20TH ANNIVERSARY : JAZZ FEELS RIGHT AT HOME AT DONTE’S

The big bands of Duke Ellington and Count Basie, Woody Herman and Stan Kenton; the horns of Clark Terry and Chuck Mangione; the saxophones of Al Cohn and Zoot Sims; the pianos of Teddy Wilson and Adam Makowicz; the guitars of Lee Ritenour and Joe Pass. They’ve all been heard from the tiny stage of Donte’s, the venerable North Hollywood jazz club that begins celebrating its 20th year tonight.

“Well, we actually opened in June of 1966,” said owner Carey Leverette, “but we celebrate in October because that’s when Sunny and Bill MacKay became my partners.”

For some reason or another, celebrating an anniversary four months late befits the 62-year-old Leverette, a former choreographer whose cluttered office boasts a sign, given to him by his employees, with the legend: “Do you want to speak to the boss, or to someone who knows what’s going on?”

The gray-bearded Leverette, whose Manhattan rearing, Fordham University education and Guadalcanal war experiences had never included anything approaching jazz, fell victim to a music he had “never” liked.

“I got to know the guys when I was at MGM,” Leverette said. “I got interested that way.”

His interest was expanded in 1966 when, at the insistence of one of his four wives, he became the moneyed partner of John Riccella in the Lankershim Boulevard club. At the time, the room was to be a restaurant with a piano bar. Hired to play was Hampton Hawes, accompanied by the bassist Red Mitchell.

“He and Red wanted a drummer,” said Leverette, “but the piano bar had been built backward, so the drums would be where the bass should be. Anyway, I reached into my own pocket to get Donald Bailey.”

Though those beginnings were auspicious musically, the club lost money from Day One.

“We were in trouble and I was going to pack it up,” said Leverette, “but Bill and Sunny (MacKay) wanted in. I wasn’t even here for the June opening, but I became active in October.”

That activity has afforded Donte’s, of which Leverette has been the sole proprietor since 1974, a reputation as being one of the world’s foremost jazz clubs.

It wasn’t by design.

“I didn’t know what I was doing,” said Leverette. “I was in charge of the talent but I didn’t know enough to spell their names right on the marquee.”

Nonetheless, Donte’s has survived. But it has had its share of hard times.

Choosing what Leverette calls a “concert-style” setting for the music, he has avoided turning the room into a high-brow supper club.

“We’re not that big,” Leverette said. “When we had a big attraction, we would push lightly on the food to get the people. After all, when a big band comes in we lose the front row of tables, and at the tables where we can serve four for dinner, we can serve six cocktails.”

The financial woes of the club are renowned in the jazz world. The club was once shut down by the Internal Revenue Service. In addition, several musicians, who nonetheless returned to the venue to perform their art, have complained that the low pay offered is frequently not even paid.

“That’s just not true,” Leverette said. “Twice in 20 years I’ve been taken to the union and both times were over a record deal where the company was supposed to pay the musicians for the live performance and the recording.”

Leverette, meanwhile, complains that he can’t book the acts he likes best because they don’t pay the bills.

“It’s a crime,” he complains, “because the music is fantastic. But I have to be influenced by the tune the cash register plays. The young kids--the volume hackers I call them--they’ll pack the place. So I use that to support the acts I like better.”

But the jazz fusion artists are a relatively new aspect of the jazz business; for years before three vanloads of amplifiers and synthesizers ever saw the inside of Donte’s, the club provided a Valley home for jazz musicians.

“Home is what made this place,” Leverette said.

The homey atmosphere has indeed survived, but not without reservations.

“Yeah, home,” said one jazz musician who continues to work the room sporadically and refused to be identified. “It’s like a home where your parents abused you but you still keep coming back for the holidays.”

But that “abuse” may be a mere reflection of a time when festivals have hurt the club scene and attendance to America’s original musical art form is down.

“This is where my friends are,” said another musician, who also refused to be identified. “Any night, at any hour I walk in here, I know I’m going to see my friends. My wife knows where to find me.”

The schedule for the weeklong 20th anniversary celebration is as follows: tonight, the Modernaires; Tuesday, the Kim Richmond Ensemble; Wednesday, Arlette McCoy with Monty Budwig; Thursday and Friday, Freddie Hubbard; and Saturday, Pete and Conte Candoli with the Ross Tompkins Trio.