Heavyweights of Light Jazz to Play New Year’s Eve Bash

By far the most ambitious New Year’s Eve jazz bash will be KIFM’s blowout at the Catamaran and Bahia hotels on the edge of Mission Bay.

Pianist David Benoit, keyboard/synthesizer player Keiko Matsui and saxophonist/Lyricon man Richard Elliot will headline the fifth annual KIFM Lites Out Jazz New Year’s Eve Party. They’ll play the large ballroom-type spaces at the Bahia or Catamaran hotels.

In smaller rooms will be San Diego’s Fattburger and Hollis Gentry, both national light jazz mainstays in their own rights. The Bahia Belle and William D. Evans stern-wheelers will shuttle revelers between the hotels to the live beats of Colours and Dr. Chico’s Island Sounds.

Elliot continues to attract new listeners as his music crosses the borders of radio’s narrow formats. Some of his ability to reach an audience of diverse cultural backgrounds can be attributed to his journeyman years in Oakland, where he played in the explosive horn section of the funky Tower of Power.

“In the Name of Love,” the single from Elliot’s newest album, “Take to the Skies,” recently began inching up Billboard’s “Hot Black Singles” chart. Vocals are handled by Bobby Caldwell, who had a hit several years ago with the soulful “What You Don’t Do for Love.” Meanwhile, Elliot’s album has stayed in the top 20 on Billboard’s “Contemporary Jazz” chart for 25 weeks, and rests at No. 13 on Radio & Records New Adult Contemporary list.

These days, young commercially viable players such as Elliot wouldn’t be caught without a music video or two. Elliot’s latest is in cable television rotations on VH-1 and BET, the Black Entertainment Channel.

While traces of his Tower of Power training can be heard in sometimes funky bass lines, Elliot’s role models are saxophonists David Sanborn, Michael Brecker, Grover Washington Jr. and Tom Scott.

Elliot acknowledges an interest in classical jazz masters John Coltrane, Charlie Parker and Dexter Gordon, but his heart is in the lighter brand of music so popular these days. He doesn’t think commercially successful light jazz artists should be faulted.

“It bugs me when I hear jazz purists getting angry,” Elliot said. “People are going to make up their own minds. Here’s a scenario. An uneducated guy hears Kenny G. He says, ‘Hey, saxophone, no words--it must be jazz. It’s kind of nice.’ He goes out and buys the record.

“The next week he goes into the record store to get something else in the jazz section, and he ends up with Sanborn or Scott or Earl Klugh. A few months later, he goes back, and maybe he’ll try an album by Coltrane or Oscar Peterson.

“For lack of a better label, I’m labeled jazz, but there are elements of jazz, Latin, rhythm and blues. Unfortunately, we live in a society where categories are important for marketing purposes. I’d like to see the barriers break down.”

Matsui, like Elliot, sticks to fairly safe musical ground--the emphasis is on pleasant, economical melodies, not searing improvisations. Her stage presence is what sets her apart. She is constantly moving, her short, slim Yamaha keyboard strapped on like a guitar.

Benoit has stronger roots in mainstream jazz than most light jazz players, and they show on several unpretentious acoustic numbers on his new album, “Waiting for Spring.” He’s a top-rate improviser with a sensitive, lyrical touch.

Last year’s KIFM New Year’s Eve event sold out. This year, ticket prices range from $15 for a pass to the lounges and boats, with local bands, to $75 for access to everything. Each of the headliners will play shows at 9 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. Complimentary champagne will be served at midnight.

Inner Circle, featuring four top local players, is one of the few San Diego bands dedicated to playing original, straight-ahead jazz.

Saxophonist Steve Feierabend, pianist Randy Porter, drummer Tim McMahon and bassist Dave Marr had worked together before, but last fall they decided to form a band. To date, their repertoire includes 25 to 30 originals, from which they plan to select several for an album or demo.

Feierabend went to the prestigious Berklee School of Music in Boston, and has played with the Temptations and the Four Tops, along with such jazz men as Peter Sprague, Joe Diorio, Art Resnic and Rob Schneiderman. He has also been working in guitarist Jim Storey’s fusion-oriented band.

Porter has been getting noticed in recent months. A highlight of his budding career has been several dates backing jazz singer Diane Schuur.

All four musicians contribute material.

“It’s a good time for all of us to be committed,” Feierabend said. “We’re all at a high point in our playing. To have a group we can write for and progress with is really nice.”

OTHER NEW YEAR’S ACTION: The Horton Grand Hotel has pianist Mike Wofford with a quartet. . . . Maurice Miller plays Elario’s. The night includes a five-course meal and costs $89. Today is the deadline for reservations (459-0261). . . . At Croce’s, downtown in the Gaslamp Quarter, it’s the Real Jazz Band, featuring Daniel Jackson.

Trumpeter and former San Diegan James Zollar showed up at Croce’s a couple weeks ago to check in with a former mentor, local saxophonist Joe Marillo. Zollar was good as a young student, Marillo recalled, but he was floored by the now-mature talents of the Ellington band member, who sat in on several tunes.