Veteran Trombonist Goes Solo at Local Country Clubs

Bass trombonist George Roberts is enjoying life as a country gentleman since escaping Los Angeles for Fallbrook 3 1/2 years ago.

Roberts played with Gene Krupa’s and Stan Kenton’s big bands and has contributed to projects ranging from several Frank Sinatra albums to the movie soundtracks of “Jaws” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”

He also spent significant portions of the last four decades with Nelson Riddle’s Orchestra, and he still plays the occasional big band date, such as this Sunday night at the Hotel del Coronado with Dan Terry’s Big Band.

But Roberts, 64, says he gets the most satisfaction these days from the occasional, bare-bones, one-man shows he takes to country club stages, where he sets up a tape machine and plays along on some of his favorite tunes, often romantic ballads.

This may sound like little more than high-end karaoke, but Roberts is having a ball and says audiences respond with great enthusiasm. His tapes are intended for this purpose, with space left for a lead instrument. Roberts fills the openings with his rich, warm, vibrato-laden sound.

“I’ve got about 70 or 75 tapes I can play along with, plus about 300 or 350 of Sinatra and things that go way back,” he enthused. “I like doing the country clubs. I can get into it, talk to people. I even play five things from ‘Phantom of the Opera.’ ”

Roberts, who grew up modeling his sound after trombone titans such as Urbie Green, Tommy Dorsey and Jack Teagarden, views his potentially cumbersome horn as an extremely expressive tool.

“It’s probably the most vocal of all the horns,” he said. “What I’m doing is almost a sing-along. I try to teach my students to sing on their horns, and they really love it when they find out they can do something. That used to be the way we all learned, to try to play a song nicely. No one teaches that way anymore. They teach out of books, they teach you to play a lot of notes. You don’t have to play a lot of notes, just a few that are right.”

Roberts began his music career as a grade-school clarinetist; he wanted to play trombone, but was told his arms were too short. Two years later, however, after constant nagging, his parents relented and bought him a trombone. He and the instrument have been inseparable since.

He started out on conventional trombone but switched to bass trombone after being blown away by Green when both men were in Krupa’s band. Roberts figured he could never top Green, so he switched to an instrument he could make his own, one that had seldom been exploited as a lead instrument.

In Fallbrook, Roberts is comfortably ensconced on a rural acre with his wife, Sue.

“We have two old English sheep dogs, and we’ve got plenty of room for them. My wife loves to garden. This is a great place to be, but it’s a helluva job to keep the weeds down when it rains!”

Roberts doesn’t have any one-man dates booked in San Diego County in the next few days, but he hopes to play some in the near future. Meanwhile, you can see him with Terry’s band at the Hotel Del this Sunday night from 6 to 10, or hear a portion of the show broadcast live on KSDS-FM (88.3) from 8 to 9.

If all goes as planned, San Diego will soon have a classy new rock-pop-blues-jazz venue in Pacific Beach. Potential new owners of Diego’s Mexican restaurant and disco are in escrow to buy the place out of bankruptcy by early April and transform it into Rumors, an Italian restaurant and 500-seat nightclub.

The potential owners hope to finish a major face lift on the club by June. But in the meantime, they are offering an early taste of the kind of music that will be in store. On April 2 and 3, violinist Papa John Creach will join the Jefferson Starship for two shows each night.

Steve Satkowski, who operates the 80-seat Jazz Note nightclub over Diego’s, will also book music for the larger room. Satkowski reports business is up 120% at his jazz club since opening.

Environmentalist Richard Phillips, who died last year, loved the Anza Borrego Desert. He also loved music, and he was close friends with Del Mar guitarist Peter Sprague. As a tribute to Phillips, his wife, Louise, commissioned Sprague to write a piece of music, and Sprague will unveil it as part of a desert concert at 2 p.m. Saturday.

Sprague used “A Lark Ascending,” a classical piece by Von Williams, as a point of departure for his “Canticle for Richard,” a composition that merges classical and jazz influences. The piece begins moody and minor, but soon soars into an uplifting major mode. It captures the spare, natural beauty of the desert, at its peak now with the spring wildflower season.

Sprague’s show is a benefit for the Anza Borrego Foundation, of which Phillips was a member. The organization was founded 25 years ago by environmentalists who wanted to preserve desert open space for future generations. The foundation has already purchased 17,000 desert acres as perpetual open space, and hopes to buy an additional 50,000 in the years ahead.

This weekend, Sprague will team with his brother Tripp on flute and San Diego guitarist Fred Benedetti, plus Peter Sprague’s band the Sonic Wizards. The concert will be held outdoors at Blair Valley. Take I-78 east from Julian. Blair Valley is six miles past Interstate 78’s junction with San Felipe Road. Tickets for Saturday’s show are $15. Call 767-5311 for more information.

RIFFS: San Diego jazz singer Cath Eckert plays a noon-hour set in the student lounge on the new Cal State San Marcos campus in San Marcos Thursday. For this tribute to Women’s History Month, Eckert will be joined by pianist Peggy Duquesnel and cellist Melissa Hafin. . . . Coming to the Jazz Note: Uncle Festive, Mar. 27, 28 and 29; Sam Riney, April 3, 4, 5; Joe Henderson, April 10, 11, 12; and Benny Carter, April 17, 18 and 19. . . . La Jolla drummer Chuckie McPherson, San Diego saxophonist Daniel Jackson and other jazz players from San Diego and Los Angeles will play for inmates at the R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility in Otay Mesa this Saturday. No tickets are available for the high-security show, not even through scalpers.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

POP-JAZZ KEYBOARDIST GOES ACOUSTIC

Keyboard player Dan Siegel is best known for the smooth light jazz that eases his recordings, like last year’s “Going Home,” to the top of radio charts. But this weekend, Siegel takes a break from his pop-jazz career to play straight-ahead acoustic jazz at the Jazz Note in Pacific Beach, backed by a trio of bass, drums and sax. Siegel says his sets this Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights will mix straight-ahead jazz standards with retooled versions of songs from his 12 light-jazz albums. Shows are at 8 and 10 Friday and Saturday nights, 7 and 9 on Sunday night.