S.D. Jazz Party Promises Plenty of Top-Notch Jams

If you like your jazz live, spontaneous and traditional, you’re in luck. Tickets still remain for the San Diego Jazz Party, the Jaguar of jazz jams.

The Party, to be held Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the bay-front San Diego Marriott downtown, features 26 top jazz players from across the country. Over the course of the weekend, they’ll take the stage in assorted combinations for spirited, 30-minute sets.

New to the Party this year are veteran reedmen (and Duke Ellington band alums) Norris Turney and Joe Temperly, along with trombonist Joel Helleny, leader of the house band at Condon’s, the legendary New York club.

Also new is a band that, by Jazz Party standards, must be considered radical. The Jazz Incredibles are a trio hailing from the Midwest, with an unconventional lineup of piano, banjo and sousaphone, a tuba-like horn rarely heard in jazz settings.

Returning to the Jazz Party after absences last year are pianist Ralph Sutton, guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli and bassist Bob Haggart, a former La Costan now living in Florida.

Rounding out the cast are top straight-ahead players such as Jay Leonhart, Dick Hyman, Butch Miles, Oliver Jackson, Joe Wilder, Ed Polcer, Flip Phillips, Bob Wilber, George Masso, Kenny Davern, Howard Alden--plus “The Judge,” 81-year-old bassist Milt Hinton.

Although no San Diego musicians will be in the regular jazz jam rotation, four locals will be a part of the Big Band to be featured at 8 Saturday night: trumpeters Gary Pack and Dave Greeno, and reedmen Pete De Luke and Irving Frank.

Unlike past years, when tickets (which are limited to 500) sold out weeks in advance, this year at least 50 tickets remain. Party organizer Beverly Muchnic blames the recession for the slower sales. With the rising cost of air fare and hotel rooms for the 26 players, Muchnic needs to sell all 500 tickets, at $135 each, to break even, she said. For Muchnic, this is a labor of love, not money. But if she loses money, she said this may be her last Jazz Party.

Muchnic took over as organizer in 1990. Her husband, Bill, a jazz fanatic, founded the Party in 1988 and presented the second Party in 1989. When he died in 1989, Muchnic, a classically trained flutist who was introduced to jazz by her husband, decided to carry on.

The Party will be held in the Marriott’s San Diego Ballroom, equipped with tables, drink service and a dance floor. Hours are 8 p.m. Friday to 12:30 a.m., 7:15 p.m. Saturday to 12:30, and noon to 6:30 Sunday. For more information, call 225-8966.

A new San Diego recording label called PAL plans to become the best friend of top-notch, upwardly mobile, local, Latin jazz players.

Founded last year by local keyboard player and commercial producer Allan Phillips, former New York advertising executive David Aikens and San Diego sound engineer Mario Lagsbartt, PAL plans to release its first two recordings on a limited, local basis next month.

One features San Diego guitarist Jaime Valle fronting a first-rate band including drummer Alex Acuna, saxman Ernie Watts and bassist Dwight Stones, plus keyboard player Carl Evans and percussionist Tommy Aros from the San Diego-based light jazz group Fattburger.

The other is a debut album from red-hot San Diego guitarist Bill McPherson’s band, World Beat.

A third recording is in the can and features Venezuelan harpist Carlos Guedes.

Although PAL is only pressing 1,000 CDs each of its initial releases, along with a few hundred cassettes, Phillips is confident the label will eventually spread San Diego-grown Latin jazz across the country.

“There’s a big chance for us to create a big thing here in San Diego,” he said. “There have been groups in town for a long time that haven’t had the support they need. Since I’m kind of on both sides, as a musician and producer, I’ve been able to see what’s going on elsewhere and what we lack.”

Phillips and his partners are taking an active role in shaping the contents and sound of the new recordings. For Valle’s new release, for example, they persuaded the guitarist to play all acoustic guitar instead of his usual electric, and the result is a more mellow sound.

Along with helping these artists crack the recording industry, Aikens hopes to use his advertising ties to help Latin musicians get commercial work. He said there is rapidly growing demand from U.S. corporations for advertising targeted toward a handful of cities that have huge concentrations of Latinos.

RIFFS: It may seem an unlikely co-billing: seasoned jazz singer Mel Torme and pop and stage singer Maureen McGovern. But McGovern was Torme’s choice for a six-week tour, which opened in Los Angeles on Saturday and stops at the Theatre East (at the East County Performing Arts Center) in El Cajon Thursday night at 8. The show is being billed as “The Great American Songbook.” Each singer will perform a solo set, with McGovern opening. Given her feel for a popular song, McGovern should make a good musical match with Torme when the two close the program together with an 18-minute Rodgers and Hart medley arranged by Torme. . . .

At the Jazz Note in Pacific Beach, club operator Steve Satkowski is once again indulging his flair for assembling promising all-star casts. Friday through Sunday, saxman and former Crusader Wilton Felder will lead a group that includes pianist Rob Mullins, drummer Ndugu Chancler and “Arsenio Hall Show” bassist John B. Williams. Satkowski is promising jazz with rumbling funk undercurrents.

CRITIC’S CHOICE: PETER SPRAGUE AT THE HORTON GRAND HOTEL

Del Mar guitarist Peter Sprague has had a close working relationship with Chick Corea for several years. He has played with Corea, and he has also transcribed much of Corea’s music for various songbooks.

Wednesday night at 8 at the Horton Grand Hotel downtown, Sprague will offer an evening of Corea’s music, joined by his brother, Tripp Sprague, on tenor and soprano saxes and flute, and bassist Bob Magnusson. Sprague loves music with a Latin feel, and has selected several Corea tunes with a south-of-the-border flavor. These include “Love Castle,” a samba from Corea’s album “My Spanish Heart;” “Duende,” a tune Corea recorded with Magnusson on bass; and “Bud Powell,” Corea’s tribute to the late, great be-bop pianist.

Sprague is using Wednesday and Feb. 12 to help re-immerse himself in music after a layoff due to tendinitis in a playing finger. On Feb. 12 he returns to the Horton Grand for an evening of music by fellow guitarist Pat Metheny.