The historic Roosevelt Hotel, dating back to 1927, still maintains its old Hollywood charm. An antique-looking chandelier hangs from the lobby's patterned ceiling, illuminating soft yellow light over a collection of colorful velvet seating and an indoor fountain. Some palm trees fill the space.
And for the better part of six years, La Lom has been using the ornate space to entertain hotel guests and Angelenos alike.
The band, comprised of guitarist Zac Sokolow, bassist Jake Faulkner and percussionist Nicholas Baker, was initially hired to be part of the hotel's immersive environment. The bandmates saw the job as just another source of income, but quickly realized it was a great space for the instrumental group to develop and refine their sound.
La Lom means “League of Los Angeles Musicians” (pronounced “La Loma,” like the Chavez Ravine-razed neighborhood that stood where Dodger Stadium now stands), a tribute to the city’s influence on their music. The band plays a boisterous mix of Latin music and classic folk, and has released several EPs and covers. On August 9, La Lom will release their self-titled debut album via Verve Records.
“When I first joined the concert, I had all these covers in mind to play, which were a lot of '60s pop and soul tunes,” Sokolow said. “I created arrangements in which I played the melody on the guitar, since there is no singer.”
Sokolow and Faulkner began playing at the Roosevelt in 2018 and were accompanied by a rotating group of musicians for the first few months. Their early performances consisted mainly of soft but soulful instrumental covers of Roy Orbison, Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin.
After Faulkner's college friend Baker began playing with the duo consistently, he decided to bring his congas, an instrument he had played since childhood. The introduction of the Cuban hand drum changed everything.
“When I was a child, my dad gave me an album by Trío Los Panchos. I learned to play many of those requinto parts when I was just starting to play the guitar. So when Nick brought the congas from him, we thought, 'Oh, let's try some of these,'” Sokolow said.
As they began experimenting, the atmosphere in Roosevelt's lobby began to change. The once cold atmosphere became more lively. La Lom began to infuse the lively sounds of cumbias and the romantic feel of boleros into his previously melodic style of American music.
Coming from families that embraced music and the arts, each member brings diverse influences. Sokolow grew up playing a lot of country and bluegrass, and spent his childhood playing fiddle on the street. Baker's upbringing was filled with Latin music: her grandmother is from Durango, Mexico, and she was a popular host on a Spanish-language radio station in Tucson. Faulkner took his father's guitar and learned everything he could from the “stoner beach people” while he was growing up in Venice.
“We realized that no matter what we played, there was always some kind of cohesion. Once it goes through the filter of our instrumentation and the way we play, it always sounds cohesive,” Faulkner said.
“It always sounded like us,” Baker said. “We have a very good idea of what we do and we are all very clear about what we like and what we don't like. We all grew up with a lot of different types of music, it just comes from different influences around us that we grew up with. So there is an open mind.”
His hodgepodge of influences gave way to jazz-like improvisation. Over the course of their three-hour set, they often tried new chord combinations and incorporated more requinto-style melodies. With each performance, they felt their sonic identity take shape. The hotel guests noticed and started dancing while they played. The three musicians had become the focus of the lobby, rather than just another element.
“We built up a really good repertoire and started to sound like a real band,” Faulkner said.
There were days when the band would travel from gig to gig, sometimes playing about nine hours of music a day. Each set was different. From time to time they changed the arrangement of a cover. Other times, their performances were free-form or they accepted requests from the crowd.
In 2021, they decided to make the band official by releasing a self-titled EP and posting videos of their performances online. One night, they were going to perform at a bar in Atwater Village. They thought of the performance like any other concert, but the size of the crowd was different. They continued touring the Los Angeles nightlife scene, eventually selling out Zebulon in Frogtown and the Lodge Room in Highland Park.
Using styles from their upbringing and decades they admire, La Lom's extensive understanding of music history plays a key role in how the band layers their rhythms and melodies. The themes on “Angels Point & Figueroa,” their 2023 EP, are both referential and inventive. The song “Angels Point” opens with a guitar riff that is reminiscent of both an electric Peruvian chicha and Southern California surf rock. In “Figueroa,” Faulkner's bass line resembles that of a cumbia sonidera: punchy, but constant. Sokolow's guitar brings a more Western bluegrass feel, where Baker's Latin rhythms remain soft and echoey.
Transcending time periods and genres allows the trio to draw freely from their inspirations and create a sound they consider unique to Los Angeles. Almost all of their song titles are dedicated to various regions or locations in Los Angeles. Their initial EP from 2022 included songs like “Santee Alley,” with a soft and mysterious sound. “Café Tropical” has a calmer and more harmonious quality.
“Music always comes first. We think about what this song makes us feel. What area do you vibe with in Los Angeles? Baker said.
“The first one we liked was 'Alvarado'. I remember thinking it was funny because it reminded me of 'Corcovado'. [a bossa nova song written by Antônio Carlos Jobim in the 1960s]. I thought it was fun to have ours,” Sokolow said.
Beyond linking the tracks to areas of the city, they find their sound to be a reflection of the diverse music found within it.
“I don't feel at all like I'm playing someone else's music. “This is L.A. music,” Baker said.
Recording her first studio album was a new challenge for La Lom. With the help of producer Elliot Bergman, the band members were able to translate the feel of their live performances by embracing the studio as an additional instrument.
“A lot of these songs came from playing live in front of people. We were able to tinker around more in the studio and expand the sound beyond what we played live,” Faulkner said. “We overdub a lot of stuff, so we have an organ and different sound effects. Nick did some additional percussion and other musicians came in to play piano or steel. “It really pushed us.”
Starting Thursday, La Lom will open for Vampire Weekend at four shows across the Southwest and will spend the rest of the summer performing at jazz festivals across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
“We're just doing what we want to do. It feels kind of inclusive. The people who come to our shows feel part of what we try to share with them. “We are translating to the public in a way that many cumbia bands cannot because there is no language barrier,” Baker said.
“It's just these wonderful melodies and good rhythms,” Sokolow added.
