NEW MUSICIANS’ PACT MAY MEAN MORE JOBS

The first step away from a one-horse orchestral city and toward a higher degree of musical sophistication was made last week when the San Diego Opera and the American Federation of Musicians ratified a new three-year contract. Although according to one musician the agreement is “the same contract we’ve always had with the opera,” there is one key difference: It requires that players who have held contracts with both the San Diego Symphony, and the opera must, by the third season in the contract, choose to work for one organization or the other.

Patric Oakley, secretary-treasurer of Local 325 of the AFM and opera general director Ian Campbell praised each other for the friendly tone and ease of the negotiations.

“It could lead to the development of a very solid pool of musicians here,” said Campbell, who said he hopes that the musicians will choose to remain “tenured” with the opera while free-lancing with visiting Broadway shows, Starlight and with the local chamber orchestras. San Diego could develop what in effect would be two orchestras, a situation that exists in other cities such as San Francisco, where the orchestras for the symphony and opera are separate entities.

The real issue is whether San Diego can support two professional orchestras. The members of a future opera orchestra would rely on a variety of free-lance gigs, which currently aren’t that abundant in San Diego. Recently there has been precious little work for free-lancers from touring Broadway shows. And chamber orchestras have never established a track record for survival in San Diego.

RADIO BAND: From the shores of beautiful Mission Bay in San Diego, California, we bring you “Pacific Ballroom.” For more than two years Al Deahl has produced and announced his fictional “Pacific Ballroom” program of Big Band music over KPBS Radio (FM 89). Until now the show, a takeoff on the old remote ballroom radio broadcasts, has been aired at noon Monday through Friday in 15-minute segments. That was barely enough time for listeners “to munch a sandwich,” said Deahl, a retired Naval Investigative Service agent who has never lost his love of Big Band music.

Now “Pacific Ballroom” has been given more room to breathe with a two-hour Sunday night segment from 6 to 8 p.m. It takes Deahl nine hours to craft a mellow, two-hour show he can be proud of. That includes his brief patter between disks such as “Tuxedo Junction” and “In the Mood.” The trick, he says, is to be camp without being hokey as he introduces the next Pacific Ballroom bandleader. Although the Pacific Ballroom only exists in the imagination, Deahl still gets calls from listeners wishing to buy tickets to the mythical ballroom shows.

One reason, Deahl said, that big bands went into decline was that the singer became more important than the band leader. “Frank Sinatra fronted for Tommy Dorsey, but the time came when the fans asked for Frank Sinatra instead of Dorsey. That changed the big bands forever and all.”

At the Pacific Ballroom, Frank still croons for Tommy, and Harry James’ horn wails high and clear. Tune in and hear Deahl set an authentic mood as he intones: “The big mirrored ball on the ceiling slowly starts to turn, sprinkling gold light drops over the dance floor. It’s 1939, and this is the way it was.”

ART LOANS: It may not be the Age of Aquarius but it’s a new age all the same as several of San Diego’s major arts institutions have begun to share their skills and facilities. The breakthrough occurred with the Old Globe Theatre’s telemarketing department, which is being used by the San Diego Symphony to sell symphony subscriptions. In the past two months the 10-member Globe crew, on hiatus from theater duties, has earned the symphony more than $100,000 in subscriptions, including 300 new subscribers.

“Sharing among arts organizations has been a no-no,” said Chuck Love, symphony director of marketing and sales. “Several of us have decided that sharing won’t hurt and in fact will enhance our organizations.” Among the newly enlightened are the Globe’s marketing director, Joe Kobryner, Suzanne Townsend, general manager of the San Diego Arts Foundation and the San Diego Opera’s development director, Anne Spira. “There’s so much crossover among our customers, that by not sharing we were actually pounding people to death with mailings and phone calls,” Love said. “We’re not only sharing names but are planning so that everybody is not calling the same people at once. It’s a far better way to do it.”

GALLERY GLOSS: More paper art comes to Old Town’s Circle Gallery. On the heels of an exhibit by Ed Pieters, a nationally acclaimed local artist, a show of cast paper art by Vietnamese artist Lebadang will open Aug. 22. Still more paper art comes to the Mingei International Museum in a show opening Oct. 12 and funded by a $5,000 grant from Mervyn’s. The new 500-square-foot gallery at Centro Cultural de la Raza features two solo exhibitions by local artists: an installation and video by James Luna, a Luiseno and Diegueno Indian from North County, and Chula Vistan Patricia Mercado’s paintings on elaborate wood constructions of such “community disasters” as the McDonald’s massacre in San Ysidro and the Bhopal, India, chemical poisoning. The exhibit is open through Aug. 31.

ARTBEATS: The Nederlander (theater) Organization-San Diego Symphony legal duel over control of the Fox Theatre-Symphony Hall building now goes to court Aug. 29, moved back one week. Nederlander, whose San Diego Playgoers Series has had first refusal on the theater since 1977, will attempt through a preliminary injunction to stop the symphony’s renovation of the building . . . Johnny Rivers, the veteran pop singer of the 1960s, best known for “Tracks of My Tears,” “Poor Side of Town” and “Summer Rain,” will headline the Lite International Country and Salsa Festival Saturday in Chula Vista’s Memorial Bowl. The festival, in which salsa chefs from around the Southwest will try to outdo each other in coming up with the spiciest sauces, is a benefit for the national Multiple Sclerosis Society. The concert starts at 5 p.m. with an appearance by the Del Mar-born-and-bred oldies group “The Mar Dels.”