Big-Band Ambassador : Louie Bellson Drums Up American Jazz as a Catalyst for Global Cooperation

Earlier this week, during the height of the attempted Soviet coup, drummer Louie Bellson voiced his concern for Mikhail Gorbachev, whom he’d met during one of the Soviet leader’s visits to this country.

“This man tried his best to further human rights,” he said, “and this could take them right back to the Dark Ages.” Recalling his own experiences in the Soviet Union, Bellson said he discovered the citizenry to be “a wonderful people,” and, in a prayer that seems almost prescient in retrospect, said, “Let’s hope they can do something.”

Bellson, who along with his late wife--singer and social activist Pearl Bailey--has long exported American jazz as a catalyst for cooperation and understanding to the far corners of the globe, is no stranger to the Soviet Union. During a phone conversation earlier this week from his San Fernando Valley home, he recalled his visit to the Russian Federation in 1985.

“I went over with Pearl and played the American embassies in Moscow and Leningrad, and they just loved it. You know, music knows no barriers. They asked if we would play with these Russians, and we said sure,” he said. “They were just marvelous musicians. And I asked, ‘How did you learn this music?’ They told me they’d picked it up listening to Willis Conover on the Voice of America. These players were absolutely fantastic.

“That’s the great thing about music,” he said. “It makes a great life for everybody. It brings people together. When Duke (Ellington) and Louis (Armstrong) and Benny Goodman all went over there, they went without any gibberish. All they had were some B-flats and some E-flats and look what they did. They’re still talking about them over there.

“That was always my wife’s solution,” the gentlemanly musician asserted. “People coming together with love. We’ve tried war, we’ve tried this and that. But if people come together in love, they’ll learn to live in peace. And that’s what music does.”

Bellson has kept himself busy since Bailey’s death last year. “It’s been a tough time for me,” he said, “but I have great memories of that lady. The Lord gave me 39 years with her--what a blessing. It was a big blow losing my best friend, but music and my friends have pulled me through. I’ve been continually working.”

No lie. Just this summer, Bellson traveled on his own to New Zealand and Spain, and recently spent a month playing the European festival circuit in a band with Benny Carter, Milt Hinton, Harry (Sweets) Edison, Al Grey and Marian McPartland. Earlier this year, his big-band album, “Air Mail Special,” was nominated for a Grammy and he continues giving seminars and clinics at colleges around the country.

He’s also preparing to record both small- and large-ensemble albums. The drummer appears tonight at the Hyatt Newporter in Newport Beach with a group that includes saxophonist Bob Cooper, bass trumpet and valve trombonist Jimmy Zito, keyboardist Frank Strazzeri and bassist Andy Simpkins.

Bellson, long recognized as one of the most musical of trapsmen, has been known for his big sound since adding a second bass drum to his kit in 1946. But he says the revelation came to him much earlier.

“I actually got the idea in 1938 or ’39 in a high-school art class. I drew this set with two bass drums and the teacher passed me on that drawing alone. I’ve always been ambidextrous and wanted that big sound with the left foot on bass and hi-hat. So I got my thinking cap on--that’s what happens when you’re 14 or 15 and get your brain working.”

It was Bellson’s sound that helped power the Duke Ellington Orchestra back into the public spotlight during the early ‘50s. The drummer, who was working on the West Coast with trumpeter Harry James, remembers when the call came from Ellington in 1951.

“A wonderful thing happened. Three of us from the band--(alto saxophonist) Willie Smith, (trombonist) Juan Tizol, who composed ‘Caravan’ and myself--went up to Harry and said, ‘We have a chance to join Duke.’ And you know what he said? ‘Take me with you.’ That’s something to lose three players like that and give your blessings. It took a great gentleman to say that.”

Bellson left Ellington in 1953, the same year he married Bailey, and has pretty much followed his own path since. He worked for years with his wife, led his own bands and occasionally joined tours with Ellington, Count Basie and Tommy Dorsey. Sometimes billed as “Last of the Great Swing Drummers,” the ever-modest Bellson differs with that assessment on two counts.

“I try to think of myself as a complete drummer,” he said. “I like all kinds of drumming, I dig country and Western, Latin music. I’m into rock like Earth, Wind & Fire and the Tower of Power band.” In fact, Bellson is credited with the tune “I Need Your Key” on James Brown’s 1970 album “Soul On Top.”

“Any great drummer has to keep his eyes open, has to be able to do it all. That’s the fun of it, to wake up in the morning and do something different. If not, you stay stagnant, and that’s not good for your soul.

“As far as being the last, there’s still a guy around named Max Roach, there’s still a guy around named Ray McKinley. Barrett Deems, who played with Louis Armstrong, is still around.

“I’m not the last of that group--I’m the youngest.”

Louie Bellson plays tonight at 7:30 at the Hyatt Newporter, 1107 Jamboree Road, Newport Beach. Admission: $6 to $7. Information: (714) 729-1234.