HENKEL ADDS JAZZ, BLUES TO NEW FORM

Robin Henkel is part historian and part futurist when it comes to exploring those twin forms of musical Americana, blues and jazz.

Nearly every night of the week, the Del Mar singer, guitarist and bassist is out in the clubs, either unearthing old blues and jazz standards or trying to concoct new ones by mixing in elements of funk, fusion and boogie-woogie.

“All my life, I have been influenced by black music,” said Henkel, 35. “Black music is the only truly American art form we have.

“Blues, in particular, is the granddaddy of so much of our contemporary music. One of the first offshoots of blues was jazz, and from those two styles, everything else evolved: be-bop, swing, rock ‘n’ roll, fusion, funk.

“So, depending on where I play, I either retain the old or take all these little splinter groups that are descended from blues and jazz, blend them together, and fix them up into a new style.”

Henkel the historian can be found at the U.S. Grant Hotel in downtown San Diego this Thursday through Saturday night, along with partner Richard James. The two wear tuxedos and play acoustic piano, guitar, string bass and dobro, a type of acoustic steel guitar.

Their repertoire ranges from vintage jazz classics like Duke Ellington’s “Satin Doll” and Cole Porter’s “Night and Day” to such raw Mississippi delta blues songs as Robert Johnson’s “Walkin’ Blues” and Bo Diddley’s “I’m a Man.”

“We will go from very classy jazz to some very raunchy blues,” Henkel said. “Classy music fits in that room, but classy music alone tends to put people to sleep.

“So we try to add a little excitement and activity. That’s one of the reasons we’ve been there that long (since October).”

Henkel the futurist appears regularly at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach and other larger nightclubs around the county with his band, Robin Henkel Blues 90.

The group, which Henkel formed a year and a half ago, performs only original music, much of which he wrote himself. The other band members are drummer Paul Horn, tenor saxophonist Gary Reinhardt, guitarist Bill Macpherson, keyboardist Doug Randall and ex-King Biscuit Blues Band trumpeter Jack Stone.

“The concept of Blues 90 is to continue the evolution of blues and jazz through the nuclear age, the space age, and beyond,” Henkel said.

“It’s a melting pot of old and new: we’re maintaining the rawness of primitive blues and the harmonic structure of jazz, and adding the electronic sonic quality of techno-funk, the sophistication of fusion and some elements of Latin and boogie-woogie.

“By mixing everything together, we’re simply letting things evolve a step further. And in the process, we’re creating an entirely new form of music.”

Henkel’s infatuation with black music began when he was a young boy in the late 1950s, growing up in Seattle and then San Diego.

“Folk music was just starting to catch hold back then, and my parents frequently took me around to the coffeehouses,” Henkel recalled.

“Whenever the performers did songs like ‘Cocaine Blues’ and ‘Nobody Wants You When You’re Down and Out,’ I went wild. I was too young to know there was a style of music called the blues, but those songs really knocked me out.”

When he was 8, Henkel began taking guitar lessons. After mastering the scales, the first songs he learned to play were the old blues tunes he had grown to love.

By the time he graduated from what was then known as Cal Western University in 1973 with a bachelor’s degree in political science, Henkel had been introduced to jazz and fusion as well.

“Originally, I had intended to be a teacher, but at the time the supply of teachers far exceeded the demand,” he said. “So I decided to make my living through music.”

Throughout the 1970s and early ‘80s, Henkel played in a variety of local Top 40 rock bands, including Jumbalayah and the Ron Bolton Group.

But for the past two years, he has been concentrating on the black music on which he was raised--even though he’s making less money than he did when he was playing the hits.

“You don’t hear much black music in the bars,” Henkel said. “You hear mostly Top 40 rock ‘n’ roll.

“But that’s not where my heart is. I want to develop myself upwards as a musician; I like the feeling I get from being part of the musical evolution that blues and jazz is going through.

“In October, I plan on releasing an album of original music with Blues 90 and then soliciting a deal from a major label. Regardless of whether I’m successful, I’m at least doing what I want to do.

“And to me, that’s always mattered most.”