Local Band Trying to Master Soukous Music From Africa

What began as a spirited but directionless jam two years ago has evolved into Bitoto, a San Diego band hoping to land a recording contract with its rapidly improving rendition of Zairean soukous music.

Bitoto will be featured with another African-based band, Sankofa, at 8 p.m. tonight at the “Jazz Live” concert presented by KSDS-FM (88.3) at the San Diego City College Theater on C Street. The group also has several dates this weekend.

Both groups are commonly labeled “World Music,” but KSDS Music and Public Affairs Director Phyllis Hegeman sees tonight’s show, which will be broadcast live on KSDS, as a logical extension of the station’s jazz mission.

“Jazz evolved from Africans and African rhythms and music,” she said. “We’re inviting African bands to play some of the music from which jazz arose.”

Three months ago, Bitoto’s sound began to improve dramatically with the addition of Zairean singers Madjo Abdullah, Freddie Basembe and Dido Tshibangu, and its date book began filling fast.

Soukous is upbeat, Zairean dance music built around major chords. It features intertwining, repeated melody lines produced by voices and guitars, layered over dense rhythms delivered by hard-working percussion sections.

Bitoto’s members make an unlikely mix. Along with the Zairean singers, the group includes the sister and brother guitar combination of Leslie and Lew Cohen.

Lew Cohen, a founding member of the group, showed up at an audition in response to a classified ad placed by a musician known around town as Bongo Man, who has since left to pursue reggae. At the time, Cohen had never heard soukous, and he bought a sampler album to bone up. The music was an initial culture shock, since Cohen spent his teen years honing his guitar after Yes and other cerebral rock bands.

But Cohen got hooked on soukous, and eventually lured his guitar-slinging sister into the band as well. He thinks the group has a legitimate shot at success.

“There are a couple of things in our favor toward becoming a national act,” he said. “In America, the African guys who play soukous come mostly during the summer, and it’s very expensive for them to come from Paris (where many African musicians live) or Africa.

“We can tour extensively to back our recordings. Our goal is to become an international act. We haven’t begun trying to adapt the music to American tastes yet, but we will. Our first goal was to learn to play very authentic soukous.”

This weekend, the band’s nine members will scramble to meet a busy schedule: they’ll play Saturday afternoon at 1 at Fourth Avenue and J Street downtown as part of the Avenue of the Arts street fair, and again Saturday from 3 to 4:30 as part of the Celebrate the Americas festival at the Americas Cup International Center at Broadway and Pacific Highway downtown.

On Sunday, Bitoto will be in Solana Beach for the Fiesta Del Sol festival, at the foot of Lomas Santa Fe Drive, where it meets the beach, hitting the stage at 6:30 p.m. On July 17, the band will appear at Magee Park in Carlsbad as part of the city’s summer outdoor jazz series.

This weekend, the Jazz Note in Pacific Beach celebrates its first birthday. For the occasion, club owner Steve Satkowski is presenting an all-star group of pianist Cedar Walton, drummer Billy Higgins, bassist Tony Dumas and vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson.

Satkowski counts the first year a success, with artists such as Pharoah Sanders, Joe Henderson, Tom Scott, Laurindo Almeida, Eric Marienthal and John Patitucci drawing full or near-full houses at the 80-seat room.

During that time, the club has built a reputation for respecting the music and musicians. Unlike most other clubs, this one offers “no blender, no ice machine, no glass washing, or even a bar in the main room,” Satkowski notes. Which means all you hear is music.

The demise of Elario’s as a venue for internationally known acts at the end of last year, and the Jazz Note’s no-smoking policy, are two factors contributing to growing attendance, Satkowski says.

Working against him, he surmises, may be his location. After all, Pacific Beach is not known as a jazz hot spot.

Among new marketing tactics under consideration for year two: weekly nights for jazz fans under 21, which could lure whole families; drinks named after top players; and increased emphasis on gourmet coffees and juices over wines and mixed drinks.

Show times are 8 and 10 this Friday and Saturday nights, and 7 and 9 on Sunday night.

RIFFS: Nigerian percussionist Najite Agindotan plays Rusefest’92 Saturday night at 8 at the Marquis Public Theater. Agindotan and his 10-piece ensemble, Une Igede, offer an eclectic brand of African-based music which Agindotan says embraces jazz, reggae, country, funk and blues. Among the tools in his percussive arsenal: congas and various authentic African drums, including ozun and kanago (the talking drum). . . . Pop-jazz saxman Richard Elliot plays the Champagne Jazz series at the Culbertson Winery in Temecula at 4 p.m. Sunday. . . . Los Angeles Times jazz critic Leonard Feather, also a composer and arranger for Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Count Basie, will talk about his work at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library in La Jolla.

CRITIC’S CHOICE: VETERAN JAZZ GUITARIST KESSEL AT THE GRAND

He has “offers on the table,” but internationally known San Diego-based jazz guitarist Barney Kessel is in no hurry to jump at one just for the sake of making a new recording.

“I can’t just look at it from ego and say, ‘Gee, I get to make an album,’ ” Kessel said.

Instead, he asks the tougher questions.

“Is it going to go anywhere? Will there be distribution? Can the company sell it? Will you get the money?” The questions are spoken with the practical wisdom of a man who has been playing jazz guitar since the late 1930s and has little left to prove.

So, while you won’t hear a new release from Kessel anytime soon, you can catch him Friday and Saturday nights at the Horton Grand Hotel downtown--his first time there and a rare local date on a predominantly overseas touring schedule that will take him to Europe in June and July. Kessel will team with bassist Bob Maize, a longtime associate, and drummer Larance Marable.

An evening with Kessel is always entertaining. Not only can he knock the socks off any brat-pack guitarists around--both in speed, and in harmonic and melodic inventiveness--but his shows are always sprinkled with good-humored recollections from his many years in jazz. If you miss him this weekend, you can catch Kessel May 29 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel as part of an all-star tribute to Ella Fitzgerald.