{"id":42939,"date":"2025-07-06T08:45:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T08:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/42939\/"},"modified":"2025-07-06T08:45:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T08:45:15","slug":"a-great-day-in-east-la-the-largest-eastside-music-exhibition-ever-assembled-is-now-on-display","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/42939\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A Great Day in East LA\u2019: The largest Eastside music exhibition ever assembled is now on display"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This\u00a0story<\/a>\u00a0 <\/b>was originally published by Boyle Heights Beat on July 1, 2025.<\/p>\n

In 2015, photographer and videographer Piero F. Giunti had a dream about Art Kane\u2019s iconic \u201cA Great Day in Harlem\u201d photograph featuring 57 jazz musicians \u2014 including Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie \u2014 on the steps of a Harlem brownstone.<\/p>\n

Originally shot in 1958 for Esquire magazine, the photo followed Giunti for weeks, popping up in conversations and on social media. When a musician friend mentioned the photograph at a Boyle Heights recording studio, he knew he had to honor Eastside musicians in the same spirit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Black and Brown people weren\u2019t allowed to play the Sunset Strip and the clubs downtown, East L.A. always had its doors open,\u201d said Giunti, who was born and raised in L.A. to a Mexican mother and Italian father. \u201cThere was Lalo\u2019s Nightclub, The Paramount ballroom, Catholic Youth Organization (C.Y.O.), which became Self Help Graphics. East L.A. has always been a safe haven for every genre.\u201d<\/p>\n

Giunti teamed up with musician and historian Mark Guerrero, whose father, Lalo Guerrero, is considered the \u201cFather of Chicano Music.\u201d Together with UC Riverside Chicanx history professor Jorge Leal and LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes senior curator Karen Crews Hendon, they co-curated \u201cA Great Day in East L.A.: Celebrando the Eastside Sound,\u201d the largest exhibit of its kind, which opened Saturday at LA Plaza.<\/p>\n

\"Five<\/p>\n

Co-curators of \u201cA Great Day in East L.A.\u201d exhibit at LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes. From left: Piero F. Giunti, Esperanza Sanchez, Karen Crews Hendon, Mark Guerrero and Jorge Leal. <\/p>\n

Giunti shot 170 black and white portraits of 450 artists, including East L.A. DIY jarocho punk band \u00a1Aparato! and Indigenous Chicano rap-rock band Aztlan Underground standing proudly in full performance attire. The portraits form the visual centerpiece of the exhibition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been a part of the East L.A. music scene since 1963. I know everybody, played with everybody, worked with everybody,\u201d said Guerrero, 76, who as a teenager sang in the popular band Mark & the Escorts<\/a>, playing at dances with Thee Midniters<\/a> and The Premiers<\/a>. In 1972, he released the socially-conscious hit protest song \u201cI\u2019m Brown\u201d<\/a> on Capitol Records. \u201cThe interviews we conducted are basically conversations with my peers.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1998, Guerrero started chronicling Chicano and East L.A. musicians who, like himself, are often ignored by mainstream media. His website<\/a> is an encyclopedia of untold Eastside music stories that helped inform the exhibit, which spans 75 years\u2013from the 1950s to the present\u2013and features 500 artifacts, including rare photographs, clothing, instruments, concert tickets and posters of over 450 artists who are from, inspired by or are beloved on the Eastside.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A woman plays an instrument during the opening of \u201cA Great Day in East L.A.: Celebrando the Eastside Sound,\u201d on June 28, 2025. <\/p>\n

