JAZZ / DIRK SUTRO : Acoustic Alchemy to Work Its Magic for U.S. Fans

Americans love the rich acoustic music of Acoustic Alchemy. The British band has sold more than 100,000 copies each of its albums “Red Dust & Spanish Lace” and “Natural Elements” in the United States. Tonight the band’s fans have a chance to see the group live in two shows at Humphrey’s on Shelter Island.

Group founder Nick Webb, who plays acoustic steel-stringed guitar, cites the Beatles, British guitarist John Martyn and folk acts Pentangle and Steeleye Span as early influences. Partner Greg Carmichael, who replaced Simon James in 1985, prefers nylon-stringed classical guitar.

“The idea with Greg is to make each track have a character of its own, to build a color, a visual-aural picture,” Webb said by telephone from Nashville, Tenn.

The group’s new album, “Blue Chip,” currently getting local air play, has this kind of variety. One track, “Bright Tiger,” even brings in computer-sampled segments of Indian sitar.

And though much talk these days centers on whether the light brand of music often heard on commercial radio should be called jazz, Webb doesn’t debate, labeling Acoustic Alchemy’s music “instrumental songs without words.”

“Both Greg and I are interested in mainstream jazz. It’s a tremendous art form which contains some of the best players in the world. The pure jazz side of things is something we don’t attempt because other people do it better.”

The shows are at 6:30 and 9.

The flute can be an expressive instrument, but don’t expect Steve Kujala’s songs to be tear-jerkers.

“My music has always been uplifting. I very rarely write anything angry or sad,” said the Valencia-based jazz flutist who plays Diego’s Loft tonight through Saturday. Playing with Kujala’s group is San Diego guitarist Peter Sprague, a longtime associate.

“On my new album, there are actually two tunes written in minor keys,” Kujala said. “I finally made the breakthrough. But the songs had happy endings.”

The album, “Arms of Love,” will soon be released on the Sonic Edge label. Kujala’s last recording, “Fresh Flute,” was for CBS, but that was before changes in management, the buyout of CBS by Sony and other events apparently caused a newer album, completed and mastered, to slide through the cracks.

One song was picked up by the Los Angeles group Full Swing for its new album, but, when no other labels bought rights to Kujala’s unreleased recording, he moved ahead with the Sonic Edge project.

Kujala’s experience includes five years with Chick Corea in the early 1980s. More recently, both Kujala and Sprague played with Corea on the sound track for a soon-to-be-released movie starring Peter Weller of “Robocop” fame--Latin-tinged music suitable to the Miami setting.

Kujala and Sprague often play in a trio powered by a bass-only rhythm section--no drums.

“We’re like a percussion section amongst ourselves. I do lots of key clicking and breath effects on flute. Peter and Mag (San Diego bassist Bob Magnusson) both do some pretty strange things on the bodies or their instruments. Combining that with body percussion such as clapping, it’s pretty much a three-man rhythm section.”

Kujala names Hubert Laws’ “The Rite of Spring” as a flute record that had an impact, and sax player Michael Brecker as a musician he admired coming up, transcribing many of Brecker’s mid-’70s solos.

Kujala’s playing is characterized by the way he slides from note to note, bending each like a guitarist.

“That’s something only I do,” he said. “It’s a technique I’ve been working on for the last 13 years. On a studio date, I have to use restraint not to slide.”

At the Loft, the group will include Duncan Moore on drums and David Curtis on bass.

Percussionist Reno Calice recently moved from Tucson, Ariz., to San Diego for the “music and weather. You have a lot of great players.”

On Tuesday, Calice will play with several of San Diego’s best on KSDS-FM’s (88.3) “Jazz Live” program at 8 p.m. at the City College Theater. There’s no charge for attending the live broadcast. Calice will tackle several original compositions plus a couple each by Horace Silver, Charles Mingus and Sonny Rollins, all spiced by his work on percussion and conventional trap drums.

Calice owned a jazz club in Tucson and produced live audio and video recordings of artists such as Bobby Shew and San Diegan Charles McPherson. He hopes to play local clubs soon.

RIFFS: The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, legendary keepers of the New Orleans flame, play the Clarion Hotel at Balboa Park, formerly the Lafayette Hotel, this Friday and Sunday in the Mississippi Room. Friday night’s shows are at 7:30 and 9:30. Sunday afternoon, there will be brunch and dinner shows at 1 and 5:30, $20 for the music, $35 for music and pool-side buffet. . . .

Jazzmine Records and CDs, the small La Jolla store that for the past three years has presented weekly Sunday jazz, often featuring Bobby Gordon and John Best, has been given notice with a July 5 deadline. The property has been sold, and the building will probably be razed for a new development, store owner Walt Friederang said. He’ll be looking for a new venue for staging concerts. This weekend, he’s presenting Bobby Gordon’s All Stars in an outdoor afternoon show open to the public at a house in Del Mar. Tickets are $7.50. The music lasts from 2 to 4:30 at 693 Orchard Lane. . . .

Insufficient ticket sales caused the cancellation of the June 29 Humphrey’s shows by Hubert and Ronnie Laws. . . .

A broadcast of trumpeter Chet Baker’s last live performance before his death last year will be featured Sunday night at 7 on KSDS-FM’s (88.3) “Le Jazz Club” program.