EL SEGUNDO HERALD November 25, 2021 Page 13
Larry Mitchell from front page
Segundo Saxes from front page
again, safely.
Often playing civic events and local shows
for veterans, the Segundo Saxes are also available
for hire for public or private events. All
proceeds go to the South Bay Music Association,
so in addition to helping fund a local
community program, booking the quartet is
also tax-deductible.
Currently, the Segundo Saxes are focusing
on filling the fourth seat of the quartet after
some scheduling conflicts, and pandemic
interference caused two members to leave.
With the addition of a new member, the Saxes
are hoping to play at the upcoming Candy
Cane Lane, pending Covid restrictions and
permissions. As the Segundo Saxes continue to
develop, Gold expresses his hope of supporting
music education and sharing the sounds of the
saxophone with the community.
“[I hope] to keep offering music to people
and to have a good amateur group that people
enjoy.” •
University for a couple of years. When his
parents moved back to California, Mitchell
initially stayed in the Great Lake State, but
was soon intrigued by living in California
again. Seems he was speaking to his Cali
resident brother one day, who was regaling
Mitchell with stories about “swimming in
the pool in January” while the snow-bound
Mitchell was “chipping ice off my window.”
Enough of the frigid winters. Enough of
scraping icicles off everything, right? Time
to head West.
Mitchell soon came to California to live
with his parents, but that living arrangement
did not last too long. About six months,
Mitchell said; at that point, his “construction
marauder” parents re-located again, this time
to Pennsylvania.
At that point, Mitchell was heading towards
attaining his collegiate degree in business,
concentrating on the accounting field. Postgraduation,
Mitchell moved to Hermosa Beach
to work for the accounting firm Deloitte. After
a stint at Deloitte, Mitchell concluded that he
was not in line for what he termed “the cool
jobs” with the firm, so he “bounced around”
to a couple of other accounting firms,
He ended up making partner at a Pasadena
accounting firm, and in 2001, decided to “go
out on my own.” He partnered with another
gentleman to form a firm based in Santa
Ana. Five years later, when the partnership
was dissolved, Mitchell landed in a business
suite in El Segundo, where he established
Lawrence R. Mitchell & Company.
Mitchell said he became interested in accounting
back in his Michigan high school
days. Not wanting to follow the chosen career
path of his father, he assessed his employment
options. “Looks like I am good at accounting,”
he remembers thinking, so he followed that
schooling pathway through his graduation at
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
Mitchell’s firm has worked for numerous
local businesses, residences, and non-profit
organizations. He said that “one of our favorite
clients is the El Segundo Chamber of
Commerce.” Mitchell has worked with the
Chamber for more than 15 years, also serving
on the Chambers executive committee. He also
works for the Foundation that spearheaded the
fundraising campaign for the aquatics facility
built adjacent to the Wiseburn High School.
Mitchell met longtime local Don Brann
while they were involved with the ES Chamber.
Brann touts Mitchell’s civic involvement.
“Larry has a long-standing history of supporting
local El Segundo causes such as
the Chamber of Commerce and South Bay
Sports Health and Recreation Foundation,”
Brann emailed.
Liz Odabashian, a former El Segundo
resident, currently living in Hawthorne, has
worked with Mitchell multiple times. They
have been acquainted for more than 25 years.
“Larry has such a well-rounded firm and can
help with the small and the big,” she said.
“You feel like you are the only (client). He is
going to make sure that whatever you need is
done and is done perfectly. I am very thankful
that I can not only call him my colleague,
but my friend. He and his team contribute
a tremendous amount to our community.”
So, what does a CPA firm do for its
numerous clients? My guess is count and
account for stuff, but I am a layperson when
it comes to that level of finances. According
to the Larry R. Mitchell website, his firm is
a “full-service tax, accounting and business
consulting firm.” That definition works for me.
Suffice to say, Mitchell finds the businessfriendly
environment fostered by the City of
El Segundo to his liking. And like many who
live, work, and play in our town, marvels at
the fact that El Segundo remains a well-kept
secret. “I am continually amazed,” he said,
“that so many people do not know the name
of the city,” and that it is often referred to by
outsiders as the area “over there by LAX,”
not realizing the town is home to Fortune 500
companies and iconic titans of the aerospace
industry, with the massive Chevron campus
sprawling to the South.
Mitchell and wife Anna had lived in North
Redondo until about two years ago, when the
couple decided to plant their roots in town,
buying a house in the Freedom Park area of
El Segundo. Echoing the comments of many
residents, Mitchell says he is very impressed
with the friendliness of his neighbors, which
was not always the case in North Redondo,
he said.
