Nightspot’s Prerequisite for Music: Is It Danceable?

For a little while on a Friday not that long ago, things were just a tad off kilter at the Nucleus Nuance in West Hollywood.

Nobody was dancing.

You see, that cozy nightspot’s small dance floor, situated right in front of the bandstand in what’s known as the Club Room, is usually occupied by at least a couple or two from the first tune of the evening onward.

But this particular Friday, the floor was vacant as a six-piece band led by pianist Guilherme Verquiero--and featuring flugelhornist Jeff Kaye and saxophonist Teco Cardoso--knocked out three enthusiastic Brazilian samba instrumentals.

It also remained empty when the musicians were joined by singer Ana Carolina, who offered a rather gutsy version of Milton Nascimento’s “Jaguarete.”

You couldn’t fault the music. It was invigorating, authentic samba stuff with a bubbling beat. And it wasn’t that the Nucleus lacked patrons. The 16-table Club Room was packed, as was the adjacent bar, and there were only a few empty tables in the dining room that’s just off the bar.

People just weren’t dancing.

Then Verquiero, Carolina and their cohorts launched into a slow, sensuous rendition of “Corcovado,” which sometimes is known by its English-language title, “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars.”

Carolina sang the emotional song with the original Portuguese lyrics by its composer, Antonio Carlos Jobim.

And with the tender reading came the dancers.

First one couple, then another, then a third. Some got up from their tables near the bandstand, temporarily abandoning their dinners to sway to the succulent rhythms. Others came from the dining room, or from the bar area.

By the tune’s end, there were about 10 couples moving slowly about the hardwood floor.

While some of the patrons departed as the band broke into the last song of the set, a vibrant medium-fast rendition of “Saudade” by Dorival Caymmi, a few stayed.

And when the second set started, the dancers wasted no time in filling up the small space.

Things were back on track at the Nucleus Nuance.

Dancing has long been an essential element at the West Hollywood nightspot.

“I make sure that the bands that play here, whether they’re jazz or swing, Latin or Brazilian, have danceable music,” said Susan de Boismilon, 45, who has booked the Nucleus’ entertainment for six years. “That’s what sets us apart from other clubs with jazz.”

It was this kind of unique presentation that owners Bruce and Katherine Veniero had in mind when they became partners here in 1976.

“We wanted to have a place that was like Old Hollywood, a supper club with dancing and jazz music,” said Katherine Veniero, 48, in her behind-the-bandstand office.

That’s just why Jesse and Stacy Sharf, who were one of the those couples on the floor for “Corcovado,” come to the club, which is reached from the street via a meandering hallway lined with promotional shots of such film stars and jazz greats as Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart, Thelonious Monk and Dexter Gordon.

“We’ve been here four or five times,” said Jesse Sharf, an attorney. “I love the music, and the dancing, though I don’t dance very well.”

“I like just getting out,” said Stacy Sharf, mother of their 17-month-old. “I enjoy having dinner while I’m listening to the music.”

The fact that people head for the dance floor when he plays the Nuance is no problem for Verquiero, who has worked the room for about three months.

“We play what we want and our Brazilian music, samba music, makes people feel like dancing. I like that,” the pianist, who is from Sao Paolo and has been in Los Angeles about a year, said during the break.

Carolina, 33, also from Sao Paolo, likes working for a multicultural audience. Indeed, looking around the nightclub one saw a mixture of ethnic groups.

“Here we have a chance to feel the effect of our music on an audience from a foreign country,” said the singer. “It’s what you leave home for, to see how your music touches other people.”

The nightspot on that Friday was a far cry from the Nucleus Nuance that original owner Rudi Marshall opened in 1967, Katherine Veniero said.

“It was just one small room in the back--there was a photo studio where the Club Room is--and people sat on folding chairs at Formica-topped tables and ate Chef Rudy’s food off paper plates, drank wine, if they brought it, out of paper cups,” Veniero said.

Then the Venieros--who met at the Nucleus in 1969, when Katherine was a waitress and Bruce a customer, and married three years later--became partners with Marshall.

“We bought the building, redecorated the back room, then eventually knocked down the wall and built the Club Room and added music,” she said. The Venieros became sole owners when they purchased Marshall’s part of the business two years ago.

For a while, the room was a well-kept secret that drew celebrities who sought anonymity. “Jack Nicholson, Joni Mitchell, Warren Beatty, Elizabeth Taylor, Martha Raye, Herbie Hancock, they helped us get off the ground,” Katherine Veniero said.

Then, people used to ask her what the club’s name meant. They still do. “It was given to the room by a friend of Rudy’s and it means the ‘Center of Subtle Change,’ ” she said.

The music policy hasn’t much changed since the Venieros arrived in the late ‘70s. “We like jazz-based entertainment, with some Latin or R&B; thrown in,” Veniero said.

An entertainment charge of $5 is imposed Friday-Saturday in the Club Room and bar, and Sundays through Thursdays in the Club Room for those not having dinner. Those not dining are asked to observe a two-drink minimum.

There’s a full bar, with well drinks averaging $4.75, and premium and blended drinks averaging $6. Bottled beer is $4.50, wine by the glass ranges from $4.50 to $6, and cognac ranges from $8 to $22. There’s a good selection of wine by the bottle, ranging from a Robert Mondavi 1989 Chenin Blanc, $18, to a Louis Roededer 1983 or 1985 “Cristal,” $140.

Veniero insisted that the Nuke is a “full-fledged restaurant” and the number of people dining seemed to confirm her assertion. The compact, one-page menu offers appetizers--such as the Nuance hamburger--pastas, entrees including a salmon souffle--a specialty of Marshall’s--and New York steak, and a variety of made-from-scratch desserts.

If you eat here, you’re not required to dance, but you’ll probably have more fun if you do.