Lunaria Spotlights Jazz Musicians and Warm Atmosphere

A glance at your watch tells you it’s just after 9 on a Thursday night as a waitress at Lunaria slides open the pale wooden panels that separate the West Los Angeles bistro’s dining room from its lounge.

Now, a rippling version of Kenny Dorham’s modern jazz classic, “Blue Bossa,” by pianist Randy Randolph’s trio can be heard by the 25 people in the 100-seat lounge, which is next to a small rectangular bar, and the 30 customers in the dining room.

Aline LaPointe, banquet manager at Hy’s in Century City, is one of the diners enjoying the jazz that permeates the larger room, which seats 120.

“I come here a lot after work,” says LaPointe--who, from 1984 to 1987, was co-owner with Susan de Boismilon of the Alleycat Bistro nightclub in Culver City.

“The lounge is cozy,” she says, nodding toward the room where couches line the walls, and small round cocktail tables and upholstered chairs make up the remainder of the seating.

“It’s nice for listening because you’re really close to the musicians. Another thing I like is that a woman can feel comfortable coming here alone. That’s not always the case with a nightclub.”

After the trio finishes a second selection, Diane Varga--the vivacious former dancer-actress and occasional singer who books the jazz, blues and pop talent featured at Lunaria from Monday through Saturday--introduces headliner Barbara Morrison.

Dressed in a black casual suit with a white blouse that shimmers with transparent sequins, the Los Angeles-based blues and jazz singer launches into “If I Lose This Dream,” a pop tune associated with Aretha Franklin.

Performing with her usual gusto and zeal, Morrison--who has worked with Johnny Otis, the Capp-Pierce Juggernaut big band and many others--quickly gets people in the audience moving to the beat. After the song, Morrison proves to be an amiable emcee, chatting with her audience, welcoming those she recognizes with a “Hey, how you doin’?” kind of friendliness.

As she heads into the emotional “Get Here If You Can,” Bill Dictor, a lawyer from Manhattan Beach, and Julie Caspino, a computer programmer from Canoga Park, are the only couple dancing near the bar--which is separated from the lounge by a low wall.

“I love this place. I’ve come here a couple of times, and they’ve always had great entertainment, like Frank Sinatra Jr.,” Dictor said. “And our waitress spoke to us in French. You don’t find that everywhere.”

Morrison’s rendition of the funky “Same Old Story,” composed by Crusaders drummer Stix Hooper, has people in the audience clapping, exhibiting the same kind of enthusiasm that Morrison exudes on the bandstand. Turning her head from side to side as she sings, snapping her fingers, freezing a pose or bending her knees to emphasize a lyric, she’s a captivating entertainer.

Morrison was advertised as being “presented by Dionne Warwick,” who has chosen the room to further the careers of some of her proteges--Morrison, Randolph’s trio and Brazilian singer Eliane Estavaeo among them.

“Lunaria is a class act,” Warwick says. “It’s been instrumental in exposing some talent that should be shared, like Barbara. The public is better off for it, and you never know with this type of exposure where their careers will go.”

Morrison’s set includes a rousing “Do Nothin’ Till You Hear From Me,” “You Go To My Head”--done in tribute to the great Dinah Washington--and a couple of blues-based originals, highlighted by the get-down-and-funky “You Ain’t Gonna Keep Me Blue.”

That Morrison is a natural crowd pleaser is indicated not only by the generous applause she receives, but also by the ubiquitous smiles on the customers’ faces.

“She’s wonderful. She has a very dynamic personality, with stage presence and humor. She expresses what she sings. You can tell she’s really enjoying what she’s doing,” says Williametta Cummings, a banker from Hawthorne who was with Celia Shrago of Westwood.

Ben Ethridge of Eagle Rock said he thought Morrison was exceptionally talented.

Morrison, who is headlining a new and ongoing Monday and Tuesday blues night at Marla’s, a jazz supper club in Los Angeles, has similarly positive feelings about the lounge at Lunaria. “It’s got a European feeling, kind of a free, relaxed atmosphere. It’s a place that you like to bring your friends,” she says during an intermission.

That was just what Bernard Jacoupy, who conceived and was a principal investor in Lunaria, had in mind when he opened it in July, 1990.

“In Europe, a bistro is a place where people gather,” says Jacoupy, a native of France who, from 1985 to 1986, was general manager of the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, where he founded the restaurant Bernard’s.

“Here I thought it would be good to have something more than dinner, some entertainment,” he says. “And when jazz is done with high quality, it works well with our atmosphere.”

First, singer Ruth Price booked the talent. Then, last November, Varga, who booked musicians into the Biltmore’s Grand Avenue Bar from 1986 to 1990, was brought in by Jacoupy.

“She deserves the credit for the way the room is turning out,” he says.

Varga, who was a professional dancer at 15 and later sang for seven years with Ray Anthony’s orchestra, says that Lunaria’s atmosphere dictates the kind of entertainment she books.

“In that part of Los Angeles, with the kind of clientele the restaurant attracts, you have to stay in the more commercial vein, with more accessible artists rather than going with pure jazz all the time,” she says. “So I use quite a few singers.”

Still, she’s booked such mainstream jazz artists as Teddy Edwards, John and Jeff Clayton, Spike Robinson and Benn Clatworthy, as well as singers such as Rebecca Parris, Yvette Stewart, Kate McGarry and Cheryl Barnes.

So far, her instincts have been pretty good, as demonstrated by the solid attendance on weekends. Weekday audiences are still growing, she says.

“I learn every single week,” she says. “Artists that I wouldn’t think would go over well, do.”

One of the big pluses of her job, Varga says, is making good music available to people who might not know about it. “There’s a great satisfaction in trying to support better music, which I see as the general area of jazz,” she says. “I want to keep it alive and going. With all the bad music in the world, good music needs all the help it can get. It’s kind of a crusade for me.”

Artists appear in the Lunaria lounge Monday to Saturday from 8:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. There is a $5 cover charge Thursday through Saturday with a two-drink minimum. Drinks range from $3.25 for bottled beer to $18.25 for 25-year-old Armagnac.

The dining room serves French light-bistro cuisine under the direction of chef Dominique Chavanon. The menu includes sauteed Lake Superior whitefish with asparagus, grilled Chilean sea bass with pureed potatoes, medallions of New Zealand lamb with celery root and rosemary juice and steak tartare with pommes frites . Appetizers include seared carpaccio of tuna, cured Norwegian salmon with marinated cucumbers and a terrine of vegetables with roast bell pepper vinaigrette. Entrees average $16, appetizers $7.

Lunaria, 10351 Santa Monica Blvd., West Los Angeles; (213) 282-8870. Lunch: 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday; dinner: 6 to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 6 to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The bar opens at 5 p.m. Closed Sunday.