Marsalis Brings Mainstream Jazz to Series in Temecula

In its third season, the “Champagne Jazz” series at the John Culbertson Winery in Temecula is spicing up a familiar agenda of light jazz with the inclusion of the hot, young straight-ahead jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis.

Five consecutive Sundays of music begin this weekend with guitarist Grant Geissman and special guest Sam Riney on saxophone. Kazu Matsui, master of the Japanese shakuhachi flute--and husband of light jazz keyboardist Keiko Matsui--appears April 14, with his wife expected as a special guest. Marsalis performs April 21, followed by Free Flight on April 28 and saxophonist Michael Paulo May 5.

The 500-seat patio outside the winery offers listeners an intimate outdoor setting, and the 4 p.m. start times make for a romantic afternoon of music.

In the past the “Champagne Jazz” series has presented mainstream jazz, with San Diego acts such as Benny Holman’s Big Band and the San Diego State University Jazz Ensemble, but presenting Marsalis marks the series’ first move into major mainstream talent. If he draws well, more mainstream musicians might be booked, Pedersen said.

Geissman’s Sunday concert comes at a time when his 13-year-old recording career is finally starting to pay off. He has long been respected by critics for his silky smooth improvisations and his deft melding of influences that range from the Beatles to Wes Montgomery and 1960s studio guitarist Howard Roberts.

But, since signing with Mesa/Bluemoon Recordings last year, the arc of Geissman’s career has ascended noticeably. His first recording for the label, “Take Another Look,” generated rave reviews in the radio trades and peaked at No. 2 on Radio & Records New Adult Contemporary (light jazz) chart last year. Now, the 5-week-old “Flying Colors” sits at No. 1 on charts in several trades.

According to Geissman, who lives in Sherman Oaks, the upswing in his career began when he hired Ted Cohen of Beverly Hills as his manager in 1989.

“Ted put the deal together with Mesa/Bluemoon,” Geissman said. “I’m finally with a recording company that doesn’t tell me what to do. We have discussions about what the projects will be like, but they turn me loose and say, ‘Go away and make a record.’ I also have a very supportive manager who understands what I’m trying to do.”

As the business side of his career has grown stronger, Geissman believes his playing has evolved as well.

On the last two albums, he has defined a sound of his own, playing a nylon-stringed, acoustic instrument to achieve a soft, mellow tone for the clean, melodic lines he spins off with fluid grace.

“I think I’m probably getting a little better,” Geissman said. “I’ve been writing material since I was in high school; a few years ago, I don’t think I would have conceived a song like ‘Places I’ve Been,’ with all those sounds and sections.”

The song is one of 10 originals Geissman wrote or co-wrote for “Flying Colors.” Cohen suggested that Geissman pen a song encapsulating the range of his musical influences. In the space of five minutes, “Places I’ve Been” takes you through Geissman’s musical scrapbook, with references to the Beatles and the Byrds and hints of the variety of jazz influences in his life.

Geissman grew up in San Jose listening to rock, but by 14 was already exploring jazz and other music.,

“It was a funny period,” Geissman remembered. “Even rock players were investigating Indian scales and the Ravi Shankar thing. Geoff Levin, one of my first teachers, was in the band People, which had a hit called ‘I Love You.’ He was always way ahead of what was happening, exploring the theoretical side of things.”

Another teacher, Jerry Hahn, introduced Geissman to the music of Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman.

“He always encouraged me to play outside the chord changes, to go out of the key centers, to do a little more avant-garde kind of playing. For a kid who grew up on the Beatles and was listening to Crosby, Stills & Nash, this was a whole other area.”

After playing jazz in junior high, high school and junior college Big Bands, and rocking with teen garage bands, Geissman was studying music at Cal State Northridge in 1976 when his first break came: He was asked to substitute in fluegelhorn player Chuck Mangione’s band and soon became a permanent member, touring and recording with the group for four years.

Although Geissman’s music today is decidedly in a light pop jazz vein, his 1978 debut album was pure mainstream jazz.

Carl Jefferson, head of Concord Jazz, the mainstream label, heard Geissman and invited him to record. The result was the album “Good Stuff.”

Geissman doesn’t rule out another mainstream project in the future, but, for the moment, he said he is quite comfortable in his pop jazz groove.

In addition to his recording and touring, Geissman, 37, continues to work a variety of studio jobs, as he has since he was in his early twenties.

“Name any product, and I’ve probably been on a commercial for it,” he said. He has also written music for children’s cartoon programs including “Alf Tales,” “Slimer and Ghostbusters” and “The New Archies,” and he has played on sound tracks for movies including all three in the “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” series and “Married to the Mob,” where he replaced some guitar parts originally laid down by Talking Head David Byrne, who scored the movie.

This Sunday, Geissman’s band will consist of players featured on his last two releases, with additional support from Riney. The material will be drawn mostly from those releases, Geissman said.