Overcoming a monster-sized campaign by City Councilman Scott Malsin to sharply diminish his role if not oust him from the Summer Music Festival series, hardy Gary Mandell triumphed once again last night in the annual Music Producer Wars that the Council stubbornly insists on staging every winter.
On the wings of an imaginative hybrid motion craftily forged by Councilman Andy Weissman, resulting in a 3 to 2 vote, Mr. Mandell survived his most treacherous threat yet. He will return in July for the 11th consecutive year as impresario of the entire concert series in the Courtyard of City Hall.
Vice Mayor Mehaul O’Leary, frequently a swing vote, joined the expected Mandell backers, Mayor Chris Armenta and Mr. Weissman, to shift what seemed to be fast-mounting momentum for the Jazz Bakery back into the Mandell direction for keeps.
As a result of Mr. Malsin’s latest attempt to overturn the concert series dynamics, a tedious two-hour faceoff in Council Chambers pitted impresario Ruth Price of the highly regarded, presently homeless, Jazz Bakery against Boulevard Music Store’s Mr. Mandell for primacy in controlling the 16-year-old series that typically draws capacity crowds.
In aggressively stumping for the widest possible visibility for Ms. Price and the Jazz Bakery, Mr. Malsin often jumped in after each of his colleagues had spoken to assert a commercial for his vision, that landing the Jazz Baker for half of the schedule was “a tremendously exciting opportunity” and would strongly enhance the image of the series.
Passionately Pursuing Prestige
Shortly after stoutly stating that his efforts to rearrange the human furniture in the Summer concert series was not personal, Mr. Malsin, sensing his grasp was loosening, made one last try to win over wary colleagues. In his boldest declaration since this year’s war began, he said that Ms. Price’s Jazz Bakery was considerably more “prestigious” than Mr. Mandell’s business, the Boulevard Music Store, where he hosts weekly concerts.
Mr. Malsin suggested that her enhanced celebrity and talent would take the concert series to heights unattainable under the present management.
Going in, the Council, acting as the Redevelopment Agency, was presented with three options for resolving a self-imposed conundrum, and this was where Mr. Weissman tapped his creative gene.
• No. 1 was to retain the status quo, Mr. Mandell promoting all eight Thursday nights in July and August.
• No. 2, Mr. Mandell promoting six, Ms. Price two.
• No. 3: Each would promote four Thursday nights.
After saying that two hours of tedium was 90 minutes too much, Mr. Weissman’s winning formula placed Mr. Mandell in charge of all eight concerts with Ms. Price, as a consolation prize, selecting the artists for two of the nights. In the midst of arguing over blades of grass, Mr. Malsin also separated from his teammates on marketing the concerts. Finally and exasperatingly, he exclaimed that Mr. Mandell’s marketing thrusts paled beside those of a professional, as the City Hall staff had proposed. Mr. Mandell said he would gladly yield the responsibility, but he wound up with it anyway.
What About Chemistry?
Mr. Malsin’s temper episodically flared and his rhetoric frayed as momentum for the Jazz Bakery began to ebb as the disagreement on the dais lurched into secondary and tertiary areas.
Although there was sympathy or mild support if not outright enthusiasm for the Jazz Bakery scene, the majority of Redevelopment Agency members concluded that putting two promoters on equal footing in a single eight-week series looked and smelled too much like a Rube Goldberg contraption. Somebody had to drive the car.
The Final Roundup
Officially for the past four months and three days, Mr. Malsin had been a one-person promotion tour to replace or severely tone down Mr. Mandell as the dominant personality in the Summer Concert series. Three weeks ago when his first suggestion, KCRW-FM, fell out, out of nowhere, according to his surprised colleagues, he identified Ms. Price’s widely noted Jazz Bakery as his choice to (hopefully) headline the Summer concerts.
With Mr. Armenta and Mr. Weissman steadily supporting the full retention of Mr. Mandell, Mr. Cooper and Mr. O’Leary acceded to Mr. Malsin’s request to court Ms. Price and explore a heretofore unmentioned partnership.
At the end of last night’s debate that heavily accented arcanity, every combatant was grim-faced.
There was, however, no doubt over who felt worst and was the angriest in the room. Mr. Malsin was bitterly disappointed that he was unable to hold together his earlier coalition.
