JAZZ / DIRK SUTRO : Straight-Ahead/Be-Bop Man Headed Straight for Diego’s

September has shaped up as one of the hottest months ever for jazz at Diego’s Loft in Pacific Beach, beginning Friday and Saturday nights with Duke Ellington Orchestra trumpeter James Zollar.

Zollar, 30, grew up in San Diego and moved to New York City in 1985. He calls himself “a traditional straight-ahead and be-bop guy. I do both mellow and bop. Sometimes, I don’t want to play a lot of notes and I lean toward a Chet Baker sound. Sometimes, I feel more fiery and I go toward Woody Shaw and Freddie Hubbard.”

Besides his work with the Ellington band, now under the direction of Mercer Ellington, Zollar has played with an eclectic mix of musicians: blues singer Big Joe Turner, Art Ensemble of Chicago horn man Lester Bowie, Grover Mitchell’s Big Band, Cab Calloway and, recently, tuba player Bob Stewart and his First Line Band. Zollar played on the band’s album of New Orleans music, released earlier this year. (The album is on the German JMT Records label and is scarce in San Diego, but major music stores can order it.)

During his formative years in San Diego, Zollar won soloist awards with Mission Bay High School’s jazz band before studying and playing with many top local musicians. He took lessons from local trumpeter Gary Pack and played in the jazz band at San Diego City College under the direction of Dave Greeno. He worked with guitarist Peter Sprague and singer Kevyn Lettau in Sprague’s Samba Band. He also took classes with bass trombonist and music professor Jimmy Cheatham at UC San Diego, and jammed with Cheatham and friends.

Despite performances by such out-of-town talents as sax man Spike Robinson and trombonist Bill Watrous this summer, Diego’s Loft drew its biggest crowds to hear Sprague and Lettau early in August. However, the small, acoustically excellent jazz room continues to have a tough time generating a consistent audience.

Besides Zollar, the September agenda includes “Trane”-ish tenor man (and former San Diegan) Charles Owens on Sept. 8-9, pianist Frank Strazzeri (who played in “Let’s Get Lost,” the recent movie about trumpeter Chet Baker) Sept. 15-16, veteran reed man Buddy Collette Sept. 22-23 and local vocalist Ellen Johnson Sept. 29-30.

The tiny Ocean Pride Cafe on the Ocean Beach pier has expanded its jazz from weekends to five nights a week. On Wednesdays and Thursdays, it’s Filbaccos Jazz Ensemble, with the O.B. 3 featured Friday through Sunday nights.

But the gigs are really a showcase for San Diego vocalist Cathleen Conway, who sings with both bands.

“I’m a nightclub singer, I’m a torch singer,” Conway said. “It’s a state of mind I like to create. A sultry kind of low-key high energy. There’s no flash. We don’t get up and do a five-minute comedy bit. We’re there to play music.”

Conway said her role models are Julie London, June Christy, Sarah Vaughan, Nancy Wilson and Dinah Washington.

Her repertoire includes such jazz standards as “In a Mellow Tone” and “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To,” along with renditions of pop and rock numbers, including Van Morrison’s “Moon Dance,” always with a straight-ahead twist.

The restaurant, which holds 35 to 50 people, attracts them not only for the music, but for the Cajun food prepared by chef George Hawkins, a protege of nationally known Cajun cooking guru Paul Prudhomme.

Nightclub singers traditionally wear glittery gowns, and Conway hasn’t let the beachy atmosphere stop her.

“Yes, I wear a gown, but it’s not quite as fancy. It’s an ‘O.B. Pier’ gown, an O.B. version of Christian Dior.”

After a summer hiatus, the Jazz Link, the free monthly jazz tabloid, is back this week with a September issue, available at several locations throughout the county.

Editor/Publisher Jude Hibler said there are no major changes in the Jazz Link’s look and size (20 pages), but she’s added several new sections, including one called “The Other Side.”

“We’ll be looking at artists and people in the jazz business on a more holistic basis, looking at other areas in their lives besides music.” September’s version focuses on substance abuse among jazz musicians and how education and improvements in the situation have changed the artists’ work environment. Included is an interview with Nenette Evans, the widow of Bill Evans, the jazz pianist who died in 1980 after years of drug abuse.

The Jazz Link’s circulation has grown from 10,000 when it began in April, 1988, to 15,000, Hibler said. There’s been national interest. Hibler was invited by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley to attend the Chicago Jazz Festival this weekend.

RIFFS: Sunday at 7 p.m., “Le Jazz Club,” the French jazz program aired weekly on KSDS-FM (88.3), features the last recorded concert of Memphis Slim. At 8 p.m., keyboard man Joe Zawinul hosts “Columbia Jazz Masterpieces,” a good way for jazz fans to hear some of the rare Columbia recordings recently reissued on CD. . . . Guitarist Laurindo Almeida continues for a second week at Elario’s in La Jolla, nightly through Sunday. . . . Tonight at the B Street Cafe & Bar in downtown San Diego, it’s the Mark Lessman Band. . . . Hollis Gentry’s Neon plays the Cannibal Bar at the Catamaran Resort Hotel in Mission Beach next Wednesday.