Society to Screen Jazz Film Written by SDSU Graduate

A small-budget jazz movie titled “American Blue Note” with a script by San Diego State University graduate Gilbert Girion is winning critical praise for its sensitive portrayal of a second-rate jazz saxophonist in the 1960s who aspires to greatness.

The movie will screen twice this week in San Diego County for members only of the Cinema Society. Unlike the typical jazz story--jazzman struggles and dies, or jazzman struggles and succeeds--”American Blue Note” follows its main character as he gradually moves away from a sputtering jazz career and into romance and other pursuits.

Girion, 40, wrote the script after he was asked by the film’s director, Ralph Toporoff, to craft a story based on Toporoff’s own experiences playing in a jazz band in New York during the late 1950s and early 1960s.

“He told me some anecdotes and a little about the flavor of the time, a little about himself back then,” Girion said. “I made up a whole story around all of that. It’s about a guy who wants his group to become his vocation, to make something out of it and become a success. And it’s about this guy’s dream, which he eventually has to re-evaluate.

“Eventually, the story starts to include other aspects of his life, which is what the film is about--letting other things in, a family, relationships, that might replace this dream of success.”

The film was made for $500,000 and completed about three years ago, according to Girion, but only began turning up during the past year at film festivals and theaters in a handful of American cities.

Critics have praised the film’s authentic feel for the life of an amateur jazz musician, but Girion claims little firsthand knowledge of jazz.

“I studied a little guitar, somewhat with a jazz emphasis, a long time ago. But that wasn’t a big part of my research. I just decided, because these were only would-be jazz musicians playing clubs and dives, that it wasn’t that important that I was steeped in jazz. I talked to Ralph a lot and listened to a lot of records, then I just faked it.”

As associate producer, Girion was responsible for hiring Chicago musician Larry Schanker to write an original jazz score.

“What was so great was that he was able to come up with these things that sound like standards, but they’re really originals,” Girion said.

Girion grew up in Santa Monica. He attended Santa Monica College before earning his degree in drama from San Diego State in 1973. Girion credits SDSU drama instructor Mack Owen for encouraging his talents.

According to Owen, Girion was one of an especially talented group of students who went on to big things. Others included Julie Kavner, who eventually turned up on Tracey Ullman’s television show and in the movie, “Awakenings,” and David Leisure, best known as “Joe Isuzu” of car commercial fame, now the lead actor on the “Empty Nest” television program.

Girion lives in Santa Monica. His last play, “Faith’s Body,” ran for six weeks in Los Angeles last June and July, and he just completed a script with film director Wayne Wang. Girion and Ian Toporoff, son of the director of “American Blue Note,” will speak at both screenings this week.

“American Blue Note” shows tonight at 7:30 in the Sherwood Auditorium at the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla and tomorrow night at 7 in one of the Wiegand Plaza 8 theaters on El Camino Real in Encinitas. Only Cinema Society members may attend. Dues are $160 a year for the San Diego chapter, $150 for the North County chapter. After opening this week with “American Blue Note,” the Cinema Society’s season continues through spring. Call 454-7373 for more information.

RIFFS: Saxophonist Branford Marsalis disparaged KIFM in the San Diego Union, and the station subsequently yanked its sponsorship of his Aug. 25 concert at Humphrey’s Concerts by the Bay. But jazz fans apparently weren’t put off by Marsalis’ barbed tongue. Roughly 1,100 of 1,200 seats were sold for the show, a record turnout for a straight-ahead jazz concert in San Diego this year. . . .

KSDS-FM (88.3) will broadcast live from this weekend’s Michelob Street Scene, airing the jazz of Harry Pickens, Bennie Wallace and Jon Faddis on Friday night from 7:15 to 10:45, and the bluesy piano of Marcia Ball and raucous zydeco of Zachary Richard on Saturday night from 8:15 to 11. . . .

The group Mungus plays the music of Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus Wednesday night at the Ruse performance space in the Marquis Public Theater on India Street. . . .

Saxophonist Joe Marillo plays Friday night, and Kentucky Fried Jazz with Ms. Ruby play Saturday night at Jazz by the Way in Rancho Bernardo. Music starts at 8. . . .

Saxophonist Rod Cradit appears Tuesday nights at 6:30 during September at San Luis Rey Downs Country Club in Bonsall. . . .

Most Valuable Players play light jazz this Friday and Saturday nights at the B Street California Grill & Jazz Bar in downtown San Diego.

CRITIC’S CHOICE: PAPA JOHN PLAYS JAZZ NOTE

Violinist Papa John Creach stays young by hanging around young hipsters. During the 1970s, he played with the Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship and Hot Tuna, and his soaring, electric violin fit in surprisingly well. Just last week, Creach was on the road in the Midwest with the Dinosaurs of Rock, an aggregate of veteran San Francisco rock musicians. And Thursday night, Creach opens two weeks at the Jazz Note night club, 860 Garnet Ave, above Diego’s restaurant in Pacific Beach, performing Thursdays through Sundays. At 74, Creach moves slower, but the aging process doesn’t seem to have affected his fingers, which flutter gracefully and quickly over the strings of his violin. Creach’s sets include a broad range of American music: down-home country pickin’, up-tempo be-bop, tear-jerking readings of pop standards such as “Over the Rainbow,” even some bluesy rock dating back to his Starship days. Showtimes are 8 and 10 Thursdays and Sundays, 9 and 11 Fridays and Saturdays.