POP MUSIC / THOMAS K. ARNOLD : Singing Blues Over Woes at the California Theater

A year ago April, local pop fans were cheering the reopening of the California Theater, whose decade-long run as one of San Diego’s busiest concert facilities had ended in the spring of 1986 with the death of its owner.

Three Los Angeles businessmen, headed by Bob Stein, signed an exclusive lease with the property’s trustee, California First Bank, to take over operations of the 61-year-old downtown landmark. And, after renovating the former vaudeville house at a cost of nearly half a million dollars, Stein announced that he had struck a deal with Avalon Attractions of Los Angeles to again book major pop and rock acts into the 1,800-seat theater, at the rate of four or five shows a month.

Stein made good on his word, but Cheryl Steele, the theater’s former executive director, questions his ability to continue doing so.

Steele abruptly walked out off the job midway through the recent Bonnie Raitt concert, vowing never to return “because the whole place is going to hell.”

“The theater is more than $100,000 in debt,” she said. “I ran out of maintenance companies because there wasn’t any money to pay them, and we just lost our payroll company because we’re so far in arrears.”

There’s more.

“Up until the point I quit, I was still getting calls from people who hadn’t gotten refunds for tickets to canceled shows from last year,” Steele said. “On top of that, the roof leaks. On rainy days, there are puddles of water all over the stage, and I have to take out anywhere from 20 to 30 seats. And the place is so rat-infested that I even found rats in the popcorn machine.

“And, after dealing with all this for six months--and watching myself become frazzled--I finally got to the point where I just couldn’t take it any longer.”

Stein downplays the seriousness of Steele’s allegations.

“Yes, we’re in debt, but we’re definitely not a failing business,” he said angrily. “The building is open and will remain open; shows are on sale and will continue to go on sale.”

About the refunds, Stein said, “Some may have been made late due to changes in personnel, but as far as I know, everything’s been taken care of.”

About the leaky roof and rats: “The theater is inspected regularly by the health department, and there are always some violations--just as there are every place else. There isn’t a building in the world that doesn’t have violations.”

And about the sudden departure of his ex-employee: “I’m sorry that she left bitter, but I’m not sorry that she’s gone.”

“It’s business as usual,” Stein said, “no matter what this vindictive woman has to say.”

Over the last few years, the Belly Up Tavern has steadily broadened the scope of its bookings from Anglo-American blues, rhythm-and-blues, and rock ‘n’ roll acts to a wide variety of contemporary ethnic musicians from around the world.

There’s been ju-ju and Afro-beat from Nigeria, conga drumming from Zaire, samba from Brazil, soca from Trinidad, and calypso and reggae--lots and lots of reggae--from Jamaica.

Thursday night, the Solana Beach nightclub will showcase Tabou Combo, a 14-piece dance band from Haiti. Like so much of what’s categorized by critics as “world beat” music, the group’s sound is a dense wall of intertwining guitar melodies and rhythms, hypnotic percussion beats and punchy horn lines. The basic rhythm, called compas , was created in the 1940s by Nemours Jean Baptiste, who arranged what is essentially a three-way merger between Haitian merengue and traditional rara and voudoun rhythms for the contrapuntal horn sections of big brass orchestras. As younger musicians with electric guitars began to play compas , they reduced the full-band arrangements to dual guitar with tight percussion.

Tabou Combo was formed in 1968 in a small town just outside Port-au-Prince and quickly became one of Haiti’s most popular dance bands. In 1971 it went to Brooklyn, where it is still based, to broaden its market. Tabou Combo has done this, both on record--it has released 21 albums and scored several million-selling hits in Europe--and in concerts, where sellouts are the rule rather than the exception.

A nod to the origin of compas came in 1977, with the addition of a three-piece horn section. Yet the dueling guitars remain the dominant instruments, with lead guitarist Elysee Pyronneau playing delicate melody runs with his left hand and a mesmerizing polyrhythmic pulse with his right, all sensuously mixed with Jean-Claude Jean’s graceful second line.

LINER NOTES: The Monkees’ July 7 appearance at Humphrey’s on Shelter Island almost didn’t happen. Three weeks before the date, promoter Kenny Weissberg received a phone call from the agent for the recently reunited bubble-gummers, telling him that Davy Jones, the impish Brit who stole countless teen-age hearts in the band’s heyday, and alternated with Mickey Dolenz on lead vocals, had quit the band. Would Weissberg still do the show, the agent asked, with just two of the promised three original members? No way, Weissberg said indignantly. Other promoters in other cities apparently felt the same: A few days later, the agent called Weissberg back, saying that the wayward Jones had been “persuaded” to stay on, at least through the end of the group’s current U.S. tour. . . .

The biggest draws in this year’s Del Mar Fair grandstand concerts were Milli Vanilli, Sheena Easton, and Kenny Loggins, each of whose shows attracted more than 20,000 fans. At the bottom of the attendance list: Spirit (4,000), Ruben Blades (also 4,000), BeBe and CeCe Winans (3,500), and the Dukes of Dixieland (2,000). . . .

Tickets go on sale this weekend for two concerts at San Diego State University’s Open Air Theater: Friday at 10 a.m. for 10,000 Maniacs, Aug. 19, and Saturday at 10 a.m. for what’s billed as “An Evening of Yes Music Plus,” Sept. 4. Performing the “Yes music” will be four-fifths of the British progressive-rock band’s quintessential lineup: singer Jon Anderson, guitarist Steve Howe, keyboardist Rick Wakeman and drummer Bill Bruford. Bassist Chris Squire, the lone holdout, owns legal rights to the Yes name and has obtained a court order prohibiting the four other ex-Yesmen from touring as Yes.