10/14/2026
LIBRETTO X THE SPOTLIGHT, Hollywood, CA
Dear LA,
I have called this place home for almost 1/3 of my lifetime. My wife and I had our first apartment here, attended our first symphony here, and met so many great people (as well as some not so great ones). When we decided, after 7 years of living in DTLA, to permanently move back to our hometown of Paso Robles before 2020, we could never have expected what was going to happen next. Well, technically, most of the world could not have expected what was going to happen next. Covid.
Over the course of a seemingly few short weeks, the world shuttered its operations. Some of the community's strongest gathering places began to decay. Bowling alleys, movie theaters, music venues, restaurants, even public parks—all closed. People in this town, this state, this country, this world... began distancing themselves from each other, and many of them lost their dream of owning a business. Involuntarily. At this point in my life, I was composing and producing orchestral music for catalogs used in the film industry. Kate at the time was managing a w**ery in Paso. Well, no more movies. No more tourism. Much like the rest of the "nonessential" (what a term?) workers in the world, our careers came to a screeching halt.
As Kate and I watched businesses close down one by one, we too wondered what in fact we, ourselves, were going to do? Even the business under our downtown Paso apartment closed after a 20 year run. That business was a local coffee shop. What did we decide to do? During the second month of Covid lockdown, we decided we were going to OPEN a business. As crazy as that sounds (and actually is), our rationale was: if we could start a business now. In this climate. We could survive anything. In the summer of 2020, we officially opened AMSTRDM Coffee House, and Piano Lounge for business. No customers were allowed inside; we required masks and social distancing—we did whatever we had to do. We learned so much about coffee the first few months, but our passion came to life at night.
After the sun set, we would bring tablecloths to our tables outside on the sidewalk and put some fake candles on them. Set them with some bordeaux w**e glasses, dimmed the lights, and uncovered our old Steinway & Sons piano that sat dormant during the day, and began playing music. In the beginning, it was just solo piano. I played solo piano on Friday nights, and my dear friend Bobby played on Saturday nights. Nothing crazy. Just piano music bellowing out the streets of a very quiet Paso Robles. Some would walk by and stop for a brief moment to listen. Some would actually come and sit and order a glass of w**e to listen. By the second month we had a group of regulars who would come just to listen to music. Through this simple medium of music, we saw the community re-connect. We saw them bring hope back into their eyes.
After a few months we started hiring local jazz musicians to play in a trio format at our little coffee shop. We started running out of room so we began to host 2 sets. Then before we knew it we were charging a cover charge, and people could not get enough of it. We owe a large part of our early success to some people who we met for the first time during Covid at AMSTRDM Coffee that we now call dear friends. As fate would have it we took our life savings and purchased a new (to us) Steinway & Sons Grand piano in hopes of gaining a larger audience and roster of musicians. The universe responded.
Within weeks of the purchase we started hosting some LA industry legends up at our small little coffee shop, which seated 24 people. The pioneers included the likes of Jeff Babko, Josh Nelson, Otmaro Ruiz, Vardan Ovsepian, and Bill Cunliffe. We saw this concept starting to catch fire. This fire led to the purchase of our unicorn Steinway & Sons Concert Grand Piano, CD-213, and the birth of Libretto Paso Robles in September of 2021. For the last five years, we have hosted over 1,200 shows and featured 30+ Grammy Award Winners with ensembles led by the finest musicians in LA, New York and beyond. Downbeat Magazine has voted us one of the world's best jazz venues for multiple years running, and we have incredible press accolades from the LA Times, VOGUE Magazine, Sunset Magazine, and a full feature in the October 2025 Robb Report.
We have met so many amazing artists, musicians, and some have become friends. 90% of our ensembles are based in Los Angeles. We continually heard from the artist community how, after the closing (and soon reopening!) of the beloved Blue Whale, Los Angeles was devoid of a special listening room for Jazz. Time and time again we kept hearing, "You guys should come to LA," "There is nothing like this in LA," or "We could really use a place like this down there." Finally, in October of last year, Kate and I doubled down and made the move to DTLA to begin testing out the Libretto concept by producing a monthly event that focused on music, w**e, cuisine, and most especially, community. You see, LA is so amazing at SO many things. LA is city of culture with a rich artistic history and has a vibrancy unlike any other city in the world. The energy in Los Angeles is palpable. These are some of the things our beloved small town of Paso Robles, nestled in central CA coastal w**e country, is missing. Yet Paso Robles does one thing incredibly well that the city of Los Angeles, as well as many other places, seems to have forgotten. The human to human connection.
Many of you have attended one of our events down here. It has been incredibly special to curate these wonderful performances in an intimate environment with some of our closest friends, both new and old. Well, after a year of being back in Los Angeles, the city we love so much, we have decided to go all in (again) and finally push to bring the actual Libretto "Jazz Club" listening room model to a brick-and-mortar club location in West Hollywood. Kate and I are pleased to formally announce Libretto will be collaborating with our friends at the global production powerhouse company, Framework. We will move our beloved Steinway & Sons Grand piano and take over their beautiful, famed Hollywood nightclub, "The Spotlight," for just one night only on Thursday November 12th. The evening will feature the legendary John Beasley and his entire MONK'estra big band as well as the Michael Ragonese Trio, featuring Anthony Fung on Drums and Jermaine Paul on Bass.
You asked for it. We showed up. We delivered. We went all in. Now we are asking the same of you—the beautiful community of LA based artists, musicians, industry professionals and enthusiasts alike. We need you to show us that this is what you want. If you have ever played a show at one of our venues, if you have ever enjoyed your time in one of our spaces, or if you have ever left a Libretto event thinking, "That was pretty cool," well this message is for you. If Libretto has ever helped you in any way—personally, spiritually, financially, or maybe just introduced you to a new friend—we are asking a favor of you. We need to see what we have been feeling in our gut for years, we need to show the world how strong the LA artist community is. Are you a jazz musician? Great. Are you not? Even better. This is about reminding ourselves that music has no agenda or bias. Music is the only language you do not need to know how to speak to understand, to feel. . And when you get a room full of 10, 20, 50, or even 200 people to gather and collectively pause their busy thoughts, turn off the screen and engage in silence to see and hear the language of music, a very special unwritten message reconnects everyone in the room. This is why we need all of you.
In Paso Robles, a town of 30,000 people, we curate one of the best listening rooms in the world. LA, we are here. We heard you. We are asking you to show up. Spend $45 on a ticket. Buy a drink or two. It's more than just supporting "Libretto" or supporting "Jazz"; it's about reminding us all that LA is a city built on culture, community, and love. It was named the City of Angels for a reason. In addition to it being our formal announcement date that we have been planning for weeks, today also happens to be my birthday. The greatest gift I could ever ask for would be to see all of your beautiful smiling faces on Nov 12th, as Libretto takes over "The Spotlight" in Hollywood because, hey, if this goes well, We just might make it a regular thing.
With love and gratitude,
Corey & Kate Jordan
Libretto owners
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