Bursting With Talent, With Clients From Here to Africa : Artists: Falk & Morrow of Solana Beach defies the stereotype of the “10 percenter.” It began by trial and error.

The storied image of a high-powered talent agency includes manic hustle-bustle; loud, vituperative telephone exchanges; volleys of trade lingo between banks of paper-laden desks and a harried exec buried up to his loosened necktie in photos of clients.

In most ways, the honeycomb of offices occupied by Falk & Morrow Talent in Solana Beach does not qualify for that B-movie stereotype. On a recent weekday afternoon, there was no loud hum of activity. Instead, indistinct sounds emanating from various alcoves pooled into little more than a murmur in the lobby of the agency’s modestly appointed suite, next door to the Belly Up Tavern.

The offices themselves are sparse, practical, equipped for efficiency. Casually dressed employees, visible behind walls and partitions, are absorbed in individual tasks. Tables, desks, and passageways are cluttered with trade publications and projects in various stages of completion. Everything about the place signals “low key.”

But, in this case, outward appearances conceal a great deal. Falk & Morrow, which began seven years ago as a trial-and-error shingle agency run by principals Malcolm (Mac) Falk and Kevin Morrow, has made its mark on the concert industry by diligently booking tours on behalf of 21 clients. Four agents and a support staff of seven ensure steady employment for a roster of critically acclaimed artists--including former Rolling Stone guitarist Mick Taylor, R&B; vocalist Otis Clay, Zimbabwean musician Thomas Mapfumo, and reggae star Eek-A-Mouse--thus keeping the firm’s name on the lips of promoters, venue owners and managers throughout the world.

Success and industry status, however, appear to have had little superficial effect on the company’s founders. Dressed more for a barbecue than for the rigors of entertainment brokering, Falk (an avid surfer) and Morrow recently borrowed time from a busy day to discuss their firm’s evolution and future.

Although one imagined their Hollywood counterparts conducting such table-talk at tony watering holes like Musso and Frank’s or Spago’s, Falk and Morrow chose a favorite, nondescript Mexican cafe wedged into a quiet residential neighborhood near their office. The waiter, recognizing them, automatically brought two baskets of tortilla chips, and Falk ordered his “usual.” Morrow, 38, outlined the major difference between the North Coast company and other “boutique” agencies.

“We’re the only ones in town representing artists on an international level,” Morrow said in a voice whose huskiness has been exacerbated by almost constant phone conversation. “Other than Bill Silva, we’re the only ones doing multi-city talent- booking. Aside from the major talent agencies--William Morris, Triad, ICM--there are probably only five independent, privately owned companies like ours in the whole country.”

In recent months, Morrow has booked tour itineraries that have kept several of the company’s acts crisscrossing the globe, from Japan to Australia to England to Scandinavia. On occasion, he travels with the artists in the capacity of road manager.

Morrow claimed that an important factor in the talent agency’s success is the familial link that enables the agency to draw on the expertise of those involved in his and Falk’s other, separate concerns, which otherwise remain independent of each other.

For example, Falk’s corporate umbrella, Mac International Inc., includes such discrete business entities as Malcolm Falk’s Office (MFO), Third Ear Recording Studio (located behind the Belly Up), and Earza Music Publishing. MFO’s operatives--Falk, Burt Newman, and Alan Yates--monitor the pulse of the club market by buying talent for the Belly Up, Winston’s, and the B Street Cafe in San Diego; the Hard Rock Cafe in Tijuana, and both the Palomino Club and Club Lingerie in L.A.

Meanwhile, Morrow’s own Kingbee Management, which handles the careers of the Five Blind Boys of Alabama Gospel group, local band the Paladins, and blues musician Charlie Musselwhite, keeps the company attuned to the special needs of the artist.

The independent but symbiotic relationship among the partners’ involvements enables them simultaneously to work several angles of the music business, thereby remaining current as to the requisites of each. But, when asked to enumerate the reasons for the company’s success, both principals place simple business acumen somewhere down the list.

“I got a call the other day from Rod Stewart’s management company, and this guy was pitching a band for us to book, called the Beauties,” Morrow said. “I asked him why he was coming to us, when there’s Triad and ICM and all these big firms. He said, ‘I know an agency like yours is going to work your ass off for your clients.’ ”

“Plus, we’re honest,” the 41-year-old Falk said, picking up the thread. “You hear all these stories about sleazy agents, but I don’t think anyone who’s dealt with us feels that way about us. Most of the club owners and the acts like us.”

Falk and Morrow agreed that they’re “not just another bunch of ‘10-percenters,’ ” a derogatory term referring to agents who do little to earn their commissions.

“I think we’re different because our close ties to the Belly Up as buyers, and the fact that we have a diverse creative community under one roof make us sensitive to all areas of the business,” Falk said. “And there’s our longevity; we’ve been doing this for seven years, and sooner or later people notice.”

Falk & Morrow Talent, which almost accidentally brought together two people from different backgrounds, hasn’t always attracted attention.

