Orange County. The Year Ahead : The Jazz Scene Offers Plenty, and Yet, It Could Be Better

Orange County jazz fans are fortunate. The opportunities to hear and see a diverse range of what’s nowadays considered jazz--performances ranging from sizzling, beat-heavy fusion sessions to foot-stomping Dixieland revivals--overshadow those of other West Coast metropolitan areas, places that claim to be jazz hot spots (take that , San Francisco, Portland and Seattle).

Let’s take a minute and count those blessings. One reason for the abundance of jazz riches at our door is our proximity to Los Angeles. This past year, we got to hear some of the top Los Angeles- and Orange County-based studio and fusion musicians on a regular basis at El Matador in Huntington Beach, as well as a sampling of intriguing big bands that can’t seem to find Los Angeles venues willing to host them. Not many people outside Orange County get a chance to see the likes of saxophonist Wilton Felder, drummer Alphonse Mouzon or keyboardist David Benoit in such intimate surroundings.

Likewise, we frequently have the opportunity to see Los Angeles- and locally based musicians who make the bulk of their living on the bandstand rather than doing session work; the same people who pop up in well-known clubs in Burbank, Hollywood and West Los Angeles. Vocalists such as Yve Evans and Dee Dee McNeil make regular appearances at the Cafe Lido in Newport Beach, often paired with promising such musicians as saxophonist Wayne Wayne or keyboardist Peggy Duquesnel.

Chick Corea band saxophonist Eric Marienthal plays a regular Wednesday gig at the Studio Cafe in Balboa (when he’s not on the road), while seasoned drummer Chiz Harris brings in an experienced combo, usually including saxophonist Jay Migliori, keyboardist Joe Lettieri and bassist Isla Eckinger, every Saturday night. In the last year, trumpeter Jack Sheldon and trombonist Bill Watrous played the lounge as part of a new jazz series at Maxwell’s in Huntington Beach, and saxophonist Bill Cooper and fluegelhornist Shorty Rogers played Gustaf Anders restaurant in Santa Ana with Orange County-based keyboardist Les Czimber’s trio.

Concerts at the Orange County Performing Arts Center (Branford Marsalis, Eliane Elias, Chick Corea Elektric Band) provide a chance to see big names in a big hall. Then there’s the summer series sponsored by KLON-FM and the Hyatt Newporter, which brought Louie Bellson, Tal Farlow, Gerald Wiggins to the hotel’s outdoor amphitheater (the station has begun making plans for the ’92 series). KLON’s first annual jazz festival, held in conjunction with A Taste of Orange County, brought in European composer, arranger and conductor Rob Pronk and a host of big-name soloists, including Art Farmer.

Add to this the performers with national, sometimes international, reputations that infrequently appear at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano (Wynton Marsalis, Gato Barbieri) and less often at Anaheim’s Celebrity Theatre (Al Jarreau, Jean-Luc Ponty), concerts sponsored by colleges (James Newton, Poncho Sanchez and Freddie Hubbard at UC Irvine), and periodic festivals dedicated to the likes of Count Basie and Stan Kenton, and you have a well-rounded diet of jazz. To quote the old song, who could ask for anything more?

Well, me for one. The one thing we lack in Orange County is a venue to rival Catalina Bar & Grill in Hollywood or Elario’s in San Diego: places that bring in nationally known musicians, both East and West Coast-based, for more than a one-night stand. While its worth the trouble driving to Hollywood to see such musicians as keyboardists McCoy Tyner, Ahmad Jamal, Kenny Kirkland and Cedar Walton, trumpeter Arturo Sandoval or drummer Elvin Jones, the time has come for Orange County to have its own jazz corner of the world. Judging from the crowds that turn out here to see the better-known acts, Orange County looks ripe for such a venue. Any takers?

Looking ahead, it appears that there will be new music venues in the county, but still none with the kind of ambitious booking found at Catalina or Elario’s. The sign has just gone up on Mucho Gusto in Costa Mesa, a restaurant-club scheduled to open sometime in February. General manager George Gallardo says the music policy will be much the same as at his other establishment, El Matador in Huntington Beach, where bassist Luther Hughes is the music director.

The long-promised Bay Colony Restaurant on Campus Drive in Newport Beach is scheduled to open sometime this spring, according to general manager Ken Golden, and will feature jazz from locally and Los Angeles-based musicians as well as the occasional outside performer three to five nights a week.

Now, if someone would only open a club that featured nationally and internationally known touring musicians--a place like Catalina, the Vine St. Bar & Grill, Elario’s or Yoshi’s in the Bay Area or the Jazz Alley in Seattle. The Orange County scene would be second to none.

People to Watch When guitarist Russ Freeman’s band, the Rippingtons, included Jeff Kashiwa on its latest recording “Curves Ahead,” the Orange County-based saxophonist at last got the kind of national exposure he deserves. Kashiwa’s playing on club dates at El Matador and elsewhere, like his work with the Rippingtons, is pointed and full of emotion while building on a fine narrative style. Catch him locally while you can.

Orange County jazz fans know Peggy Duquesnel for her strong keyboard work, heard often in these parts with the bands of saxophonist Wayne Wayne and guitarist Ric Flauding as well as the group N’Color and Joyspring, the electric band she leads with her guitarist-husband Dave Murdy. But recently, thanks to a number of appearances under her own name and the release of her self-produced recording “Old Friends,” Duquesnel has established herself as a warm, sometimes-complex composer. Though no recording company has yet picked up the disc, Duquesnel’s talents make her ripe for a major-label contract.

“I’m a person who loves to cover all the bases,” guitarist Dave Murdy told us recently, and his first recording, “That Goes to Show Ya!” on the San Diego-based Time Is label, proves the point, covering bop, boogie and bossa nova. But Murdy also transcends the usual jazz categories, adding his rich, upfront sound to the fusion ensemble Kilauea (he’s on their soon-to-be-released “Brainchild” album) and the alternative-rock band, the Strange. Murdy has the talent and drive to follow in the footsteps of such well-known guitarists as John Scofield and Steve Kahn.

When Minimum 3, the quartet led by drummer Evan Stone and guitarist Gannin Arnold, opened for the Chick Corea Akoustic Band at the Coach House last year, it showed it could handle straight-ahead sounds as well as the fusion material for which the band is best known. The group will record its first album in February, and Arnold, who writes all of the band’s material, says it will be working from a Pat Metheny influence with Brazilian touches. Both Stone and Arnold are 20 years old; both are accomplished beyond their years.