The California Navels have been a work in progress since the late '90s when founder Mark Fletcher became inexplicably fixated on organizing a Prohibition-era jazz and novelty band. There have been several different line-ups over the years, one of which was nominated for a 2000 New Times Award for best lounge, swing or cabaret act (they lost to El Vez). The band was reorganized in early 2003 and has since performed at such diverse venues as The Parlour Club in West Hollywood, Spaceland and El Cid in Silver Lake, Les Freres Taix and The Downbeat Café in Echo Park, The Grand Star in Chinatown, The Lava Lounge and The M Bar in Hollywood, The Old Towne Pub in Pasadena, The Toluca Lake Racquet Club, and Café 322, The Buccaneer and Beantown in Sierra Madre.
With a repertoire that includes many of the forgotten songs of the 1920s and early '30s, along with the old standards and several original tunes, the California Navels are leaving their own little footprint on the much beleaguered Great American Songbook.