Jeb Milne Cared About Music

A champion for good live local music in Los Angeles, Jeb Milne, died earlier this week. He was a stupendous performer, and his venue, Witzend, is the best listening room in LA.

Jeb created Witzend as a place where the performers felt encouraged, special, and loved, and he did the same with the audience. He put his love and energy into every aspect of Witzend, and because he would make us all feel so good, everybody at the shows connected through the music and the whole experience. Every venue and music booker should learn from Jeb’s example.

Witzend is a beautiful listening room with clear sound and a comfortable and classy vibe, Jeb cared about every little detail. Before Witzend, Venice performers had spent the previous years playing in local coffee shops, bars, speakeasies (shut down by cops), house parties (also shut down by cops!), etc. These were are all good and great fun, but we needed a nice venue to perform in when it was time to rise a little bit above the bohemian grunge and find out what we sounded like through a good sound system.

In the first weeks when Jeb was just starting Witzend as a venue, sometimes he would call during the day when it was closed and I would come over and we’d sing a few songs together and talk about great songwriters etc, and just hang out for while. We dug many of the same bands, and disagreed about plenty of artists, but more often than not, we’d geek out over The Beatles. He often requested that I play ‘Mercy’, one of my songs that he liked to sing along to, and eventually we worked it out with him on piano. He told me about his times in London, and we joked about being in the Canadian Mafia. Jeb sparkled when he sang, it was great to watch. It’s funny, now that I’m thinking about it, many of my memories of Jeb and Witzend are from when the doors hadn’t even opened yet.

I could never thank him enough for making such a beautiful space for music performance, but believe me, I tried. I miss being in Venice during times like this, I wish I could be there for his memorial. Jeb cared about artists and he cared about the audience. He was one of the best venue owners and talent bookers, and also one of the kindest and most encouraging people I have known. Jeb Milne cared about music deep down in every fiber of him.

I hope he knows we love him for it.

Jeb Milne at Witzend
Jeb Milne at Witzend

With much love and gratitude,

Saint John

 

Home in Venice in May

I came home to Venice for a bit and played a couple of shows and listened to the waves and ate Mexican food and watched the sunset and dolphins and tried to make pretty girls laugh and played Mario Kart and spent some time with dear friends and overall had a brilliant time. It was such a great time that I just wrote a run-on sentence. My elementary school teachers would cringe if they read this.

Here are some pics from my show at Witzend (photographer: Martin Wolfe):

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Venice, I’ll see you again in a few weeks.

Love,

SJ

Show on Wednesday at WitZend

Dear Friends,

Join me this Wednesday at this super cool new spot in Venice called WitZend. The vibe and sound of the room are really nice and I really dig playing there.

9PM
1717 Lincoln Blvd
90291

Send me a note telling me you’re coming and I’ll put you on the guest list. Cheers!

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=111468218963628

Love,

SJ

Saint John live at the WitZend Oct 19 2011