And he also touts the relative compactness
of the residential part of town, where he and
his wife like to stroll through the city streets,
occasionally stopping at a local establishment
for a slice of pizza and a glass of wine.
So, Mitchell was asked how did the COVID
scourge affect his company. He said that the
virus, a death-knell to many businesses, had
actually sent his CPA firm’s workload “through
the roof. CPA firms and that includes all my
colleagues, were the first responders to businesses.
We do not get any news coverage for
this, but if you ask any of my employees, in
the year 2020, we actually had never worked
more,” as reeling business entities struggled
to track their finances and struggle to keep
their doors open.
When Mitchell is not looking at ledgers
and numbers, peering under his green-tinted
accounting visor (very, very old-school reference)
to formulate the best possible financial
outcome for his clients, what does he like to
do? He said that he and Anna like to retreat
to their cabin in Big Bear to decompress.
Mitchell said that buying the Big Bear cabin
was “the best thing that we ever did.” He also
likes to partake in wine-tasting excursions
and, as mentioned earlier, yearly “get-out-of-
Dodge trips” with longtime friend Cindrich
and assorted mates, as well as just enjoying
the colloquial charms of El Segundo. Basking
in the two-to-three times weekly three-or-so
mile walks around the local environs with
Anna, walks that had helped Mitchell dissolve
ten-or-so of the fifteen pounds that he said
that he gained when the lockdown started.
El Segundo’s Larry Mitchell: A man who
accounts for a living and a man El Segundo
residents can count on. •
El Segundo CPA Larry Mitchell. Photo provided by Larry Mitchell.
the name suggests. A saxophone quartet is a
musical ensemble that contains four saxes,
typically: soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone.
As Gold describes it, players are encouraged
to improvise and are often highlighted in solos
during performances. Because the instrument
is so flexible and the quartet is able to build
off the other members, all kinds of music are
explored by the Saxes.
“We play classical music as much as we
play show tunes. We play rock. We play popular
tunes, you name it,” says Gold. He describes
one recent concert of his, A Brief History of
Jazz, as a journey through the different eras
of jazz music throughout the decades, from
the roots of jazz and gospel and the blues to
ragtime big band and swing to Bebop and Bossa
Nova, all the way to modern electronic pieces.
He followed that up with a concert playing all
of Beethoven’s 3rd symphony.
Many of the quartet members have played
in the El Segundo Concert Band, a local
community band that produces three to four
family-friendly concerts a year and which is
also a part of the South Bay Music Association.
In 2014, the SMBA was officially formed
and had blossomed into the organization it is
now. Today, the association provides mini-grants
for alternative music teaching methods due to
Covid-19, scholarships for student musicians,
private lessons, free music concerts, and inschool
musical clinics by professional musicians.
A former president of the association himself,
Gold explains that the SBMA is a registered
501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that helps to
fund music teachers and programs in El Segundo.
The SBMA started in 1998 as a group
of a dozen El Segundo parents of band students
performing “Louie Louie” as a surprise for
their kids. The group loved it so much that
they formed the El Segundo Concert Band.
At any given time, the Concert Band is
comprised of about 20% of high school
students who qualify to join. The band and
organization offer music mentoring and encourage
all younger members to continue their
musical journey.
Every February, the group hosts an annual
Comedy Night and Silent Auction to benefit
the El Segundo High School Eagle Band.
Over the past decade, the event has raised
over $200,000.
Gold says that the Segundo Saxes rehearse
often and thoroughly to ensure that their
performances are the best they can be. The
pandemic threw a wrench in the quartet’s
plans. Members shifted, and the number of
shows dipped as gatherings dwindled. The
last show the quartet was able to play was at
a luncheon for the Daughters of the American
Revolution in Palos Verdes less than a week
before everything was shut down.
“It could have been a disaster…seriously a
disaster,” he says. Thankfully, as Gold continued
to follow up with them long after the show, no
members present at the luncheon contracted
Covid from the gathering. As everything opens
back up, Gold says the Saxes are ready to roll
The Segundo Saxes played their last show in Palos Verdes a week before Covid prompted shut downs across the nation.
From left to right: Dave Gold (Baritone Sax), Chris Alva (Tenor Sax), Jason Gregory (Alto Sax) and Mike Jones (Soprano Sax). The
group is currently looking for a Tenor Sax player.
“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more.
If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.”
– Oprah Winfrey