Jazz Saxman Cole Rethinks Sound for a New Audience

Alto saxman Richie Cole can tear up a be-bop number with the best of them, but he is moving further and further from hard-core bop in search of more listeners.

“I’d like to reach a broader audience with some quality music, not necessarily with the label ‘jazz’ because, you know, jazz can alienate people who don’t know jazz,” said Cole, 42, who plays the Jazz Note in Pacific Beach (above Diego’s restaurant) this Thursday through Sunday nights. “

Coming from a man who cites highly regarded saxophonists Julian (Cannonball) Adderley and Sonny Rollins as seminal influences--and who has recorded more than 25 albums with such hard-core jazz figures as Phil Woods, Art Pepper, Eddie (Lockjaw) Davis and Eddie Jefferson--such talk about reaching the masses sounds like heresy.

“I’m out to trick people who don’t like ‘jazz’ into liking it,” Cole explained. “The first thing I do when I walk on stage is look at the people I’m about to perform for, then decide what I’m going to do.”

No telling what he’ll detect in his San Diego audiences, but Cole’s repertoire ranges from originals such as the swinging, bluesy “L. Dorado Kaddy” from his 1987 album “Popbop,” to his up-tempo version of the “Star Trek” theme, which lends itself surprisingly well to Cole’s hip, jazzy treatment. He may even indulge his love of Latin rhythms and melodies, and will undoubtedly play several of his favorite jazz standards.

Cole grew up in Trenton, N.J., where his father had owned jazz nightclubs--one for whites, one for blacks--during World War II. Cole picked up the alto as a teen-ager, and broke in with the big bands of Buddy Rich and Lionel Hampton during the late 1960s and early 1970s. His last recording was “Bossa International,” a 1990 collaboration with fellow saxman Hank Crawford, and his last album as a leader was the 1988 “Signature.” He is now without a label, but has “a plan, very secret, very important”--his own label, he hinted, and new projects including a symphony of saxes to be over-dubbed in his home studio on his 17 acres in the small town of Monte Rio in Northern California.

At the Jazz Note, Cole will play shows at 8 and 10 on Thursday and Sunday nights and at 9 and 11 Friday and Saturday nights.

Big band jazz buff and amateur trumpeter Harold Van Roy swears that if Carlsbad or Oceanside will donate a sizeable hunk of land, he’ll have no problem assembling the artifacts and raising the money for a $70-million, 300,000-square-foot Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame he hopes to build.

Van Roy tried to make the project fly in the San Fernando Valley in the mid-1970s, with no luck. Now, he believes a coastal North County location would be ideal.

“We would draw from Orange, San Diego and Riverside counties,” said Van Roy, who lives in Oceanside. “It would be the perfect tourist thing between Disneyland and Sea World.”

Although city officials in Oceanside and Carlsbad have been publicly lukewarm to the idea, Van Roy is moving ahead with his plans. The former contractor is building a scale model of the facility, which would include a 6,500-seat theater. He doesn’t think he would have any trouble filling the place.

“I belong to the Big Band Academy of America, based in Hollywood,” Van Roy said. “They draw about 1,200 people every year for their big band reunions. In Japan and Australia and England, American big bands play to full houses.”

Properly marketed, he believes big band music could be a tremendous draw here, too.

Van Roy said he has already received numerous responses to an article about the proposal which ran last week in the San Diego Union, and he claims already to have had calls from people interested in donating substantial sums.

He also says he knows several collectors of big band artifacts who could supply memorabilia, and he envisions much more than just a museum.

“This would not just consist of old horns and pictures. We want to include historical information on vocalists and arrangers and songwriters, and big band charts so that college kids can get information on arranging. We want to include military bands, too. The Airmen of Note (an Air Force group) are one of the most famous.”

Milt Bernhart, president of the Big Band Academy, has reservations about Van Roy’s grand plan.

“I wouldn’t classify him as a nut or con artist,” Bernhart said. “He seems to know a lot of people. He brought the mayor of Oceanside to one of our functions. But what he’s trying to do doesn’t really add up. I don’t know where on earth he’s going to get the money. ‘And big bands are not making a comeback. The only reason big bands made a living from the late 1930s to the 1950s was the dance halls, and they’re long gone.

“And how could we justify Oceanside as a site for a Big Band Hall of Fame, when, for instance, the most likely place is in Clarinda, Iowa, the birthplace of Glenn Miller? People go there in large numbers, and they are ready to do something there, including a ballroom, in memorial to Miller. Sure, big bands played around Oceanside, but they played everywhere.

“The people who want to see the Glenn Miller estate band are 60 and up,” Bernhart continued. “When they’re gone, then what? Young people don’t do this, so what would become of a Big Band Hall of Fame?”

KIFM drew 8,000 light-jazz fans to the Hyatt Regency in the Golden Triangle for the station’s 16th anniversary bash last Sunday. The station spent about $250,000 on the party, including a fee well into five figures for headliner Kenny G. Even at that price, he was late, missing his scheduled flight from Seattle.

About the only other hitch came when police shut down saxophonist Dave Koz and vocalist Phil Perry toward the end of their set after a resident of a nearby condominium complex complained about the noise. Given the generally soft and dreamy nature of most KIFM-type music, it must have come as a compliment that the stuff could provoke some action.

RIFF: San Diego singer Arvella Murray unveils her new self-produced single, “A Good Time to Love,” Wednesday night at 8 at the Catamaran, backed by Fattburger.

CRITIC’S CHOICE: NEW JAZZ CLUB HOLDS OPENING PARTY SATURDAY

This Saturday, the new Jazz by the Way club in Rancho Bernardo (16466 Bernardo Center Drive) celebrates its grand opening with a party from 10 a.m. to midnight featuring performances by Anthony Ortega, Murray Davison and the North County All Stars, Lori Bell, Elliott Lawrence and Dan Terry’s Big Band. Tickets are $12. The club plans to donate $1,000 toward a jazz scholarship at Palomar College. Jazz by the Way replaces All That Jazz, which closed in May because of financial problems. Bob Embesi, co-owner of the new club, took over the space from his former wife, Lee Hendrickson, owner of All That Jazz. The new club begins regular weekend jazz with Davison’s band on July 12. Why does Embesi believe the 95-seat Jazz by the Way will succeed where All That Jazz fell short? “We’re going to have good entertainment, better service and good food.”