Hitting the Spot : Kelly’s Pub Becomes Focal Point for Jazz

This city’s newest jazz hot spot is an unlikely candidate for the role. At Kelly’s Pub in Old Town, a glittery disco ball shares the ceiling with a country-style fan. Shamrocks are painted on the walls. Some patrons are there for the pints of ale and the dart boards in the back.

Kelly’s isn’t trendy or chic; there are no exotic, expensive drinks and no cover charge.

A twisted trumpet mounted on one wall is a small sign of what’s important.

For local musicians and their fans, Kelly’s Friday and Saturday jazz jam sessions recapture some of the spontaneity that was the original essence of jazz. Smiles predominate. Listeners shout encouragement to musicians when they unleash especially fine solos.

The atmosphere may be loose, but the music is serious. Musicians say the smoky, low-key setting and appreciative audiences prompt some of their best work.

“Yes, very definitely,” said San Diego jazz educator and trombonist Oliver Luck, who, on a recent Saturday night, shared the band’s corner of the bar with pianist Jack Besta, saxophonists Joe Marillo and Tony Ortega, bassist Les Boynton, drummer Bob Deputy, vocalist and flutist Judy Garcia and Ortega’s wife, Mona Orbeck, on vibes.

At 10:30, the group was sweaty and swinging. Orbeck’s mallets blurred as she spun out strings of improvisations, a compact, grandmotherly woman behind a large vibraphone.

Next, Garcia belted out “Autumn Leaves,” with Marillo’s tenor and Ortega’s alto melding together on moody sax lines as the horn players made eye contact from opposite sides of the “stage.”

Local saxman Gary LeFebvre had already played a set with the group. He sat on a stool at the bar, listening appreciatively. As the evening progressed, musicians left. New musicians arrived.

Seven-string jazz guitarist Art Johnson walked in wearing a tuxedo and bow tie, ready to unwind after an evening backing singer Eartha Kitt at a Hillcrest nightclub.

When the group took a break, the musicians mingled. These functions also serve social and business purposes.

“You’ve got to sit down, find out what’s going on, who’s playing where, what’s going on,” Luck said.

Much of the time, such talk is more than idle gossip. Luck said conversations lead to new musical combinations and job opportunities.

Many of the listeners at Kelly’s are longtime jazz fans.

“I haven’t heard one of those in so long, not since Red Norvo,” marveled a gray-haired man who shook Orbeck’s hand. “It sure brings back the memories.”

Several other Benny Goodman-era listeners smiled and nodded knowingly as the music unfolded.

Kelly’s is the latest in a line of San Diego clubs to serve as a musicians’ hangout. Years ago, there was The Crossroads downtown, followed by Our Place in Hillcrest. At one time, the local musicians’ union held Sunday jams at its union hall, but that now features established groups instead.

There are other weekly jazz jams--at Croce’s downtown, the Salmon House on Mission Bay and the Fish House West in Cardiff, to name a few--but for the musicians, Kelly’s has a certain something that’s hard to define.

“It’s got a nice vibe, a good location and plenty of parking,” Johnson said. “Jazz players need a place to hang out, and this is about as relaxed as it gets. The place just has a certain flavor, it’s a very hard thing to describe. Someone in the parking lot asked me what I thought this could become, and I said, ‘The Donte’s (a Los Angeles club, now closed) of San Diego, a place for musicians to hang out, their social network.

“If you see each other all the time, you’re more likely to get together and play. Unfortunately, in our time, a lot of people sit home with their VCRs. I see a lot of potential in it. George is is gracious gentleman who appreciates the musicians. He started with no one and packed the place in two weeks. There’s no cover, you don’t have to buy a million drinks.”

George is George Hawkins, who manages the pub and does all the cooking in a tiny kitchen at the back. He serves up fish and chips, burgers, fries and other snacks. But he is also responsible for dishing up the music.

Hawkins formerly worked at a tiny fish house on the Ocean Beach Pier that was host to regular jazz jams for several months until it closed last year. When Hawkins went to work at Kelly’s, he revived the weekly sessions.

Pianist Besta serves as Kelly’s musical coordinator, phoning around to make sure a minimal band is on hand. Musicians who frequent the club also do their own phone networking. If someone plans on stopping by, he calls several musical friends and they show up too.

“Call me the magnet,” Besta said. “George accosted me, and I said, ‘I’ll look over my list of friends and invite them.’ I came out of retirement. I quit playing in 1983 after I got tired of playing elevator Muzak in hotels. Mainstream jazz needs to be preserved. That is the impetus of my effort. The jam sessions, what we are dealing with is not the compositions of new composers, which remind me of Top 40 songs. Who wants to listen to those?

“Our improvisations are based on classic songs, great American composers: George Gershwin, Jerome Kern. I’ve gotten so much out of music, I’d like to give something back.”

Like several other musicians, Luck said Kelly’s offers the perfect escape.

“With me, jamming is just a total release. When I’m working all day, teaching in the school, going out to play my horn is just a release of all the frustrations and anger that build up.”

By the time musicians play their regular dates and also stop in at Kelly’s, many of them work seven days a week. Jazz can take its toll on relationships.

Asked whether there was such a thing as a jam-session widow, Luck said he’s been married four times. He laughed.

“There have been a couple of jam session widows.”

This weekend and next, Kelly’s Pub will take a one-week break from open jams to feature jazz guitarist Peter Sprague Friday and the Bobby Gordon-John Best Quintet Saturday. On June 8, saxophonist Steve Feierabend will lead a quartet. The jams return at 9 p.m. June 9.