Christmas With Carl Anderson at The Room Upstairs

Carl Anderson is looking forward to his Christmas weekend booking that begins tonight in The Room Upstairs at Le Cafe in Sherman Oaks.

“This is my Christmas present to myself,” the jazz veteran said. “It gives me a chance to play with my favorite toy--my voice.”

And he promises there will be holiday favorites on the song list.

“How could you get out of a jazz club at Christmas without hearing ‘Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire?’ ” he asked.

But Anderson, 42, also sees his three-night stand in the cozy room as a chance to fine-tune some of the songs he will record soon for his new label, GRP Records. The album, due for a May release, will be Anderson’s fourth, but he thinks it represents an important beginning.

“It’s my first record that I can call a jazz record,” the Venice resident said. “When I was at Epic and Polygram I was under an urban banner. I had to sneak in anything that even smacked of jazz, even though it’s what I’ve always been. GRP has no emphasis on anything but jazz, so this is something special.”

A suave, relaxed singer, Anderson has been compared to Al Jarreau. The comparison doesn’t bother him, although he believes it’s off the mark.

“I recognize the difficulty in describing me so I don’t balk,” he said. “But I’d compare myself more to a woman, Anita Baker, or earlier in my career to Nancy Wilson. Donny Hathaway was a big influence on me.”

Anderson will be backed at Le Cafe by Grant Geissman on guitar, Larry Steelman on keyboards, Bernie Dresel on drums and Bob Parr on bass. He said that in accord with his musical philosophy, the group is accomplished and well rehearsed.

“There is no such thing as a jazz singer,” Anderson contends. “There is jazz music and a singer augments it. But the audience responds to singers in a different way than it does to instruments. It wants them to translate what the hell these guys are saying, especially in jazz.”

But Anderson does not want to be locked into the job of translator. He wants his impact to be visceral, not cerebral.

“From an instrument or a group, the audience sits there and rides the emotional wave,” he said. “I consider myself a musician. I consider myself a part of the group, just like the bass player, no more or no less.”

Le Cafe is billing Anderson’s appearance as a “Holiday Jazz” event. The two previous Christmas seasons the club featured pianist David Benoit.

“David’s become such a big name, we were able to have him just because there was a longstanding relationship,” said Dale Jaffe, Le Cafe co-owner who books acts. “But we couldn’t work it out this year. A lot of times when an artist of that caliber plays a small club, their agent or manager doesn’t like it. They think it makes guy seem smaller than he is.”

Jaffe said the club, which is decorated with wreaths and other holiday fare, draws a good crowd on the Christmas weekend.

“They’re interesting nights for us,” he said. “We get the outcasts a little bit. Sometimes it’s people like me who are Scrooges about Christmas. Or it’s people who don’t have a place to go or their families are out of town.”

Anderson said he expects the season, with its high and lows of spirit, to make a difference in his performance.

“There are a lot of lonely people around the holidays and I want to provide an outlet for them,” he said.

“Holiday Jazz,” an evening with Carl Anderson; tonight, Saturday and Sunday, sets begin at 9 p.m.; The Room Upstairs at Le Cafe, 14633 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks; cover varies; for information call (818) 986-2662.