JAZZ SOCIETY TO HONOR PIANIST JIMMY ROWLES

Jimmy Rowles Day will be celebrated in Los Angeles on Sept. 14 when the Los Angeles Jazz Society will stage a concert in honor of the pianist proclaimed as the society’s honoree of the year.

Rowles was the final choice among five nominees; the others were Louis Bellson, Conte Candoli, Bob Cooper and Teddy Edwards, all longtime bulwarks of the Southland jazz community.

“I didn’t expect to win,” Rowles said when the announcement was made Sunday. “I didn’t deserve to. But I’m sure not knocking it.”

In recent years, Teri Merrill-Aarons, founder and president of the Jazz Society, has produced, under the auspices of the Hollywood Arts Council, concerts saluting trumpeter Harry (Sweets) Edison and drummer Shelly Manne. Last year, when the society was founded as an independent entity, the winner was guitarist John Collins.

Like his predecessors, Rowles has divided a long career between jazz jobs and commercial work. Born in Spokane, Wash., he moved to Los Angeles in 1940 and, except for a few years in New York, has lived here since.

At a time when the appearance of a white musician in a black group was rare, he established his first jazz credentials with the team of Slim & Slam, then with the brothers Lee and Lester Young. In 1941 he was Billie Holiday’s accompanist for five months, later playing on numerous record dates with her.

Rowles’ band credits are almost endless: He’s been with Woody Herman, Les Brown, Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman; he put in four years on the Bob Crosby band’s radio series and became almost every singer’s favorite accompanist, working with Peggy Lee, Julie London, Carmen McRae and dozens more.

The Los Angeles Jazz Society’s September gala will recognize Rowles’ accomplishments as pianist and composer. Among his best-known works are “The Ballad of Thelonious Monk,” recorded by Carmen McRae, and “The Peacocks,” to be heard in the upcoming movie “ ‘Round Midnight.”

Like so many musicians in Hollywood during the great years of movie and TV studio work, he balanced two careers as his jazz work overlapped with such credits as “M Squad” and “Dobie Gillis.” He was on call regularly with Henry Mancini and Neal Hefti; for three years he was on staff at NBC.

Through all those years, he kept up his jazz reputation. Admired for his consummate harmonic imagination, he recorded with Benny Carter, Barney Kessel, Buddy De Franco, Zoot Sims and Sarah Vaughan.

Because of health problems, Rowles of late has been pacing himself carefully, working mainly around Los Angeles in the company of his daughter Stacy, who plays a lyrical fluegelhorn. Next month they will head for the North Sea Jazz Festival at the Hague; the following week they’ll be part of Woody Herman’s 50th-anniversary concert at Hollywood Bowl.

On Friday, Rowles, along with an all-star group known as the Legends of Jazz, will play a noon concert on the steps of City Hall. Sunday the same band will appear at the Playboy Jazz Festival.