Jazz Guitarist Has String of Engagements Despite Recession

As we all know, the current recession has more than legs. It’s got teeth, and it has taken a darn big bite out of the entertainment budgets of both nightclubs and nightclub-goers. In the midst of all this, the splendid jazz guitarist Ron Eschete thrives.

These days, Eschete’s dance card is almost full. He’s appearing on a regular basis with Gene Harris, the internationally popular pianist.

The guitarist steadily works such Orange County venues as Mucho Gusto and El Matador, where he’s been heard in the company of one of his idols, the legendary George Van Eps, the inventor of the seven-string guitar (most instruments are six-stringed). Eschete has trio dates coming up in July in several Westside locations. And each Wednesday he plays in a duo in the lounge of Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel in Santa Monica.

And while he may not be pushing wheelbarrows full of greenbacks to the bank as a result of all this employment, Eschete is certainly content.

“Hey, I’m doin’ all right. Money doesn’t mean that much to me,” he said. “I got into music to make music, and that’s my whole thing.” He says good fortune has followed him all his life.

Perhaps he’s being a bit too humble. Though not that well-known, Eschete, 41, a native of Houma, La., who lives in Downey, is one of the finest craftsmen on his instrument. His warm, emotional melodies and punchy, foot-tapping rhythms represent what’s at the heart of the appeal and aesthetic value of the mainstream jazz art form.

One person who thinks along these lines is vibist Charlie Shoemake, whose album “Strollin’ ” on CMG Records spotlights Eschete. “The kind of music that I play is not easy, and it’s hard to make it sound natural,” Shoemake said. “It takes a lot of passion and knowledge to make it happen, but Ron can do it and I love it. But Ron is also able to play more blues-oriented stuff, what you might call in a greasy style, and he makes that happen, too, and people love him for it.”

Eschete might be a bigger name in jazz if he weren’t a dedicated family man. He and his wife, Carol, have an 11-year-old son, Ron Jr. The guitarist received an opportunity two years ago to tour the world with pianist Harris’ Philip Morris Superband, but he turned the offer down. It would have been extremely lucrative and would have provided high visibility, but it involved lengthy traveling.

“I wanted, and want, to see my son grow up,” he said simply in an accent that’s part Southern drawl and part Louisiana French, suggesting his Cajun heritage.

And though Eschete may not be willing to go out on those long road trips for a while, he says he’s up for increased out-of-town activity with Harris. The pianist recently left bassist Ray Brown’s trio, of which he was arguably the drawing card, and has stepped out on his own with several dates in Boise, Ida., where he lives. And, he tells Eschete, there will be more to come, including the Concord Jazz Festival on July 31 and the Pasadena Jazz Festival on Aug. 9.

“I’m looking forward to it. I love Eugene. He’s one of my favorite people,” Eschete said. He played on Harris’ “Black and Blue” 1991 album, as well as on the upcoming “Like a Lover,” both done for Concord Jazz Records. “Gene plays with such a happy spirit--there’s nobody that has a feeling like his.”

Eschete’s last two solo albums are “Stump Jumper” and “Christmas Impressions,” both recorded in the mid-1980s for Bainbridge Records. He first started playing with Harris, the former star of the Three Sounds, in the late ‘70s, when the guitarist, who moved to California at age 18, lived in Orange County. Then Harris, tired of years on the road, would drive from his home in Los Angeles to Huntington Beach, where the two played five nights a week for several years in the now-defunct Hungry Joe’s.

Eschete’s tenure at Loews is another long one: He’s been at the hotel for close to three years. The playing area isn’t ideal--it’s off the lobby, so there’s no sense of enclosure, and people talk freely. Still, Eschete has come to truly enjoy his evenings there, in the company of either pianist Dan May, the hotel’s musical director, or his brother, bassist David May.

“The room has a good atmosphere. There’s a view of the ocean, and we always play quality music,” he said.

One more format that’s high on the guitarist’s list is playing in a trio with bassist Todd Johnson, who will join him July 17 and 18 at Pierre’s Los Feliz Inn in Los Angeles and on July 23 at the Club Brasserie in the Bel Age Hotel in West Hollywood. That configuration is one that exploits the possibilities of the guitarist’s custom-made seven-string guitar.

“The extra string allows me to play a bass line and a melody line or chords simultaneously, so that a little band can get an orchestral sound,” he said.

The way he looks at it, if he just keeps working at his instrument, his future will be as bright as his present. “I love what I do, and to get paid for it is even greater. I try to make sure the music that comes from me is pure. You have to be honest with yourself first, and then if something good happens from that, well, fine.”