JETT-PAUL LAISURE

MELISSA GOTLIEB

Los Angeles native Melissa Gottlieb masterfully blends country, roots, and rock.  With a rich, sultry voice, she weaves the influences of her youth into a current soulful sound. 2017 was a breakout year for Melissa. While performing shows regularly at LA’s best known showcase venue, The Hotel Cafe, Melissa worked on her debut EP with veteran producer, Steve Churchyard. Churchyard signed on after hearing one of Melissa’s live performances.  At the same time, Melissa was catching the attention of multiple major network casting producers who sought her out after seeing her unique, unplugged youtube series, The Bathroom Sessions. Currently, Melissa is back in the studio working with producer, Ned Douglas crafting a current and standout sound fitting of her voice and style.

INGEZ RAMEAU

Ingez Rameau’s passion for performing goes back to her early childhood when she was cast in an Estonian play while growing up in post-WWII Displaced Persons Camps in Germany. After emigrating with her family to Toronto, Canada and graduating from Humberside Collegiate Institute she continued her studies in the field of Radio & Television Arts at the Ryerson Polytechnical Institute. Ingez subsequently moved to New York, working as an actress and a model, prior to moving to Los Angeles. Some of her credits include Birthday Girl, Stiletto, The Young and the Restless, Days of Our Lives, Dark Justice, and Fame.

For the past five years, Ingez has devoted her life to examining, writing and crafting her experiences growing up in those post-WWII DP Camps. Her journey of survival, discovery and empowerment ultimately formed her 90-minute, one-woman play BURN which debuted at the Actors Forum Theatre in North Hollywood for a 3-week run to standing-room-only audiences.

For Women’s History month in March 2011, a performance of BURN was featured at the Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival to a standing ovation. BURN has taken on a life of its own and a book is now in development with guidance from writer/author and coach Christiane Schull. In conjunction with the theme of the play and book, Ingez is embarking on the development of workshops and seminars to break the Code of Silence — a place where men and women can begin their journey from darkness into light.

While living in Europe, Ingez was fortunate to have been exposed to countless different nationalities and languages which helped shape the woman she is today. Her life has been full of diversity, experience and travel and she continues to express her creativity through various art forms. She speaks, reads and writes German, Estonian and French.

Ingez is privileged to have had the guidance of Michael Phillip Edwards on BURN. His direction, experience, soul and sensitivity helped bring her vision to a reality and she is honored to share her story with you.

ARMANDO COMPEAN

Armando Compean, bassist/vocalist/composer and band leader, boasts a career marked with a countless number of collaborations and musical partnerships.  He has had his own voice since the late 1960s when he relocated to Los Angeles.  A native of Houston, Texas, he was born into a musical family and, as a result, was exposed to all types of music and instruments.  His musical journey began with violin lessons at the age of 5 and continued with learning the trumpet, drums and the studying of classical piano for 10 years.  At age 13, he taught himself the guitar, formed his own bands and was fortunate to play with some of the best local blues and jazz musicians in Houston.  After being asked to play the bass in a band, and after hearing bassist Ray Brown with Oscar Peterson and Scott LaFaro with the Bill Evans Trio, Armando completely fell in love with the bass and it became his choice of instrument.  The diversity of his musical background has given him a wide spectrum to draw from for his writing and composing.

Television / Film Credits: Armando has worked with Oscar/Grammy winner T-Bone Burnett playing the bass on such films as WALK THE LINE, starring Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix, ALL THE KING’S MEN, starring Sean Penn, and DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA YA SISTERHOOD, starring Sandra Bullock and Ellen Burstyn.  Other film credits include HOPE FLOATS, starring Sandra Bullock; L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, starring Russell Crowe and Kevin Spacey; ULEE’S GOLD, starring Peter Fonda; and BECAUSE I SAID SO, starring Diane Keaton.  Television credits include the current TNT show MEMPHIS BEAT, THE DREW CARREY SHOW, 7THHEAVEN, ACCORDING TO JIM, THE JOHNNY CARSON SHOW, and the RICHARD PRYOR SHOW.

Recording / Stage Credits:  Armando can be heard playing the bass on numerous recordings with artists Gillian Welch, A.J. Croce, producer T-Bone Burnett, Taj Mahal, Jennifer Warnes, Coco Montoya, Jon Hartman, M.A.L.T., Pete Snell, Matt Harris, Carmela Rappazzo, Jaye P. Morgan, as well as singing the vocal on jazz guitarist Joe Pass’s C.D. White Stone, to name a few.  Live performances include working with Paul Williams, Cybill Shepherd, Lowell George, Johnny Winter, Edgar Winter, Scott Ellison, Arnette Cobb, Jimmy Ford, Lanny Morgan, Jaye P. Morgan, Texacali Horns.  Featured documentaries include writing and music supervision for the PBS series Over America and Over California.  As a producer, he has worked with a number of artists on their recordings and projects, and also produced and performed on his own C.D.s, “Texas Brown Soul Zone” and “Just For A Thrill.”

Eleanor Clift is a columnist for the Daily Beast, an online publication. She writes about politics and policy in Washington, and the partisan clashes that make governing almost impossible. Clift has covered every presidential campaign since 1976 and bring her perspective to analyze the dynamics between an unconventional president and his party, and an opposition party still licking its wounds over its loss in 2016. Clift is best known as a panelist on the syndicated talk show, “The McLaughlin Group,” which ended a 34-year run with the death of the host in 2016. She has appeared as herself in several movies, including “Dave,” “Independence Day,” “Murder at 1600,” “Rising Sun,” and the CBS series, “Murphy Brown.” Clift and her late husband, Tom Brazaitis, who was a columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, wrote two books together, “War Without Bloodshed: The Art of Politics” (Scribner, 1996), and “Madam President: Shattering the Last Glass Ceiling (Scribner, 2000). Madam President is available in paperback (Routledge Press). Clift’s book, “Founding Sisters,” is about the passage of the 19th amendment giving women the vote (John Wiley & Sons, 2003). Her recent book, “Two Weeks of Life: A Memoir of Love, Death and Politics” (Basic Books, 2008) is about the loss of her husband together with an examination of how we deal with death in America. “Selecting a President,” written with Matthew Spieler (Thomas Dunne Books), published in 2012, examines the process that for all its flaws is better than the alternative. Formerly Newsweek’s White House correspondent, Clift also served as congressional and political correspondent for six years. She was a key member of the magazine’s 1992 election team, following the campaign of Bill Clinton from the start to inauguration day. In June 1992 she was named Deputy Washington bureau chief.

As a reporter in Newsweek’s Atlanta bureau, Clift covered Jimmy Carter’s bid for the presidency. She followed Carter to Washington to become Newsweek’s White House correspondent, a position she held until 1985. Clift began her career as a secretary to Newsweek’s National Affairs editor in New York. She was one of the first women at the magazine to move from secretary to reporter. Clift left Newsweek briefly in 1985 to serve as White House correspondent for The Los Angeles Times. She returned to Newsweek the following year to cover the Iran-Contra scandal, which embroiled President Reagan and tarnished his administration. Clift covered every presidential campaign since 1976, and was part of Newsweek’s special project team following the 1984, 2000, 2004 and 2008 elections, each of which resulted in a book. The most recent, “A Long Time Coming,” written by Evan Thomas and based on the Newsweek team’s reporting (Public Affairs, 2009) chronicles the history-making campaign of Barack Obama. Clift lives in Washington, D.C., where she is on the advisory council of the International Women’s Media Foundation, the board of the American News Women’s Club, the Board of Governor’s of the National Hospice Foundation, and the board of Respect Ability, which advocates for people with disabilities.