In Area of Diversity, Wayne Wayne Has No Double

It’s Tuesday night at the Cafe Lido and Wayne Wayne (no, you’re not seeing double--that’s really his stage name), as he has done at least one night a week here for the last eight years, takes the bandstand.

Fronting a small forest of horns and flutes, he takes the alto sax from its stand, then starts in on an up-tempo version of “How High the Moon.” While the rhythm section--keyboardist Peggy Duquesnel, bassist Ernie Nunez and drummer Pete Pfieffer--swings through the familiar melody, Wayne runs down his be-bop delivery, inserting Charlie Parker quotes in just the right places.

From there, it’s on to the ballad “Good Morning Heartache,” to which he gives a warm, more considered alto flute treatment, before picking up his tenor to finish the tune. Then it is back to alto sax for a soulful reading of “The More I See You” that stirs up images of King Curtis and Junior Walker. Before the night is over, Wayne, in the company of singer Yve Evans, has shown off his versatility on bop, rock, ballads and a Latin number.

“It’s not that I don’t know what kind of music I like to play,” Wayne, 39, said. “I don’t even know what instrument I like to play best.”

Between sets, Wayne and Lido owner Joe Speranza recall their finest moment. It was 1987 when the Cafe Lido All Stars with Wayne Wayne went all the way to the finals in the Hennessy Cognac Jazz Search, the annual nationwide battle of the jazz bands that rewards the winner with the opening spot at the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl.

“It was quite a shock,” Wayne said. “We had made this videotape, and Joe just sent it in to them--I didn’t know anything about it. He came up to me later and said we were in the semifinals and I said, ‘What?’ ”

From there, the band, with drummer Gary Wing, keyboardist Eddie Ambrose and bassist Ron Shoemake, went to the finals at the Palace in Hollywood, where the top four bands from nearly 500 entries played. Wayne said the ongoing engagement at the Cafe Lido worked in their favor. “We were actually a working band. We played together four nights a week, every week. We were ready.”

Wayne feels his familiarity with a number of styles helped the cause. “We played three diverse numbers: John Coltrane’s ‘26-Two,’ a workout like Coltrane’s ‘Giant Steps’ put to the ‘Confirmation’ chord changes; the ballad from ‘The Summer of ‘42’ called ‘The Summer Knows’; and a fusion piece called ‘Bull Funk’ written by Brandon Fields and Melvin Davis.”

In the end, a group from Detroit, Wayne’s hometown, won the competition. “It’s ironic,” Wayne says. “I’d played with four of the five guys in that band back in Detroit. But that was a real experience.”

Wayne says his Motor City upbringing has a lot to do with his dual identity as both jazz and pop musician. “When the Motown thing came out--of course, they pushed that pretty heavily in Detroit--that was a big musical inspiration. I was studying classical at school, but outside of class I was into Junior Walker.”

His introduction to jazz came via Charlie Parker. “I remember that album well--’Early Bird’ on the old Dial label, that quintet stuff with Miles (Davis). Because I played saxophone, my parents would buy a lot of albums with saxophones on them. Of course, they played the ones they liked, and this Charlie Parker record was sitting around for years. I just happened to pick it up one day, I was around 16 at the time, and that was it.”

Once out of high school, Wayne toured with the New York company of “Jesus Christ Superstar” for nearly a year. He spent a good part of the ‘70s working in local funk bands.

“Most of the jazz I played in Detroit, I played because I liked it. But I mostly played with funk bands, bar bands, road stuff. You know, go to Kalamazoo and play for a week, then go to Chicago and play for a week, then back to Detroit and play for a month.” Also while in Detroit, he did session recordings with disco star Johnnie Taylor and rocker Mitch Ryder.

Drawn by the Southern California weather and the chance to do studio work, Wayne moved to Anaheim in 1980. It didn’t take him long to find work.

“I walked into the Sheraton Anaheim one night and said ‘I play saxophone. Can I sit in?’ ” The band was veteran nightclub entertainer Greg Topper’s rock ‘n’ roll band, and Topper asked Wayne to join the group on the basis of one hearing. His Cafe Lido association began shortly thereafter when he joined Mike Patterson’s band. Before long, he was heading his own group at the club.

“There’s a certain amount of freedom at the Lido,” he said. “It’s a good workshop for me. I can even write a tune and bring it in and try it out the same day. We just have a good time up there. It’s probably pretty obvious just by watching.”

In addition to his weekly appearances at the Lido, Wayne stays busy playing commercial recordings and doing casuals. He’s worked with the Righteous Brothers in Las Vegas in recent years, recorded with Bill Medley and appeared on the duo’s 30th anniversary TV special. Wayne also appeared this past summer with the Temptations during an Orange County appearance.

Though his repetitive name might suggest otherwise (he adamantly refuses to give his real name, but does say that a rock singer he was working came up with the Wayne Wayne moniker in the early ‘70s and it stuck), the saxophonist likes to pursue various directions.

“I try to mix it up. I like playing the bop thing and the fusion thing a lot. That may be my problem, that I don’t have just one solid direction in which to go.”

* The Wayne Wayne Band plays at 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays through November as well as Saturday and Nov. 30 at the Cafe Lido, 501 30th St., Newport Beach. Admission: free. Information: (714) 675-2968.