Flyers’ Bass Player Takes a Solo Flight : Blues: The founding member of the Orange County R&B; band has joined other local artists to make a whole lotta Big Noise.

There’s a joke about an anthropologist who thinks he knows all the ways of the remote tribe he’s been living with for two years, but one night a frantic, desperate drumming commences, and the chief will say only that if the drumming ever stops, a terrible, terrible thing will occur.

Finally, as the night wears on to morning and the drumming pounds on, the anthropologist pleads with the chief, “Please, we’re blood brothers, tell me, what is the terrible, terrible thing that happens if the drumming stops?”

“Bass solo starts.”

Fortunately, Mighty Flyers’ bassist Bill Stuve knew better than to fill his recently released solo album with lengthy pronouncements from his unwieldy stand-up bass. Instead, his low notes mostly just provide the solid support that has marked Stuve’s 13 years as a founding Flyer, while his singing and the solid ensemble swinging of his assembled blues stars make his “Big Noise” album live up to its title.

This Sunday, Stuve is going live with his Big Noise, performing at Crawford’s Nightclub in Lakewood with most of the album’s artists, who compose a large chunk of the local blues scene.

There’ll be harpists James Harman and Johnny Dyer (Dyer doesn’t appear on the album), sax giant Lee Allen (a former Blaster and featured soloist with Little Richard and Fats Domino), pianist Steve F’Dor, and fellow Flyers Alex Schultz on guitar and Jimi Bott on drums. Rounding out the group are Jeff Turmes (bassist with the Harman Band), Brett Wheeler on saxes and Eddie Reed on guitar. (The album’s Jr. Watson, a former Mighty Flyer and Canned Heat member, has a conflicting gig on Sunday.)

The Mighty Flyers have been a staple on the Orange County blues scene for more than a decade (they perform one of the final shows at the fading Sunset Pub tonight; see story on F1). More recently, they’ve become a major festival attraction in Europe. Two people not appearing on Stuve’s album are Flyers lead singer/harmonica player Rod Piazza and his keyboardist wife, Honey Alexander, but that’s not because of a falling out.

Rather, Stuve said, “I just thought if I got them on it, it would be too much like a Flyers record, and I wanted to do some different things, like using horns. There are only two or three songs with harmonica on the album.”

The album boasts three Stuve compositions as well as a Stuve/Bott arrangement of the title track, adapted from the Bob Crosby standard “Big Noise From Winnetka.” The other selections--including tunes from Clarence (Gatemouth) Brown, Muddy Waters, Otis Spann and rockabilly obscurity Lew Williams--are mostly songs Stuve has performed onstage with the Flyers but never recorded with them.

Rather than creating a conflict with the Flyers, Stuve feels his solo outing helps his relations with the group.

“What happens in bands, I’ve found, with a lot of cats is they’re writing and doing songs on the bandstand, but it’s a different priority when the recording comes along,” Stuve said. “In this situation, it’s Rod’s band, and he’s such a monster on the harp that it’s kind of tough to get my stuff out there (on the Flyers’ records). So instead of getting all negative and bummed out and quitting the band or anything, I’ve got this optimistic outlet, which I think has been a healthy thing for me and the band.”

Stuve said the solo project is something he’d always wanted to do. “Then when we were touring in Europe these companies said, ‘Bill, if you ever record anything we’d like to hear it.’ So I said what the heck and booked some studio time.”

The “Big Noise” CD has been released only in Europe. Stuve hopes to make a distribution deal with Rounder Records in the United States. In the meantime, he is distributing the imports himself. “I’m doing like Colonel Parker in the old days,” he said, “taking them to the record stores and to the gigs.” (The CD can be found locally at the Music Market in Costa Mesa and Lamar’s Records in Long Beach.)

Stuve, 39, started in music as a youngster, providing drum accompaniment for his piano-playing grandfather. “Then came the Stones and the Beatles, and I said, ‘Forget that!’ and got a guitar. Then I found I was always showing bass players their parts--maybe it came easier because of my drum education. There were always a lot of guitar players around, so I got a gig playing electric bass, and from there went on to the stand-up.”

He cites such influences as Willie Dixon, early Muddy Waters bassist Big Crawford and Slam Stewart, and he says bass (which he calls “the big doghouse”) never gets boring for him.

“I think there’s a lot you can do with it,” he said. “People say, ‘Oh, it’s just three chords,’ but there’s all these colorings, interactions between the band members, and of course working with the audience. So I don’t have a problem with it.”

The Flyers have a new album, called “Blues in the Dark,” due in January on the Rounder-distributed Blacktop label. They also have a new publicist and booking agency.

“Hopefully we’ll go to another plateau,” Stuve said, “but I really can’t complain about our success. Everything I’ve wanted to do since I was a child has come true.

“It’s something just being able to play music and make a living doing it. And we’ve been able to travel in Europe extensively where, boy, are they appreciative of American music. Finland was our first stop ever outside the U.S. It was the middle of winter, freezing cold, but the audience was amazing, like something you’d imagine the early Stones and Beatles things were like. They wouldn’t stop clamoring.

“It’s always a little frustrating because at home, the style of music we’re playing really doesn’t get the acceptance you’d hope for. But I think now blues seems to be making a little turnaround. And sometimes when you’re touring there’s going to be the night-after-night drudgery, but overall, I think if you can be happy 75% of the time up there on the bandstand, then that’s better than most other guys got.”

Bill Stuve’s “Big Noise” performs Sunday at 8 p.m. at Crawford’s Nightclub, 11529 Carson St. (west of the San Gabriel River Freeway), Lakewood. The Deep Blue Sea band opens at 6 p.m. Admission: $2. Information: (213) 924-0446.