SHOP TILL YOU BOP AT JAZZ CONCERTS

Music may have charms to soothe the savage breast, but could those charms also entice shoppers to spend more money?

Leslie Craven, property manager for the Promenade shopping center in Pacific Beach, is hoping the answer is yes.

That’s why the year-old center is launching a 14-week series of outdoor jazz concerts to be held each Sunday starting this weekend on the upper deck, which can accommodate as many as 500 people.

“The idea is just to get people down there, and know we’re open,” Craven said. “The shows are free, and hopefully people coming off the beach will hear the music and stop by.

“When we first opened the center, we had a live jazz band play, and it worked out well for us. So now all we’re doing is picking up where we left off.”

The series opens with a performance by Koinonia, an up-and-coming fusion group consisting of six Los Angeles session musicians, including Grammy Award-winning bassist Abraham Laboriel and ex-Weather Report drummer Alex Acuna.

Subsequent shows, all booked by veteran San Diego jazz promoter Rob Hagey, also will star either national fusion upstarts or local nightclub favorites instead of the big-name (and big-bucks) acts found at Humphrey’s Concerts by the Bay Series on Shelter Island.

Local jazz audiences never have been very supportive of newcomers, Hagey said, but if admission is free, that could change.

“There are a lot of good artists out there who just aren’t big enough yet to play at places like Humphrey’s,” he said. “They’re very anxious to break into the (San Diego) market, but nobody’s willing to give them a chance.

“By virtue of the shows being free, however, I can. And introducing jazz fans to new artists and new labels with emerging talent is something I have always wanted to do.”

The series continues with local jazz group Zzajj, May 31; North County’s Peter Sprague Quartet, June 7; Bluesology, a Los Angeles jazz, blues and rhythm-and-blues band led by singer Freddie Robinson, June 14, and pop-jazz saxophonist Hollis Gentry and his band, Neon, June 21.

Another local jazz group, New Shoes, will perform June 28, followed by Gentry’s former band, Fattburger, July 5, and Zebra/MCA recording artists Cabo Frio, a funky fusion group from Rochester, N.Y., July 12.

“Two other groups we expect to book are fusionists Special EFX and the Perri Sisters, four female singers who are as much gospel and rhythm-and-blues as they are jazz,” Hagey said.

“Others we’re considering are Kenya, a female singer from Brazil, and Brandon Fields, an alto and tenor saxophonist who is just wonderful.

“San Diego is one of the strongest markets for fusion jazz in the country, all due to radio station KIFM’s ‘Lites Out’ programming. So we’re trying to stick with artists in that format.”

Accordingly, KIFM-FM (98.1) jazz consultant Bob O’Connor said national acts featured in the Promenade’s jazz series will get more airplay than they would otherwise.

“We’re playing all of them because we feel it’s our duty,” O’Connor said. ‘I think the concept behind this series--exposing new acts that don’t have the chance to play anywhere else--is terrific.

“Ideally, we would like to get some support from other local radio stations for these acts as well. But that’s unlikely, because most program directors, like promoters, aren’t willing to take such a chance.

“So we’re going to try doing it on our own. We’ve been successful once before, when we first started playing and helped the Humphrey’s Concerts by the Bay series get off the ground.

“And hopefully, if we stick with it long enough, it will work once again.”