Softer Sound at Grand Avenue Bar

Beginning with December’s bookings, changes will be made in the music policy at the Biltmore Hotel’s Grand Avenue Bar. Instead of the room’s established strategy of name-jazz combos and big bands, the bar will feature such duos and trios as Second Street, 20th Century Jazz Band and Mainstreet.

“We are changing the jazz format because our customers seem to want jazz, but soft jazz in the background, so they can have conversation,” said Randall Villareal, the hotel’s managing director. “We’ve been trying to do performance quality jazz but we can see from the way that the clients talk that a lot of people don’t want that after work. They want to be with their friends; they don’t want to be competing with the music.”

Villareal indicated that Diane Varga, who had for four years been the producer of the Grand Avenue Bar’s entertainment, will no longer function in that capacity. “We will continue to work with Diane on special events,” he said. Villareal added that Varga “has done a great job for the room and we’re very appreciative of her efforts.”

Varga, who recently started booking Lunaria in West Los Angeles, was obviously not pleased by the decision but took the news well. “It’s always a painful loss with a room that has that many memories,” she said of her leaving. “I’m just grateful for the four years and trying to keep my chin up and stay involved in the world of jazz. The (Grand Avenue) was one of the greatest experiences of my life because of all the wonderful friends I made there.”

On the Mend: Renowned jazz writer Stanley Dance, author of “The World of Duke Ellington” and “The World of Count Basie” (Da Capo) and six other books, is at his home in Vista, recuperating from an attack of angina he suffered while cruising the Caribbean on the S.S. Norway earlier this month. “He’s fine, he had no damage to the heart,” said Helen Oakley Dance, Dance’s wife and author of several books on music herself, including the just-out-in-paperback “Stormy Monday: The Story of T-Bone Walker” (Da Capo). “Now the only thing I have to do is keep him from running around like mad.

“We had quite an adventure,” said Helen Dance. “There were two more days left on the cruise when Stanley became ill and the ship had to be diverted to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where Stanley spent four days in the hospital.”

Rim Shots: A former Southlander (and now New York City resident), pianist Judy Carmichal plays a one-nighter Saturday, 7:30 p.m., at Founders Hall Auditorium, University of La Verne (1950 Third St., La Verne). Information: (714) 593-5512. . . . As a highlight of its performance Thursday, 8 p.m., at Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, the Modern Jazz Quartet--John Lewis on piano, Milt Jackson on vibes, Percy Heath on bass and Connie Kay on drums--will present the California premiere of Lewis’ “The Majesty of the Sun,” a work commissioned by the Sun Valley Center for the Arts and Humanities in Sun Valley, Ida. Preceding the concert at 7 p.m., noted radio personality Chuck Niles will give a talk on the MJQ’s program. Information: (800) 266-2378. . . . Reedman/composer Kim Richmond dusts off his 22-piece Concert Jazz Orchestra, which merges free-jazz improvisational concepts with orchestral writing and last appeared in Los Angeles in the ‘70s, and brings it into the Biltmore’s Grand Avenue Bar, Wednesday, 6 p.m. Information: (213) 624-1011.