JAZZ / DIRK SUTRO : Guitarist Bends Blue Notes to Blend Into Jazz Sound

A lot of young jazz guitarists cut their chops on jazz masters like Kenny Burrell and Wes Montgomery, but you’ll hear something a little different in the work of L.A. guitarist Bob Devos, who plays Diego’s Loft tonight through Saturday night.

In addition to being a student of jazz, Devos is a major blues devotee. Mixing ample doses of B.B. and Albert King with his jazz listening, Devos has developed a style that includes bending strings and playing “blue” combinations of notes you won’t often hear from your average “jazz” guitarist.

“I’m real interested in that music, combining it with jazz,” Devos said. “It’s sort of a more basic form of music, but it’s also more expressive. By bending the strings, you can get a more vocal quality to your playing than with a traditional jazz style.”

Devos, 43, grew up in New Jersey and lived in New York. He taught at William Patterson College in New Jersey for 10 years, and still keeps a hand in education at Dick Grove’s School of Music and the Musicians Institute of Technology in Los Angeles.

He’s never made an album of his own, but has recorded several times, with an eclectic mix of musicians ranging from organist Richard “Groove” Smith to sax man (and Miles Davis producer) Tio Macero.

San Diego flutist Holly Hoffman, who books musicians for the Loft, heard Devos behind Hank Crawford and Jimmy McGriff at Elario’s in January and the guitarist for Diego’s, where he’ll be backed by San Diegans Bob Hamilton on piano, Chris Conner on bass and Tim McMahon on drums. They’re the same musicians who played with Don Menza during his recent gig at Diego’s.

Incidentally, Diego’s new $5 cover charge has thinned the crowds a bit.

Two weeks ago, San Diego jazz singer Denise Jeter, on the rebound from a stroke, gave a rousing comeback performance at Diego’s Loft. Those who heard her were impressed not only with her work, but also with that of the pianist behind her, whose spare, melodical style evoked the best of pianist Bill Evans.

His name is Bob Morss, and he plays five nights a week at the Marine Room in La Jolla, putting out a mix of jazz standards and an occasional “outside” number.

In ‘60s San Francisco, Morss had a chance to hear Evans often. He was impressed by his fellow pianist’s “voicings, his sensitivity and calmness. You could feel that. It was just magic to me. One night I heard him at the Trident (in Sausalito), and it was a noisy night, with cash registers clanging and people talking, and he came on to play, and I don’t know if he was a junkie at that time or not, but he walked up to the piano and put his ear down to the keys. He laid his hands on the piano and started playing so softly-- within three or four minutes, you could hear a pin drop.”

Morss began his musical career as a trombonist in San Francisco. In the ‘60s, the top four or five trombone men in town could get as much work as they wanted, with big bands still popular. But as San Francisco went hippie in the late ‘60s, the big band scene dried up, and Morss switched to the piano, at first with the hope of making a better living.

“When I finally found the piano, I found myself. I knew I was with the right instrument.” He’s searching for an individual style, not trying to duplicate the sound of Evans or other pianists. “I’ve had a chance to play with some great jazz musicians, and the feedback is that’s what I should be doing, and that’s what I am doing, being myself, finding myself, not trying to emulate anyone else.”

Contrary to what seems like the obvious, the LA Trio, which heads the Sunday evening jam sessions at Carlos Murphy’s in La Mesa, is not from Los Angeles. L.A., it turns out, stands for Leon Alpert, the electric bass player who leads the jams, along with Randy Seward on keyboards, Joseph Angelestro on guitar and Seymour Koblin on drums. Alpert, who also plays with Seymour in a band called Soulsa, convinced the restaurant to start the Sunday jazz jams, the first time jazz had been booked. After a slow start, momentum is building, with 30 to 50 people usually on hand for the 7 to 10 jams. “There’s no cover. Anybody can show up and jam. We’ve had just about every instrument.”

The first album from Hollis Gentry’s Neon is due in local record stores April 21. Recorded in 1986, it was actually released back then on a limited basis as a tool Gentry hoped would land his group a recording contract. It did, with Nova Records in Los Angeles. The album contains eight songs, three of them penned by Gentry. The sound is predictably sticky sweet, as you might expect of an album with commercial radio aspirations. You can catch the group Wednesday through Saturday evenings at the Rusty Pelican through April 22, and Mondays from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at The Other Place in the Embassy Suites Hotel on La Jolla Village Drive. You can also hear Gentry--in more challenging form--with his acoustic group Tuesday nights at Croce’s. The album-release party is April 26 at the Catamaran.