Sweets Edison Brings His Solid Reputation to S.D.

Trumpeter Harry (Sweets) Edison, who opened at Elario’s Wednesday night, cemented his already formidable reputation during the ‘40s as a featuring soloist with the Count Basie Orchestra. Rooted in the swing of the ‘30s and ‘40s, Edison’s solos made such classic Basie tunes as “Panassie Stomp,” “Jive at Five,” “Shorty George,” “Texas Shuffle” and “Moten Swing.”

After Basie disbanded his group in 1950, Edison went on to work with most of the greats of jazz: Lester Young, Barney Kessel, Lionel Hampton, Ben Webster, Johnny Hodges, Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Williams, Joe Turner, Oscar Peterson. As a studio musician in the ‘50s, he backed top singers including Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra.

Edison is best known for the sound from which he gets his nickname, an approach which stresses subtle phrasings and the tasteful use of silences to enhance the power of his lines.

At Elario’s through Sunday, he will be joined by Sherman Ferguson on drums, Marshall Hawkins on bass and Bob Hamilton on piano.

When Anna and Steve Ball were married, he gave her an 1890s-vintage Rinaldi violin from Italy for her left hand instead of an engagement ring. That says something about the couple’s priorities. Soon after, they formed a string quartet and named it Rinaldi--after the violin.

Twelve years later, the group has evolved an eclectic approach to music that blurs the boundaries between jazz, rock and

classical music. Their performances are built around Steve Ball’s reconstructions of everything from be-bop to the Beatles and Peter Gabriel.

Local jazz patron Bob Geib thinks they’re jazzy enough to be included in his jazz-oriented “Innovations in Modern Music” series at Diego’s Loft in Pacific Beach, which opened with Peter Sprague and Steve Kujala on March 31 and closes with former John Coltrane bassist Dr. Art Davis on April 29.

The Rinaldi String Quartet appears this Saturday night, April 14, at 8. Harpist Marian Rian Hays, percussionist Richard Steiger and flutist Lori Bell will add support.

Besides the Balls on violins, the group includes cellist Jennifer Holson and violist Karen Elaine.

For the most part, all are classically trained, but they all appreciate several brands of music. Steve Ball has even played electric violin in rock bands. After years of focusing on classical music, the group’s true personality began to emerge, Anna Ball recalls.

“We did start out with classical and pop, but we realized our audiences liked rock and jazz. We started doing in concerts the arrangements we usually just played on our own. Peter Gabriel’s ‘Big Time,’ for example.”

It takes some getting used to, hearing violins interpret the melody shouted out by Gabriel in the original, but Ball’s delicate re-working makes you appreciate the complexities of rock music like Gabriel’s.

Ball discovered that Dizzy Gillespie’s “A Night in Tunisia” and the Jefferson Airplane’s “3/5 of a Mile in Ten Seconds” share chord changes, so he superimposed them in an arrangement for the quartet. The result has haunting echoes of both bop and Haight Ashbury.

These songs, plus Dave Grusin’s “Anasazi,” a Beatles medley and David LaFlamme’s “Don and Dewey,” originally recorded by It’s a Beautiful Day, will all be in the lineup Saturday.

Once again, the San Diego Jazz Festival and the San Diego Jazz Society are vying for shares of the money raised by San Diego’s hotel room tax, which last year amounted to $5.2 million. The city Commission for Arts and Culture will make funding recommendations regarding this year’s 84 applicants in May or June.

The festival wants $15,000 to produce 10 jazz shows, but its application came in after the Jan. 22 deadline, according to a source at the commission.

Normally, late filing eliminates groups from the running, but the festival filed an appeal just after the noon deadline March 22. The appeal was subsequently denied by the arts commission but the City Council’s Public Services and Safety Committee has the option of overturning the ruling.

The jazz society, which recently closed its three-concert “Salute to the Masters” series with a concert by trumpeter Snooky Young with the San Diego State University Jazz Ensemble, wants $29,500, up from $12,800 last year. (Because of an illness, the festival’s application was also late last year, and the group received no money). The jazz society proposes to present four “name” jazz acts next year, instead of this year’s three, expand its free public jazz concerts program from three to four dates and add a program of live jazz in city libraries.

RIFFS: Premier jazz drummer Tony Williams will be interviewed at 3:30 Monday afternoon by drummer Barry Farrar on “Percussive Profiles,” the weekly show on KSDS-FM (88.3). . . .

At the Horton Grand Hotel: Friday night, flutist Holly Hofmann with guitarist and Checkfield co-founder Ron Satterfield, Saturday night, Hofmann and guitarist Peter Sprague. Sprague is also on tap Friday night at Words & Music bookstore in Hillcrest with his longtime musical collaborator, vocalist Kevyn Lettau. . . .

Next Tuesday’s “Jazz Live” concert in the San Diego City College Theater on C Street downtown features The Swingin’ E.Z. Big Band, led by arranger-trumpeter Ed Zubov and arranger-tenor saxman Tom Ferrier. The “Jazz Live” concerts are presented by KSDS-FM (88.3), and broadcast live on the station. . . .

Light jazz artist Ric Flauding plays the B St. Bar & Grill downtown Thursday through Saturday. . . .

Next Wednesday night’s KiFM “Jazz Trax” concert at the Catamaran Hotel features Hollis Gentry. . . .

Violinist Papa John Creach will be the star of this Saturday night’s “Club Date” jazz program on KPBS-TV at 11. The show airs again Monday, April 16, at 11:30 p.m.