Papa John Creach Still Kickin’ Around the Styles

Violinist Papa John Creach would like to record another album someday, but his style seems too elusive for commercial tastemakers.

“They can categorize me, all right. They can say, ‘He plays everything,’ ” joked Creach, who opened three weeks at Elario’s in La Jolla last night. “I haven’t recorded in a while, and I don’t know which way to go. It’s really a confusing operation with me. I play sweet stuff, rock, blues and jazz. You can’t mix all that up together on a recording. It would be too confusing for a commercial operation.

“I like all of it. It really keeps me kickin,’ ” said Creach, who turns 73 next month.

Audiences don’t have any trouble warming up to his wide-ranging sets. Although he’s best known to some for the soaring, electric sound he added to the Jefferson Airplane in the early 1970s and the Airplane offshoot Hot Tuna, Creach is a walking encyclopedia of jazz, rock and blues who first plugged in a violin in 1943.

In recent years, he has slowed his touring pace, but still likes to work with young musicians. He goes on the road regularly with such rock bands as the Dinosaurs, visits Elario’s annually and plays regularly in clubs not far from his home near Beverly Hills.

Over the years, Creach has arrived at the ideal formula for producing his trademark warm, fat sound.

“I need a violin that cuts through the music. A soft tone is too mushy. I usually use a Romanian fiddle made in the 1800s. Lots of guys take one song and they wear out a bow. Doug Kershaw’s a good example. But I don’t press too hard on the strings. That gives me a nice, big, fat, round tone.”

When Creach taped one of KPBS-TV’s (Channel 15) “Club Date” programs in San Diego two years ago, he was backed by a trio of locals. For this visit, he imported regular band mates Duane Smith on piano and Maurice Miller on drums from Los Angeles, to be joined by San Diegan Bob Magnusson on bass.

Trombonists generally function as background players, but singer Aubrey Fay has made the big brass a mainstay of his stage act. Fay, who plays the B Street Cafe in downtown San Diego tonight through Saturday, first realized the horn’s potential when he heard one of the greats.

“I’m talking about my idol, J. J. Johnson. He redefined the instrument with speed. Before him, Kid Ory was more of a slur-gliss player,” Fay said, referring to the slow, sliding style of playing that was popular during jazz’s early years. “When I was learning, all parts with sixteenth or eighth notes were omitted for trombone. Then J. J. came along and changed all that with the shotgun style of staccato, short notes.”

Fay, both a singer and a horn player, grew up around music.

“Jazz took over for me at an early age. My dad used to play it a lot. The guy’s a nut over jazz--not a musician, but a big fan. When I said I wanted to play trombone, it didn’t knock him out, but he was kind of excited. At 5 years old, I knew who Basie, Ellington and Glen Miller were.

“There was a guy named Mr. Coady who ran Coady’s School of Music on Broadway in downtown San Diego. I was in parochial school, and they came to demonstrate the instruments. I remember this guy, Bart Hazlett, had a Dixieland band, and he came in and played ‘Stars and Stripes Forever’ with these great slides, and I said, ‘I gotta have that.’ ”

Fay continued with the trombone at St. Augustine High School, San Diego City College and San Diego State University.

It was a fluke when he discovered his singing talent. As a young professional, he was working with a band in San Diego clubs, and one night the male singer didn’t show up.

“Lou Rawls was real popular at the time, ‘Your Good Thing Is About to Come to an End.’ I thought I could sing it. Well, I brought the house down, and that was the beginning right there.”

These days, the Aubrey Fay Band mixes diverse music, from bop to popular tunes.

“People will hear mainstream, be-bop stuff like ‘Billy’s Bounce,’ I’ll play that on trombone, then I’ll turn around and sing a blues like ‘I’d Rather Drink Muddy Water’ or ‘Every Day I Have the Blues.’

“The scat thing seems to be popular. I take ‘On Broadway’ or some other contemporary tune and incorporate improvising. Or songs like ‘Stormy’ or ‘Me and Mrs. Jones.’ I’ve got my own style, but it reminds people of Lou Rawls.”

Beyond the club scene, Fay recently played on the sound track for a children’s TV pilot called “Down Munchkin Alley,” taped in Fallbrook. He writes his own music and hopes eventually to self-produce a CD of all-original tunes.

RIFFS: The San Diego Jazz Society appears to be the leading contender to run the city of Carlsbad’s summer series of nine outdoor Friday night jazz concerts. The rival San Diego Jazz Festival was also invited to submit a bid, but didn’t. . . .

Fattburger plays the “Jazz Trax” concert at the Catamaran on Wednesday. . . .

Guitarist Peter Sprague and longtime musical associates Kevyn Lettau, John Leftwich and brother Tripp Sprague will celebrate Earth Day with a concert from 7 to 9 p.m. Sunday at the library on San Diego State University’s San Marcos campus, 800 W. Vallecitos. . . .

Singer Cath Eckert, who has sung with Joe Pass, Don Menza and Freddie Hubbard, appears this Friday at 8 p.m. at Words & Music Bookstore in Hillcrest, joined by Bob Morss on piano and Tom Azarello on bass. . . .

At 7:30 p.m. Monday, pianist Dave Mackay and flutist Lori Bell play a tribute to Duke Ellington at the Chula Vista Public Library, 365 F St., in honor of Ellington’s April 29 birthday. . . .

This Saturday, the John Culbertson Winery in Temecula opens its spring jazz series with a 4 to 6 p.m. show featuring the San Diego State University Jazz Ensemble. . . .

Flutist Holly Hofmann and guitarist Mundell Lowe team up this Friday and Saturday night at the Horton Grand Hotel downtown.