, borne on the backs of crunchy drum beats and distorted power chords, during the annual Battle of the Bands on Wednesday. Eight bands — The Royal Fetuses, Double Speak, Lucky XIII, Amherst, Those Guys, Fall of April, The Casual Maniacs and The Eloquence — competed on stage before hundreds of their peers for a $150 top prize on a night that also served as a fundraiser for the senior class.

The walls of Burbank High School’s auditorium throbbed with adolescent angst, borne on the backs of crunchy drum beats and distorted power chords, during the annual Battle of the Bands on Wednesday. Eight bands — The Royal Fetuses, Double Speak, Lucky XIII, Amherst, Those Guys, Fall of April, The Casual Maniacs and The Eloquence — competed on stage before hundreds of their peers for a $150 top prize on a night that also served as a fundraiser for the senior class.

When veteran guitarist Bob Bain drives into Toluca Lake Tuesday to participate in John Pisano's long-running Guitar Night at Lucy's 51, it's likely that more than a few memories will accompany him. Bain was the guitarist in the famed Tonight Show Orchestra at NBC until Johnny Carson's retirement in 1992. The band was stocked with some of the greatest musicians in Southern California, as a 1974 video from the show confirms. In it, Beverly Sills sings Manuel Ponce's beautiful ballad “Estrellita,” with just Bain playing a nylon-string guitar as accompaniment.

Selflessness is not a quality one often associates with artists. After all, creative people have their personal visions and usually spend their careers trying to get other people to help them realize those aspirations. Jazz guitarist John Pisano, known as a musician's musician, is universally regarded as an empathetic player. That collaborative gene has served the Los Angeles jazz community well. The weekly Guitar Night he's hosted will mark its 15th anniversary this Tuesday at Lucy's 51 in Toluca Lake.

More than 40 brand new guitars and 40 brand new cables have been donated to Burbank schools. The donation - from the Traveling Guitar Foundation, ESP Guitars and Mogami Cable - will be going to four instrumental programs at Burbank High School, John Burroughs High School, John Muir Middle School and Jordan Middle School will impact over 900 students.  Traveling Guitar Foundation founder and renowned musician Damon Marks will presented the...

Travis Bean, a life-long Burbank resident who revolutionized guitar manufacturing with his aluminum-necked instruments, died on July 10 after a nearly two-decade battle with cancer. He was 63. Bean broke into the electric guitar manufacturing business - then dominated by Fender and Gibson - in the 1970s when he co-founded the Travis Bean Guitars with close friend Marcus McElwee. They closed shop in 1979 amid a dispute with their corporate backers, but the instruments continue to enjoy a cult following and the manufacturing techniques are still widely used.

Family and friends toasted guitar legend Randy Rhoads on Sunday during a release party for a Cabernet Sauvignon that bears his name. Rhoads was the lead guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne and Quiet Riot before he was killed in a plane crash while on tour with Osbourne in 1982. The D'Argenzio Winery created the 2005 vintage at the full production facility in Santa Rosa, and the wine is being exclusively sold there and at the family's tasting room in Burbank. Kathy Rhoads D'Argenzio, who is married to Richard D'Argenzio, has been trying to come up with a way to honor her brother.

La Brie’s Bar in Glendale, formerly the Scene, played home to Foo Fighters’ lead guitarist, Chris Shiflett, on the last leg of his solo tour that spanned up and down the West Coast, but it was his opening act, folk singer-songwriter Audra Mae, who blew the moderate-sized crowd away with her strong and soulful voice and lyrics. With a single guitar chord, the Oklahoma native who wrote the only original track off Susan Boyle’s debut album, “I Dreamed a Dream,” hushed the crowd and sang “The River,” a poignant song about sin and regret.

BURBANK — On hot summer nights downtown, residents may hear the sounds of the Beatles and Led Zeppelin. These classic tunes are not coming from the speakers at a retail store, but rather from the guitars and voices of the Mills family band. As gas prices climb and budgets are slashed, the Mills family is turning to the music they love to keep them afloat. Daniel Mills, with the help of his two children, Holland, 18 and Jordan, 21, pick up their guitars and head downtown as many as four times a week to the front of a Fuddruckers restaurant to perform live.

The things that inspired Karl Preusser as a child are musically making their way back into his adult life. Two weeks ago, the Burbank composer completed the score for “Audie & the Wolf,” a horror, comedy and romance film that will premiere on Aug. 14 in the 2008 Downtown Film Festival — Los Angeles. Preusser, a former Glendale resident, composed the score in a 1970s rock ’n’ roll style in the tradition of “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” he said.

The walls of Burbank High School’s auditorium throbbed with adolescent angst, borne on the backs of crunchy drum beats and distorted power chords, during the annual Battle of the Bands on Wednesday. Eight bands — The Royal Fetuses, Double Speak, Lucky XIII, Amherst, Those Guys, Fall of April, The Casual Maniacs and The Eloquence — competed on stage before hundreds of their peers for a $150 top prize on a night that also served as a fundraiser for the senior class.