all this Jazz : The Eclectic Music’s Upswing Marked by Numerous New Clubs

On a recent Friday night at Catalina’s Bar & Grill, a Hollywood jazz room-restaurant, tenor saxophonist Lew Tabackin ripped into a rousing up-tempo blues, as Vince Verdi sat listening intently on one of the bank of stools that surround the bandstand.

Verdi, his brother Rob, and their friend, Laura Coyen, all aficionados in their 20s, had traveled from Anaheim to hear Tabackin--a mainstream artist and former Los Angeles resident who lives in New York City with his wife, pianist/composer/bandleader Toshiko Akiyoshi. While the Verdis don’t make the 40-mile drive to Catalina’s every week, when they do, they say it’s well worth the time and energy.

“It’s a classy place,” enthused Rob Verdi, who plays saxophone and leads the Side Street Strutters, a Dixieland band that works weekends at Disneyland. “The audience knows they’re here to listen to jazz music, so they’re very appreciative, quiet and respectful of the performers.”

Tabackin, a dynamic, virtuosic performer who also excels on flute, was playing to a three-quarter-full house at Catalina’s, an airy, light nightclub with big, exposed beams that has been open less than a year and whose success is indicative of the recent boom in the jazz nightclub business.

The upswing has been marked in the past few years by the opening of several excellent rooms. Among them are the Loa in Santa Monica, the Alleycat Bistro in Culver City, Alfonse’s in Toluca Lake, Birdland West in Long Beach and Bon Appetit in Westwood. They join more established clubs like Donte’s and the Baked Potato in North Hollywood, LeCafe in Sherman Oaks, Concerts by the Sea in Redondo Beach and the Vine Street Bar & Grill in Hollywood in filling out the best jazz scene west of New York City. (See sidebar for a listing of top local rooms.)

The Sunday Times Calendar listings indicate that there are close to 100 rooms from the northern San Fernando Valley to as far south as San Diego that regularly--or occasionally--book acts that fall under the eclectic umbrella of jazz music, which includes Dixieland to jazz/rock, acoustic solo pianists to roaring big bands. This new-found abundance is definitely good news for live-jazz fans--for almost any night in any locale, there is good music to be heard, if you don’t mind getting in your car and driving to it. Catalina’s is one club that’s quickly gained a reputation. Chuck Niles, the easy-smiling veteran jazz disk jockey whose show is heard Monday through Saturday, 6-9 p.m. on KKGO-FM (105.1) was there to hear Tabackin. “I like the vibes here. Of course the guys on the bandstand create vibes for me, and when you have people like (pianist) Ahmad Jamal, (saxophonists) Phil Woods, Johnny Griffin and Lew Tabackin, how can you lose?”

Though mainstream jazz--which can be defined as acoustic jazz played with a swing era, be-bop or post-be-bop rhythmic feel, might seem to have more appeal to middle-aged listeners, the crowd at Catalina’s to hear Tabackin was predominantly youthful. “I couldn’t help but think of Lew as appealing to an older audience,” Niles commented, “but maybe young people are getting tired of their eardrums getting mauled (by loud volume concerts).”

That same evening, Don Menza’s big band held forth at Donte’s in North Hollywood, enthralling a packed house in the room that this October will have been open 22 years, making it the area’s oldest continuously operating jazz spot.

Among the multitude that filled the dark-walled, low-ceilinged club were Nick Sanders and Mandy Jacobson, who could be seen swaying back and forth in their seats. Outside the club at the end of the set, Sanders, said serendipity had brought them there. “This was a spontaneous thing to do,” he said. “We drove by the Baked Potato (located on Cahuenga Blvd., about a mile from Donte’s), but it seemed too crowded, and we’d read about this room, so we came here . . . “

The intimacy of a nightclub, as much as what was played, seemed to strike a warm chord in the couple, who don’t ordinarily go to jazz rooms. “You got a sense of the performers, tuning in to what they do,” Jacobson said. “It was fun listening to what they say to each other, and the way they play off each other,” Sanders added.

It’s the Closeness

Tom Christensen and Larry Jack, two spunky 22-year-olds from Chatsworth who were at the Baked Potato listening to drummer Chet McCracken’s jazz-mixed-with-rock outfit the following Sunday, both agreed that the closeness of a small room like the Potato, which seems hardly bigger than a shoe box, provides something special.

“You can talk to the band members right after the set, get to shake their hand,” said Christensen, an electrician. “I don’t know where else you can go to do that.”

Actually, most clubs offer easy access to the musicians, many of whom are affable types like Teddy Edwards, a tenor saxophone whiz who’s been in Los Angeles since the mid-’40s and who loves to mingle after a set. At Alfonse’s recently, Edwards engaged in friendly banter with Nick and Vicki LaBrie, and their out-of-town guest from San Francisco, Mary Cogar. “We don’t go out often enough,” Nick LaBrie, 40, admitted, “but we listen a lot at home. While (compact discs) are pretty nice, they don’t provide the same atmosphere.”

Many of those listening to the musicians are musicians themselves. “If there’s any room I go to more than another, it’s Alfonse’s, because that’s where the players hang out,” said Niles, who once made his living as a saxophonist. “It’s a great place to hang out and lie to each other,” he added with a raucous laugh.

Similarly, pianist Frank Strazzeri, who was playing piano with Menza’s band, felt that “a lot of the people who have been the core of (Donte’s) have been musicians. It’s a real pure jazz joint.”

