JAZZ : WEEKLY ‘NOON’ SESSION COMPLETES 21ST SEASON

The ceremony known as “Jazz at Noon” is unlike any other musical gathering. Among other reasons, it is the longest-running weekly event of its kind, having just rounded out its 21st season for a total of 992 Fridays.

“We started these sessions,” says Les Lieber, the saxophonist who launched “Jazz at Noon,” “because there are a lot of us who felt the need for a friendly, informal place where we could bring together a bunch of jazz-starved people--some to play and others just to listen.” One might not expect any musician or layman in this city to feel any frustration; on the surface, the opportunities to perform seem constant and ubiquitous. But these are not your everyday musicians.

With the exception of honorary guest soloists--who have included famous names from Goodman, Hampton and Krupa to Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Eldridge, Stan Getz and Billy Taylor--almost all the participants in “Jazz at Noon” are men and women from other walks of life who moonlight as performers.

On the final Friday of the 1986-87 season, the eight men on the bandstand at Cafe 43, a midtown restaurant where the sessions have been held for the past four years, were expertly held together by the drummer, Dr. Robert Litwak, who is the head of thoracic surgery at Mt. Sinai Hospital. On guitar was a fleetly swinging graphic designer, Pat Del Vecchio; at the piano was Bill Azan, who makes his living as a piano salesman.

Front and center was Les Lieber himself, a veteran magazine writer and public relations executive who for many years has enjoyed a reputation as a near-professional alto saxophonist whose sound and phrasing reveal a strong Benny Carter influence.

As a young man, Lieber was on the verge of taking up music for a living. At one point he assembled a quintet--future Woody Herman arranger Neal Hefti played trumpet in it--and took it on a jaunt to Cuba. But by that time he was enjoying some success as a press agent handling, not coincidentally, Benny Goodman, Harry James and other leading maestros of the day.

“Most of the players who came here this afternoon,” Lieber said, “are regulars. Our trumpeter, Art Loman, who has had a very successful career in real estate promotion, has been coming to these sessions almost continuously for 16 years.

“Our trombonist, Father Bill Gannon, has two other lives going for him: He is an Episcopalian minister and a debt collector. Sam Parkins, who’s doubling on clarinet and tenor saxophone today, works as a classical record producer at CBS.”

Leafing through a list of some 135 participants who have been heard frequently at these gatherings, Lieber singled out a taxi driver who plays alto sax; an attorney and an eye surgeon, both of whom are fluent on baritone sax; a chauffeur who also warms up the fluegelhorn; a Yale law professor who drops in with his trumpet, and Dr. Ron Odrich, a periodontist who is considered one of New York’s premier bass clarinetists.

What is remarkable about the “Jazz at Noon” phenomenon is not simply that so many non-pros like to play; rather, it is that anyone unfamiliar with the premise, walking in on this group, would assume that this was a collection of seasoned professionals. If last week’s gig was typical, and Lieber assured me that it was, the music could have been emanating from one of Dick Gibson’s all-star jazz parties in Denver or the Classic Jazz Festival in Los Angeles.

“Ralph Hamperian, the bass player, is the only fellow up there who’s a regular working musician,” Lieber said. “He’s a member of Local 802, and there’s a reason. When he started out 21 years ago, in order not to run into difficulties with the union, we worked out a deal whereby they would let us use these men as long as we also hired union musicians.”

As it turned out, on this occasion two additional pros showed up. Bob Wilber, a saxophonist who in his teens was a student of Sidney Bechet and who evolved over the years into a virtuoso on clarinet and all the saxophones, dropped by to greet Lieber and other old friends. After playing two Benny Goodman specialties on clarinet, he switched horns and hats for an alto solo in which echoes of Johnny Hodges were plainly discernible.

“Wilber is an old hand here,” Lieber said, “but this is a special reunion for us. He spends half of every year living in England and we have to grab him when we can.”

After Wilber’s guest shot, vibraphonist Charles Newmark, a real estate executive, turned over his mallets to Warren Chiasson, a prominent free-lance New York musician who once was a member of the George Shearing Quintet.

The patrons of “Jazz at Noon” include a certain number of the regular jazz crowd who can be found at the clubs, or last week at the festival concerts, but among them are also some of the more conservative fans who either can’t keep nightclub hours or simply don’t have the evening time to spare. One amiable elderly gentleman, David Cohn, who was introduced to me as a “Jazz at Noon” regular, turned out to be the father of the tenor saxophonist Al Cohn and grandfather of Joe Cohn, Artie Shaw’s guitarist. An inveterate jazz fan, he recently turned 90.

That the “Jazz at Noon” jams have continued so long without interference is significant not simply because of the agreement with the musicians’ union, but because New York’s jazz scene has been victimized by an archaic cabaret law that has kept thousands of musicians out of work.

It has long been impossible for any group of more than three musicians to play in an unlicensed club. This law was passed originally to control speak-easies and, despite occasional revision, until as recently as last December no wind or brass instruments and no drums were allowed. The law was changed as a result of a suit brought in the New York Supreme Court by Local 802, but the City Council relented only to the extent of allowing horns and drums. The maximum number of instruments in clubs without a cabaret license remains at three.

Asked why this could not be resolved simply by a license, Lieber said: “How can anyone afford it? The code requirements for electrical wiring and sprinkler improvements and so forth can cost a fortune. That’s why only a few places in town, like the Village Vanguard and the Blue Note and Sweet Basil, can get around the situation.” An action brought by the musicians’ union to void these restrictions (which fortunately have no counterpart in Los Angeles) is now in the New York Supreme Court. Perhaps some day the benighted City Council will recognize that three rock musicians, even two or one, can make more din than an entire 17-piece jazz orchestra. Meanwhile, if you are in New York looking for some of your favorite jazzmen and find they have gone on the road or fled to Europe, you will understand the reason.

This is a great city for non-pros to hang out during “Jazz at Noon,” and a unique cynosure throughout Jazz Festival Week, but during the 51 weeks when the festival is not around it’s a very different story. Taking into account the fact that the music community has suffered under this law since 1926, it’s no wonder so many potentially great artists have opted for a safer career as lawyers or surgeons--or taxi drivers.