Camille, Dale Armstrong Are Related Only by Music

Singer Camille Armstrong cites Etta James, Billie Holiday and Dianne Reeves as influences. Vibes player Dale Armstrong learned his craft directly from a master: the late Cal Tjader. Though the Armstrongs have a name in common, they are neither married nor even related. They are only related in music as co-leaders of the jazz band Camille’s Ca-Motion. The band plays the new Jazz by the Way club in Rancho Bernardo this weekend.

The Armstrongs met in Phoenix, formed a band and played resorts and jazz clubs in Arizona and Colorado before moving to Encinitas a year ago.

Camille, 38, who also plays guitar, grew up in Cleveland and began singing at age 3. As a teen-ager, she wanted to be a dancer. She even danced on a national television program, “The Upbeat Show,” before switching to music full time.

Dale, 37, took up the vibes as a 7-year-old in Phoenix. The turning point in his growth as a musician came during the 1970s, when he spent several weeks of each year studying with Tjader in Phoenix.

“I tried to cop his style, to get a meld between him and (vibraphonist) Gary Burton,” Dale said. “I play straight-ahead, Latin, contemporary (light) jazz. The things I write are sort of Latin-fusion-samba.”

Dale also plays synthesizers, and Camille adds guitar to some numbers. The band has developed a broad repertoire as a essential survival tool. There are jazz and popular standards (“On Green Dolphin Street,” done with a Tjader-style Latin twist, “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” and covers of vocal numbers by Basia, Sade, Etta James, Peggy Lee and Big Mabel) as well as originals penned by both Armstrongs.

Next month, the band will head into a studio to record a self-produced CD of mostly original music.

At Jazz by the Way, the band’s shows this Friday and Saturday nights begin at 8 o’clock.

After seven years together, San Diego electric jazz/rock band Speed of Sound may on the verge of a breakthrough. The band’s new self-produced album, “Make No Mistake,” is a carefully crafted showcase for the ample songwriting and playing abilities of guitarist Mark Bacilla and also for the band’s tight ensemble work. Bacilla grew up in San Diego listening to the usual rock guitar heroes (Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck), but was also drawn to the music of guitarists such as Laurindo Almeida, Joe Pass, Herb Ellis and Wes Montgomery.

But hearing Chick Corea with the original Return to Forever during the early 1970s helped Bacilla find his direction.

“I was hitchhiking through Northern California,” he explained. “I met some people and stayed at their house, and they had the album, ‘Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy.’ It was just so phenomenal, the musicianship was so incredible. I had heard (classical guitarists) Julian Bream, John Williams and Christopher Parkening, but I didn’t know there were players that good on the planet beyond classical players.

“That was a great revelation--there was somewhere to go after rock ‘n’ roll, you weren’t limited to rock’s harmonic constraints.”

Today, Bacilla’s guitar style is smooth, melodic, bluesy, at times reminiscent of Larry Carlton’s, but with more surprises. Bacilla is also a first-rate songwriter. The eight tunes on “Make No Mistake” are solid vehicles for Bacilla and the rest of the band--funky bassist David Littlefield, drummer David Paviol and keyboardist Andy Myers.

Speed of Sound combines the safe, soothing qualities inherent in most commercially successful light jazz with enough musicianship to entice more serious listeners. The band rises above the predictable light jazz norm by interjecting a number of improvised interludes.

Released last month, “Make No Mistake” is available on CD or cassette in all three San Diego County Tower Records outlets and at the band’s live engagements--watch for local appearances in mid to late August.

RIFFS: Light jazz/New Age pianist George Winston plays Copley Symphony Hall in downtown San Diego this Saturday night at 8 o’clock. . . .

Jazz is part of a new plan to upgrade the Hotel del Coronado’s selection of entertainment. On Sundays this summer, traditional jazz band Tobacco Road appears from 3 to 6 p.m. on the ocean-view Promenade Deck and again from 9 to midnight in the Ocean Terrace Lounge. . . .

Hal Galper is hardly a household name, but the classically trained jazz pianist has some heavy credentials: experience with the Harold Land-Bobby Hutcherson band of the early 1970s, a stint with Cannonball Adderley, and additional work with Sam Rivers, Tony Williams, Chet Baker and many others. Galper plays shows at 8:30 and 10:30 this Wednesday night at Elario’s. . . .

The Jimmy Corsaro Quintet (featuring vocalist Sharon Andrews) plays Stagecoach Park in Carlsbad (3420 Camino de los Coches) Friday night from 6 to 8. . . .

KPBS’s “Club Date” jazz program becomes an orgy of jazz guitar Friday beginning at 11 p.m., when the station will air two 30-minute shows back-to-back featuring guitarists Barney Kessel and Herb Ellis. . . .

A.J. Croce and Three Blind Mice are featured at the Catamaran’s “Jazz Nite” this Wednesday night at 8 o’clock.

CRITIC’S CHOICE: A SWEET VISIT TO ELARIO’S

Jimmy and Jeannie Cheatham and the Sweet Baby Blues Band take a break from a whirlwind summer of touring to pay their annual visit to Elario’s Thursday through Sunday nights.

They are without the services of Jimmy Noone, the San Diego clarinet and saxophone player who died in March, but he has been replaced by Ricky Woodard of Nashville, who has toured with the band in the past but now assumes Noone’s duties full time. The band plans to record this fall and will take some new material for a shakedown cruise at Elario’s.

The band’s last three recordings, including the 1990 “Luv in the Afternoon,” are all excellent, but they don’t quite capture the grit of the live experience. When Jeannie’s earthy, powerhouse voice and swinging piano and Jimmy’s bass trombone lock in with the rest of the band, you’re in for a blues-soaked ride through a dizzying array of great jazz and blues standards and the Cheatham’s ample supply of original material.