A Dizzy Weekend at Ambassador

The Ambassador Foundation is another cultural institution that--like the Los Angeles Music Center and New York’s Lincoln Center--is significantly expanding its jazz presentations.

The nonprofit, Pasadena-based foundation, which offers mostly classical music artists at 1,300-seat Ambassador Auditorium during its September-to-June season, is spotlighting jazz for its first-ever summer event. The Pasadena Jazz Weekend--featuring trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and pianist Claude Bolling--will be held Aug. 24-25 at the Auditorium.

Additionally, the foundation is doubling--from three to six--the number of jazz artists in its seasonal “Sounds of Genius” series. In the past the series has offered such notables as the Modern Jazz Quartet and Lee Ritenour. For the 1991-92 season, the artists include Branford Marsalis, Carmen McRae, Eddie Daniels and George Shearing.

David Hulme, Ambassador’s director of performing arts and the man responsible for selecting its presentations, sees the foundation’s increased jazz coverage as a link to what many people feel is a treasured past.

“People are yearning for older values,” says Hulme, 45. “Jazz is one of those uniquely American developments that people are looking to as anchor to an important past.”

Besides Gillespie and Bolling--who will front a big band of all-French musicians playing the music of Duke Ellington--the Jazz Weekend will include performances by the Harper Brothers, Poncho Sanchez and John Stowell.

Net proceeds from the event go to the American Cancer Society.

Family Get-Together: What sets the Clayton-Hamilton big band apart from other jazz orchestras?

“We’re like a family,” says bassist John Clayton, who composes or arranges all the group’s music. “We have a core (group) of musicians who love to get together and play.”

Clayton is co-leader of the band--which plays Monday in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel--with his brother, saxophonist Jeff Clayton, and drummer Jeff Hamilton.

The ensemble, whose latest album is “Heart and Soul” on Capri Records, sports a modern bluesy style--matching Clayton’s assessment that the band is “like a cross between Ellington, Basie and Thad Jones.”

The writing is easier, says Clayton, because many players have been with the ensemble from its beginnings in 1985. “What I compose is tailored to the sounds of the musicians,” he explains, referring to four of the charter members--saxophonists Jeff Clayton and Rickey Woodard, and trumpeters Bobby Bryant and Snooky Young.

Clayton--who began writing as a member of the Count Basie orchestra in the late ‘70s--finds composition immensely rewarding. “I love the realization of the musical colors I’m hearing,” he says. “Colors for a painter must be seen. For a musician, they must be heard.”

Rim Shots: Trumpeter Bob Brown is one of the musicians playing a tribute to pianist Charlie Beal on Sunday, 2 p.m., at Hank’s Fish House in Palm Springs. Beal, who died earlier this month, appeared with Louis Armstrong’s band in the 1947 film, “New Orleans.” Proceeds will go toward Beal’s medical expenses. Information: (619) 346-8795. . . . “Chet Baker--The Last Days,” a documentary on the late trumpeter, will be screened Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Stingaree Gulch jazz club, located in the Sheraton Hotel in San Pedro.