Scribbled Los Lobos song lyrics, a sleeveless polyester pantsuit worn by tribal electronica duo Mezklah, soul singer Brenton Wood\u2019s very own grey wool zoot suit and the dress that Martha Gonzalez of Quetzal wore to the Grammy Awards are on display for the first time. Band merch like bright cotton T-shirts, CDs and stickers, nostalgic flyers, records and out-of-print magazines fill El Rockero Store, one of six themed galleries that include The Venue, The Garage, Radio Rebelde, From East Los to the World and Los Lobos\u2019 very own Come On, Let\u2019s Go!<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest fear of a project like this is people passing away,\u201d said Giunti, citing Wood, who died January 3, and Rudy Salas of Tierra, who died in 2020. \u201cIt made it even more important to capture as many artists as possible. No artist was left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project, which took 10 years to compile interviews, shoot photos and gather paraphernalia from community donors and the curators\u2019 and artists\u2019 own collections, drew hundreds of musicians and music aficionados to the opening.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe would crash weddings to hear Thee Midniters,\u201d Olivia Rodriguez, 82, who grew up in East L.A. and attended the opening with friends, said with a laugh. \u201cOne night we saw them open for The Temptations at Union Hall. They didn\u2019t charge much. It was like $2. Shows were jam-packed with wall-to-wall people. Sometimes you couldn\u2019t even dance, but they sounded fantastic. We cheered them on and they played for hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exhibition opened amid ICE raids and uprisings \u2014 a resonance not lost on those involved. The Eastside sound has long intersected with social justice movements: bands like Tierra and Los Illegals provided the soundtrack to a generation asserting cultural pride in a post-Moratorium era. Later generations, including Quetzal and Las Cafeteras, developed their sound alongside immigrant rights advocacy.<\/p>\n

At LA Plaza, local artist collectives Ni Santas<\/a> and Art Space HP<\/a> hosted anti-ICE-fueled art-making workshops as KCRW Summer Nights headliner The Altons<\/a> conducted sound checks for an eager audience. Across the way on Olvera Street, labor and immigrant rights groups continued their 30-day \u201cSummer of Resistance<\/a>\u201d activation, with lucha libre-masked cumbia group El Conjunto Nueva Ola<\/a> performing \u201cEl Jom Dipo (Pa\u2019 la People)<\/a>\u201d to a crowd protesting ICE raids.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Great Day in East L.A. is born out of resistance,\u201d said Giunti, who\u2019s working on a Los Lobos documentary<\/a>. \u201cResistance to systematic oppression, cultural erasure, elitist gatekeeping of our stories by institutions, academics, authors and museums that continue to revise, distort or ignore our truths. This project stands in solidarity with the immigrant community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

KCRW Summer Night with The Altons during \u201cA Great Day in East L.A.: Celebrando the Eastside Sound\u201d Opening Day Celebration on June 28, 2025. <\/p>\n

(<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of LA Plaza<\/p>\n

)<\/p>\n

East L.A. was a high-energy tour stop for bands like Slayer, Metallica, Bad Religion and the Dead Kennedys and artists like Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, Bob Dylan and Stevie Wonder. In 1981, Paul Ruben released \u201cThe Pee\u2011Wee Herman Show,\u201d an original cast recording from a live performance at the Roxy Theatre on Fatima Recordz, the first independent punk music label in East L.A., co-founded by Yolanda Comparan Ferrer, Tito\u202fLarriva of The Plugz and printmaker Richard\u202fDuardo, who also signed East L.A. punk band The Brat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a part of this Eastside music world,\u201d said Leal, 48, who was born in Guadalajara and raised in Glassell Park. \u201cI never played an instrument, but I went to shows in East L.A.<\/p>\n

It was three bucks and a kegger. You paid and stayed until the cops showed up.\u201d<\/p>\n

As The Altons took the stage at Saturday\u2019s opening, Chicana singer-songwriter Irene Diaz <\/a>watched from the back with bandmate and partner Carolyn Cardoza.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never imagined something like this,\u201d said Diaz, whose silk slip dress and portraits are a prominent part of the exhibit. \u201cI started my career in 2010 and to be able to see myself in an exhibit where I\u2019m still alive is pretty amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA Great Day in East L.A.: Celebrando the Eastside Sound\u201d exhibition runs at LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes from June 28, 2025, through August 23, 2026.<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note:\u00a0An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Louis Armstrong was in the \u201cA Great Day in Harlem\u201d photograph. It also misspelled Piero F. Giunti\u2019s last name. The story has been updated.<\/p>\n