Legendary, but Still Active, Benny Carter to Play Elario’s

Alto sax man Benny Carter didn’t shred jazz traditions to establish new forms like Charlie Parker did. Instead, Carter, whose roots are in the days of Big Band swing, built a career around his sophisticated composing and arranging skills and a subtle sound that emphasizes warm, melodic ideas above all else.

At 83, Carter continues to turn out the polished, swinging improvisations and catchy, original songs that have been his trademark since he launched his career in Big Bands during the 1920s. In the ‘30s, he emerged as a leader, and has since fronted numerous Big Bands and small groups.

Proof of his enduring finesse is this year’s “My Man Benny, My Man Phil,” an album with fellow alto man Phil Woods. Including six of Carter’s own tunes, the session captures Carter in fine form, his bright, full sound as strong as ever.

Carter plays Elario’s Friday through Sunday in a quartet with Larry Nash on piano, Larry Gales on bass and Sherman Ferguson on drums. Show times are 9 and 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. Sunday.

As a crack studio musician, guitarist Tommy Tedesco shows up for work hauling a suitcase loaded with string instruments. For example, he’s spending the first part of this week adding mandolin and guitar to the sound track for the movie, “The Godfather Part III.” But this Friday and Saturday nights at All That Jazz in Rancho Bernardo, Tedesco, the closet be-bopper, will be free to play whatever he wants. Sets each night are at 8, 9:15 and 10:30 at the new club adjacent to the Wall Street Cafe.

The format will be something Tedesco calls “Confessions of a Studio Player.” In between songs, he regales audiences with stories of some of the things he has seen and done during more than 30 years of studio work. Tedesco will concentrate on acoustic and electric guitars, accompanied by local bassist Bob Magnusson, but he also plans to hoist a mandolin to show how well it can work for jazz.

The material will include several of his own tunes, many of them built around Brazilian rhythms. Tedesco has played on hundreds of albums, either under his own name or behind musicians as diverse as the Beach Boys, Linda Ronstadt, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley. His most recent album was last year’s “Hollywood Gypsy.” Tedesco’s credits include soundtracks for the television programs “MASH,” “Ozzie and Harriet,” “Gilligan’s Island,” “My Three Sons” and “Charlie’s Angels” on television, and for movies including “Bonnie & Clyde,” “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” and “The French Connection.”

Pianist Cecelia Coleman has been stirring things up in L.A., getting solid reviews and winning this year’s Shelley Manne Memorial New Talent Award from the Los Angeles Jazz Society. Coleman, 28, plays the Horton Grand Hotel downtown Saturday night at 8:30. She hasn’t recorded an album of her own, but she plays on a new one from saxophonist Ben Clatworthy. Schooled by pianists Charlie Shoemake and Joanne Grauer, Coleman says her roots are “in be-bop, but more of the straight-ahead kind, an Art Blakey kind of thing.” She counts pianists Red Garland, Bud Powell and Mulgrew Miller as influences.

In search of a recording contract, Coleman plans to record a demo tape of original music later this year. She may include a few of her own songs this weekend, teaming with locals Gunnar Biggs on bass and Holly Hofmann on flute. Incidentally, Hofmann’s new album, “Further Adventures,” with Mike Wofford, Bob Magnusson and Sherman Ferguson, is finally in music stores following an August release. Pianist Wofford wrote the title cut. Bassist Magnusson contributed “Jillian’s Waltz” in honor of his daughter, and other tunes are by Art Pepper, Thelonious Monk and Djavan.

RIFFS: Saxman Spike Robinson makes his first appearances at Elario’s Wednesday and Thursday nights at 8:30 and 10:30. Robinson is back to health after two bouts of meningitis last year, which left him with a three-month gap in his memory and a slight limp. Based in Denver, Robinson lives several months a year in England. A new album is his second with trumpeter Harry (Sweets) Edison. San Diego-based guitarist Mundell Lowe returns from a tour of England on Thursday, and may show up to jam with Robinson Thursday night. . . .

Basia fans who still have tickets for the singer’s canceled July show in San Diego can exchange them to hear her next Monday night at 8 at the Civic Theatre downtown. With music that layers her smooth, sexy vocals over Brazilian rhythms, the singer has captured a wide light jazz and pop audience. Her first album, the 1988 “Time and Tide,” topped Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz chart for eight weeks and went platinum (1 million sales). “London Warsaw New York,” released earlier this year, quickly went gold (500,000) and is close to platinum, according to a publicist. . . .

Singer Peggy Lee has canceled her Nov. 17 appearance at the Civic Theatre due to exhaustion. . . .

Inspired by Time magazine’s story last month on young players keeping traditional jazz alive, San Diego drummer Chuck McPherson is into straight-ahead jazz more than ever with his new Modern Jazz Disciples, featuring Alan Eicher on piano, Dave Marr on bass and Dale Fielder on sax. The group plays Friday nights at 8 through November at Barnett’s Grand Cafe at the Embassy Suites Hotel downtown. . . .

Friday night at 8:30 at the Horton Grand Hotel downtown, pianist Rick Helzer, who teaches jazz at San Diego State University, teams up with flutist Holly Hofmann and bassist Gunnar Biggs. . . .

Next Wednesday night at 8, Fattburger plays the Cannibal Bar at the Catamaran Resort Hotel in Pacific Beach. . . .

Part 2 of a seven-part radio series on Miles Davis airs on KSDS-FM (88.3) at 11 a.m. Thursday. This episode covers “The Early ‘50s: Drugs and Early Fame,” with comments from Gerry Mulligan, Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Art Farmer and Art Taylor. The sound quality is excellent, and interviews often include spontaneous musical demonstrations. Part 3 airs at 8 p.m. Sunday and repeats at 11 a.m. on Thanksgiving.