Avant-Garde Will Find Its Place in the Sun at Elario’s

In a radical departure from the status quo, Elario’s will play host to a one-night visit by jazz space cadet Sun Ra and his 15-piece Arkestra next Wednesday night.

The appearance by an avant-garde jazz artist is the first shake-up by San Diego Jazz Festival founder Rob Hagey since he took over as talent coordinator last month, replacing Steve Satkowski.

It was Hagey who first brought Sun Ra to San Diego, for a sold-out show at the Old Globe Theatre’s Festival Stage in 1980. This time around, Ra will tame his act in deference to the slightly more conservative surroundings, playing a tribute to Big Band leaders Duke Ellington and Fletcher Henderson.

Hagey acknowledges that the progressive show is an experiment; he said he needs to sell 150 tickets between the two shows to break even. Shows are at 8:30 and 10:30.

Ra, whose real name is Herman (Sonny) Blount, was weaned on traditional jazz in Chicago, played with Henderson’s band, and arranged Big Band charts for Henderson and Benny Goodman. He started his Arkestra in 1955.

Today his band’s collective improvising isn’t so shocking, but it turned a few heads in the early days as probably the first Big Band to depart from traditional structures.

There is some degree of mystery surrounding Mr. Ra, if we can call him that. He claims to have arrived from Saturn, and has no legal birth certificate. He is purported to be in his late 70s, and lives in Philadelphia. The Arkestra’s most recent album is last year’s “Blue Delight.”

Rusefest ‘90, which brought a rare dose of experimental jazz to town this spring, including a performance by the Bay Area-based Rova Saxophone Quartet, closes Friday night with a concert by pianist Joe Garrison with the Ruse Brass Ensemble and featured soloists.

The group will dish up new music by Garrison, who has titled this suite “My Brothers, My Sisters.”

“My point of departure was, I’m really tired of musicians using music as a way to justify their lives,” Garrison said. ‘I want to take care of my life. I want my life to work. It used to be enough to worship music. A lot of musicians do that, and they hurt a lot of people in the process. They hurt their families; they don’t care enough about other people; they put music above everything. I’m trying to join the human race, put people first.

“That’s what I was thinking about while I wrote. I also noticed I was letting go of my iron grip on the compositions and thinking of the strength of the players. Some of these pieces will only work because of the specific musicians.”

Among Garrison’s band mates for this date will be trombonists Louis Watkins, Will Martin and Jeff Bernard and trumpeters Derrick Cannon and Bill Caballero. Featured soloists will include Frank Lamarca on tenor sax, David Millard on soprano, Turiya on bass clarinet and flute, plus Caballero. Several of the players, including Garrison, are also members of Turiya’s Immediate Freedom Band.

Garrison said the music is designed specifically for this Big Band lineup, but with a more abstract approach than is typical of Big Band charts. Some of the music is quite formal in structure, some virtually free-form, according to Garrison.

You’ll hear traces of Latin in the music, but nothing like what Garrison and the Immediate Freedom Band produce; this band doesn’t have a percussion section.

The music starts at 8 p.m. in the San Diego City College Theatre on C Street between 13th and 15th streets.

Keyboard player and studio wiz Spencer Nilsen, whose debut album, “Architects of Change,” enjoyed moderate success last year on light jazz and new age radio stations, is ready to perform live for the first time. Nilsen will mix tunes from the album with new compositions next Wednesday night in the Catamaran’s Cannibal Bar in Mission Beach.

Nilsen said his post-album compositions are heading in a new direction. In addition to playing keyboards, he’s been singing, and he hopes to reach a broader audience with a sound he calls “global pop,” influenced by artists such as Sting and Peter Gabriel.

The key to the live act is trumpeter and wind synthesizer player Mitch Manker, who has backed Ray Charles. Manker uses the synthesizer to duplicate lead melodies produced on Nilsen’s album by a variety of instruments, including violin. Rounding out the group are Brad Kaiser on drums, Dave Curtis on bass guitar and former Flight 7 guitarist Mark Shapiro.

For next Wednesday’s performance, Nilsen has sculpted a tight 90-minute show that includes new material and seven songs from his album. He’ll play it twice, at 8 and 10.

RIFFS: Sunday’s show at UC San Diego featuring Cecil Lytle and Sonny Rollins has been canceled. . . . Next Tuesday, trombonist Rocky Cole puts a sextet through its paces for KSDS-FM’s (88.3) “Jazz Live” concert at the City College Theatre, with a live broadcast on the station. . . . Trumpeter Bill Caballero unveiled his new seven-piece tropical and Latin band, Quien Sabe, last Friday night at a downtown dance studio. Caballero is a Texas transplant whose recent San Diego work has included frequent appearances with Turiya and her Immediate Freedom Band. . . . Today and tomorrow, pianist Mike Wofford holds down the lunchtime solo piano at Cafe Lautrec in La Jolla from noon to 3:30. Wofford also plays the new Hyatt Regency in La Jolla from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Monday. . . . Friday and Saturday nights, flutist Lori Bell and pianist Dave Mackay hit the Horton Grand Hotel’s Palace Bar downtown. . . . With the success of his first two “Innovation in Modern Music” concerts at Diego’s Loft in Pacific Beach, jazz promoter Bob Geib hopes to continue the jazz revival at the club with such names as trombonist Mike Fahn, Freddie Hubbard sideman Bob Sheppard, former Count Basie trumpeter Oscar Brashear, Harold Land Jr. and Key Akagi, a keyboardist who’s worked with Miles Davis. . . . Art Johnson, master of seven-string jazz guitar, plays Words & Music Bookstore in Hillcrest this Sunday at 3 p.m., with Gary Scott on flute and sax and Jim Plank on drums.