LAWYER WHO MOONLIGHTS AS JAZZMAN

During the day, Don Glaser balances the scales of justice. As an attorney who specializes in estate planning and appellate work, his stage each weekday morning and afternoon is a downtown courtroom.

At night, Glaser balances the scales of music. As a singer and pianist whose specialty is old-school be-bop, his stage is the upstairs lounge at Vic’s Restaurant in La Jolla. His next dates there are Wednesday and Thursday

He sings and plays a mix of original tunes and classics like Duke Ellington’s “Satin Doll,” George Gershwin’s “Love Is Here to Stay” and Cole Porter’s “I Get a Kick Out of You” in a trio that also includes bassist Marshall Hawkins and drummer John Harris.

“I grew up listening to pianists like Oscar Peterson and singers like Mel Torme, and I love the old songs by such masters as Gershwin and Porter,” said Glaser, 45.

“Eventually, I might expand into some newer styles of jazz, like fusion, but for now I’m just having a good time singing and playing the old stuff--the traditional, straight-ahead jazz of the 1940s and ‘50s that was popular when I was a kid.”

Ever since he passed the bar exam in 1967, Glaser has regarded music as a casual hobby that he pursued only when he could find the time. He was much too busy building up his law practice and raising his two children.

But in the six months that he has been playing at Vic’s, Glaser has watched his “hobby” evolve into a second career that’s every bit as demanding as his first.

“Now that my practice is established and my kids are older, I have more time to play,” Glaser said. “And when you play two nights a week with your own trio for a long period of time, you’re almost forced to learn things and start taking your music a bit more seriously.”

Glaser said he plans to devote even more time to music. Aside from building up his following on the local nightclub circuit, he wants to write more new songs and eventually venture into the recording studio to cut a record.

“As a professional musician, I’m just starting out,” he said. “Every day, it seems, I sing and play better than I did the day before, but I still have a long way to go.”

Even so, Glaser has compiled an impressive list of accomplishments during the many years in which music was merely his hobby.

With a fair amount of pride, he notes that he is the only attorney in town who has been summoned before the mixing board by bassist Ray Brown and drummer Shelly Manne, two veteran sidemen of such jazz legends as Benny Carter, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie and Oscar Peterson.

That occasion came in 1980, when producer Jimmy Haskell, a longtime friend of Glaser who has worked with everyone from Fats Domino to Rick Nelson, assembled an all-star back-up band to help Glaser record a solo album of original songs for Horn Records of Los Angeles.

The album, simply called “Don Glaser,” immediately became a “pick of the week” in Cashbox, one of the national music industry’s most respected trade magazines. It eventually wound up on the play lists of more than 200 jazz radio stations around the country.

But what mattered most to Glaser was the opportunity to spend time in the recording booth with some of his boyhood heroes.

“All my life, I have always wanted to do an album with some of the jazz greats I had grown up listening to, but I never did anything about it,” Glaser said.

“Finally, in 1980, I called up Jimmy and told him I wanted to record some of the songs I had written over the years. Then, I asked him if there was any chance he could get Ray Brown and Shelly Manne to play back-up.

“To my amazement, he said, ‘Terrific.’ And before I knew it, we were all in the same studio, playing my songs. I was a little awe-struck at first, but then we got into it, and the only thing on my mind was the music.”

Glaser said he first began singing and playing piano when he was 5. At age 12, he played his first professional gig--with musicians twice his age--at the Camp Pendleton officers club.

He continued performing with various other jazz groups through high school and college, but after entering law school in 1966, he confined his musical talents to an occasional live performance or recording session.

Even now, Glaser has no intentions of giving up his law practice and concentrating solely on his musical career.

“I think there would be too much pressure on me to make it, and it wouldn’t be as enjoyable as it is now,” Glaser said. “Law and music also complement each other. One gives me limits, and the other gives me expansion. Yet in different ways, they’re both creative.

“So at least for now, I’m finding time to do both.”