[from a Brick’s Picks in the LA Weekly]

And this one hurts, but we have to say a few words about Charlie Ottaviano, the Charlie O of Charlie O’s. He’s gone, betrayed by his ticker two Mondays ago. A couple nights later the place was packed, the jazz was darker, bluesier, and infinitely sadder no matter how hard they bopped. That joint was his dream, and there’s no place in all of LA these days that is as pure a jazz club as Charlie O’s. Scarcely a night goes by we couldn’t recommend. None of it would have happened without Charlie O. We’ll miss those late nights at the end of the bar, he cracking wise with John Heard (though Heard would outtalk him ten or twenty words to one). Oh yeah Charlie was some cat. May the players play their hearts out for the man.