Bulgarian Pianist Educated in Jazz by Voice of America

Thanks to Voice of America, pianist Milcho Leviev got hooked on jazz as a youngster growing up in Bulgaria during the early 1950s.

“The only way to get a jazz education was via Voice of America,” said Leviev, who teams up with locals Holly Hoffman on flute and Bob Magnusson on bass at the Horton Grand Hotel at 8:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. “In eastern Europe, VOA disc jockey Willis Conover is the messiah of jazz. He plays everything, from the old stuff to Ornette Coleman.”

Leviev moved to the United States in 1971 in search of greater opportunities in jazz, and eventually played and recorded with Airto, Billy Cobham, Willie Bobo, Manhattan Transfer, Al Jarreau, Carmen McRae, John Klemmer and Lee Ritenour.

But, even before he left his homeland, Leviev, 53, had begun to make a mark.

“I had a very good group called Focus ’65 in Bulgaria,” Leviev said. “It was a quartet with a classical flutist, similar to the U.S. group Free Flight--in fact, I co-founded Free Flight with Jim Walker and later sold the name to him. Focus ’65 was a modern quartet inspired by Charles Lloyd’s quartet with Cecil McBee and Keith Jarrett. In 1967, at the Montreux Jazz Festival and competition, we won top prize from the critics.”

Leviev’s playing shows a range of roots.

“I started playing boogie woogie as a kid, but my serious indulgence with jazz began at 16 or 17,” he said. “Piano has such a rich background; it was around long before jazz. My playing comes from classical music, folk interests which are hard to translate--my point is that I incorporate not only everything I heard from (jazz pianists) James P. Johnson to Cecil Taylor, but everything from (classical composers and pianists) Scarlatti to Stockhausen.”

Leviev’s current band (which was not invited to play in San Diego for this gig) is called Katoomi--a combination of the first letters of the names of band members Karen Briggs (violin), Tootie Heath (drums) and Leviev. In Bulgaria last summer during Leviev’s second trip home since moving to the United States, the group played to 4,000 enthusiastic fans and was recorded by Balkanton, Bulgaria’s only record label. The resulting CD, however, won’t be available in this country, and Leviev is looking for a U.S. recording deal.

At the Horton Grand, the music will consist primarily of jazz standards. Leviev has worked with Magnusson before, when they backed saxman Art Pepper together during the late 1970s.

Jazz-blues singer Barbara Morrison is making her first appearances at Elario’s this week. She opened five nights at the club Wednesday night.

Morrison sings jazzy blues. Her first recording was a mid-1970s session with the Johnny Otis Orchestra, one of the great blues groups. But she has also worked with jazzmen Ron Carter, James Moody and Joe Sample, among others.

After singing on others’ albums for years, Morrison finally has one of her own, recorded for the Japanese Pony Canyon Records. “Love ‘n’ You” mixes tunes such as “Willow Weep for Me” and Boz Scaggs’ “We’re All Alone” with two songs Morrison wrote with collaborator David T. Walker. It’s not available in the United States. Morrison also sings one song on organist Jimmy Smith’s newest album, “Prime Time.”

Meanwhile, Morrison, 40, who was raised in tiny Romulus, Mich., and moved to Los Angeles in 1973, continues to support herself as a Girl Friday with a temporary agency. “My Daddy said, ‘So you want to be a jazz singer, huh? Then you better get a job.’ ”

Next February at the Embassy Theatre in Los Angeles, in honor of Black History Month, Morrison will perform a one-woman show she’s written around the life of singer Dinah Washington. Of course, she’ll sing several of Washington’s favorite songs.

At Elario’s, her band will include Randy Randolph on piano, Kenny Grey on bass and James Gadson on drums.

Since 1978, the Benny Hollman Big Band has been a fixture at San Diego Chargers games, but during the last three years, they have become nearly invisible. Where once they occupied stadium seats across from the cannon in the southwest end zone, belting out songs to rouse the crowd, for the last three years, they have been split into smaller groups and relegated to playing areas outside the stadium where fans circulate. Hollman finds his band’s status especially annoying in light of the prominent role inside the stadium given the new San Diego Charger Girls, who get the spotlight during all timeouts and breaks in the football action. Fans seem to want Big Band music, Hollman said. A poll of season ticket holders conducted by the Chargers last year indicated that more than half prefer Big Band jazz over Top 40 and other genres, according to Hollman. He blames the Chargers’ marketing department for the band’s lower profile, and said he has heard talk of eliminating the band altogether, replacing it with taped music. “That would break a 29-year tradition that began when the Chargers moved here,” he said.

Chargers’ marketing director Rich Israel cited practical reasons for the band’s change of venue: The stadium’s public-address system can’t handle the music, so the band is more effective outside; the large-screen Diamond Vision television provides another form of entertainment; and the Charger Girls prefer to dance to recorded music. Hollman thinks fans want the band back in the stadium and suggested that his group can play all the music the Charger Girls need for their dance routines. Of course, they would slip a jazz number in now and then, too.

RIFFS: Reedman Tim Eyermann and his group East Coast Offering play two shows at Elario’s on Tuesday night at 8 and 10. . . .

Saxophonist Tony Ortega, who will be in Benny Hollman’s Big Band behind Steve Allen at the Belly Up Tavern tonight, once had a bit part as an Eskimo on the “I Love Lucy” television program. Last time he worked with Allen in San Diego, Allen ribbed him on stage about the odd TV role. . . .

The Champagne Jazz series at the Culbertson Winery in Temecula concludes this Sunday with a performance by Free Flight from 4 to 6. . . .

Trombonist Aubrey Fay puts his band to work tonight through Saturday night at the B St. Cafe & Bar downtown. . . .

Jazz singer Ellen Johnson mixed the music of Ellington with classical masters Mozart, Debussy, Villa Lobas and Delius during a recital last Sunday at San Diego State University to help fulfill final requirements toward her master’s in music. . . .

Singer Peggy Lee appears at the Spreckels Theatre downtown Nov. 17. . . .

Sunday from 7 to 11, the Jack Aldridge Big Swing Band will play a Halloween costume dance in the Pavilion Ballroom of the U.S. Grant Hotel downtown. Admission is $9.50.