Nothing’s Free

While going out to a club is certainly an event to be anticipated, it’s not free. Cover charges range from no cover to $15, depending on the night, the room and the entertainment. Usually, a drink minimum is imposed as well, so that the cost for two people can sometimes be as much as $50, not including food. Sanders, who with his date also had dinner, thought the cover/minimum for Menza at Donte’s was high ($8/two drink minimum). “I’d hear jazz every week if the cover charge were less,” he said. “If it cost what it did tonight, it would have to be special.”

The majority of listeners questioned by The Times, however, thought cover charges were within reason. Michael Saad, 36, a curly-haired actor who is currently in the play, “Tamara,” was happy to pay to hear McCracken at the Baked Potato. “I don’t mind the cover,” he said. “I think artists should make money. Besides, if you think it’s expensive here, check out New York. Here it’s a couple of bucks for entertainment, a couple of bucks for drinks, what more could I want?”

Bon Appetit in Westwood, which charges a cover for its mostly electric, jazz-rock blend attractions, gives some of its audience a free seat: There are large windows that open onto the street and listeners can stand there and absorb the sounds gratis. Sometimes they listen and then decide to come inside and pay the cover. Sometimes they don’t.

But cover or no cover, strong resurgence or mild comeback, jazz is often a borderline business and even full houses don’t mean black ink on the bottom line. Asked how he was doing one evening, Sheldon Slusman, co-owner of the Baked Potato, responded, “Trying to make a living. One night we’re jammed, people are waiting outside. Next night, it’s empty.” Sibby Harris, who’s been a waitress at Donte’s for eight years, agreed it was tough going. “There are a lot of new rooms opening up and people are trying like mad to keep them going.” Other club operators, like Ron Berenstein of Vine Street Bar & Grill and Al Williams of Birdland West, tell similar tales.

Up-and-Down Pattern

If the jazz scene in Los Angeles is seeing a resurgence today, this up-and-down pattern is nothing new. While there were few clubs up until the ‘40s that spotlighted jazz--Sebastian’s Cotton Club in Culver City and the Victor Hugo in Beverly Hills featured the likes of Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman during the ‘30s--it was in that decade that the city experienced its first jazz explosion.

There were two main hubbubs of activity: Hollywood--where pianists Nat King Cole, Art Tatum and Erroll Garner could be heard at clubs like the Trocadero on Hollywood Boulevard, and East Coast giants like Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Coleman Hawkins played Billy Berg’s on Vine Street--and on Central Avenue, near 41st St.

On Central Avenue, in the heart of the city, rooms with colorful names like Jack’s Basket, the Casablanca, the Down Beat, Finale, Club Alabam, and Lovejoy’s played host to the town’s outstanding young talent who were all part of the new revolution in jazz called be-bop. A handful of these young Turks included reedmen Dexter Gordon, Wardell Gray and Teddy Edwards, trumpeters Art Farmer and Howard McGhee, pianists Hampton Hawes and Dodo Mamaroso, bassist Red Callendar and drummers Larance Marable Hamilton and Roy Porter.

The scene died down in early 1947, but started to regenerate in 1949, when former Stan Kenton bassist Howard Rumsey convinced owner John Levine to implement a jazz policy at the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach. Soon, the Lighthouse All-Stars--with the likes of reedmen Art Pepper, Bud Shank and Bob Cooper, trumpeters Shorty Rogers and Conte Candoli, trombonists Milt Bernhart and Frank Rosolino, pianists Hawes, Sonny Clark and Claude Williamson and drummers Max Roach and Stan Levey--had become one of best known bands in jazz, and a major purveyor of what was then known as “The West Coast Sound.”

The success of the Lighthouse led to new activity in Hollywood in the ‘50s, evidenced by the popularity of such rooms as Zardi’s and Jazz City at Hollywood Boulevard and Western Avenue, Tiffany’s on 8th Street, the Haig on Wilshire Boulevard (next to the original Brown Derby), and the Hillcrest Club, on Washington Boulevard near La Brea.

Interest Resumed

By the beginning of the ‘60s, club activity had dwindled once again, though Shelly’s Manne Hole--a dark, wood-paneled room run by Shelly Manne and Rudy Onderwyzer on Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood--was one of a few jazz clubs that survived, providing a home for giants such as Miles Davis, Bill Evans and Cannonball Adderly, and local artists Sorty Rogers, Manne and his Men. Then, slowly but surely, interest resumed, and, in the ‘60s and ‘70s, the new rooms were called Donte’s, the Baked Potato, Concerts by the Sea, Memory Lane, Carmelo’s, the Comeback Inn, Hop Singh’s; in the ‘80s came Vine Street Bar & Grill, Alfonse’s and Bon Appetit, At My Place and the Palace Court.

A look at calendars from currently operating rooms shows no shortage of talent, either. Recent weeks have found the following big names appearing somewhere in our midst: Freddie Hubbard, Dudley Moore, Phil Woods, Anita O’Day, Shorty Rogers, Chick Corea and Benny Carter, as well as the innumerable locals who really keep the scene alive. Notable upcoming engagements include harmonica player Toot Thielemans (tonight) and pianist Ramsey Lewis (Sept. 22-26) at Catalina’s, bassist Red Mitchell and guitarist Herb Ellis (Sept. 24-27) at the Loa, guitarist Lee Ritenour (Thursday, Sept. 24) at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano and Tony Williams (Oct. 1) at Concerts by the Sea.