As a kid growing up in Orange County, Morrow loved music and bought records every day. His first taste of entrepreneurship came in 1969, when he was a high school student in Costa Mesa. Morrow promoted a “block party” in front of his house, featuring local bands, but the event generated its own momentum.

“We flyered the beaches and everything, and on the day of the show the police pulled our permit to block off the street,” he recalled. “We ended up drawing 1,500 people, who had to try to squeeze onto three adjacent lawns. The Costa Mesa riot squad patrolled back and forth to make sure everyone stayed off the street, but things got out of hand, and there was a riot. That was my first experience with promoting concerts, and I loved it.”

More stabs at concert promotion followed, but, at the time, Morrow was playing baseball and hoping to pursue a career as a major league first baseman. After playing for Orange Coast College, Morrow went on to play with a Class A minor-league team at Tri-Cities, Wash. A shouting match with the manager over what Morrow considered the unfair promotion of Carmine (son of Luis) Aparicio led to Morrow quitting baseball.

In 1983, Morrow moved to San Diego, and, with a partner, founded the San Diego Blues Society to promote blues shows at places like the Mandolin Wind, in Hillcrest.

“I paid a couple of teen-agers $50 a gig for the use of their sound equipment at our shows,” Morrow remembered. “These kids had a band, called the Paladins, and I’d sneak them into the Mandolin Wind, so they could hear their idols, such as Albert Collins and Jimmy Rogers. Tom Moore, who at the time was a bouncer at the Belly Up, told me that the Paladins were pretty good, but I wasn’t interested.”

One night in 1985, Morrow heard the Paladins open a show for the Blasters at the Adams Avenue Theatre. He was interested.

“They blew my mind,” he said. “After that, I went over to (Paladins guitarist) Dave Gonzales’ house. They’d never really been on the road. Dave said, ‘Man, we really need someone to manage us and book us--why don’t you try it,’ and he throws a book of phone numbers at me. So, I sat in his living room and started dialing, and that afternoon I booked three gigs for them. I thought, ‘Whoa, this is easy!’ ”

Falk, a native of Fullerton, began playing piano at age 8, and later played trombone and tuba in junior high school big bands. When the Beatles hit, Falk switched his interest to electric bass and played in a succession of rock bands. After high school, Falk started doing production work for other Orange County bands, and eventually landed a staff producer’s job at the Eldorado recording studios, across the street from the Capitol Records building in Hollywood.

In 1972, Falk and his family moved to San Diego’s North County, where Falk began studying recording engineering. Soon after, he was helping such artists as singer-songwriter Jack Tempchin and Jerry McCann with their recording projects. In time, he opened his own studio--first in Solana Beach and then in Olivenhain--and stayed in that business until 1980. With the failure of a project in which Falk had made a substantial investment, he was left to look for an additional source of income.

“(Club owner) Dave Hodges had hired me to do the sound for the few shows at the Belly Up that featured national acts, like Maria Muldaur and Elvin Bishop,” Falk said. “When I needed more regular work, Dave offered me a job as a staff promoter and talent-buyer--he literally threw a trade book across the room to me. I threw it right back, because I wasn’t interested. I wanted to stay on the artistic side of things.”

But to support his family, Falk eventually capitulated, and even moved his recording studio into a spare room at the Belly Up. While Morrow was running his blues shows and managing the Paladins, Falk was trying to get financial backing to form a company, Team Ear, with Hodges and Charles Akins, owner of Sound West, then the largest sound company in San Diego. When backing didn’t materialize, Falk decided to look for individual partners for each of several projects. Bouncer Moore introduced him to Morrow, who, by then, had decided he wanted to do agency work, and Falk & Morrow Talent was born.

“Kevin worked his ass off learning the ropes,” Falk said.

“But Mac was the catalyst,” Morrow countered. “We were small and struggling, handling primarily blues acts--the Paladins, Little Charlie and the Nightcats, Joe Louis Walker. I didn’t really know what I was doing, so for a while I was more like Mac’s assistant. It was on-the-job training, and I did everything wrong. I didn’t know the terminology, or how to talk to club owners to negotiate a deal, or how to judge the market, or how to take care of the details as far as what a band needed while they were out on the road.”

“It was also more time-intensive than it should have been,” Falk added. “We’d put a band on the road, then we’d do what a manager and a publicist would do--call the newspapers, radio stations, and record stores in various cities to drum up interest in the band. Agents don’t really do that stuff. We had a couple of tours that didn’t go well--one with the Rebel Rockers, another with Talk Back.”

Morrow laughed at the recollection.

“When we would hire someone to help, it would be just because they needed a job,” Morrow said. “But, after a year or two, things started to click. Now, we hire people who have had five or six years of experience doing this, and because they’re younger, we’ve been branching out. Today, we have a number of world-music acts and contemporary rock acts.”

In 1988, Del Mar resident Chris Goldsmith joined the agency. He now books artists throughout the West Coast and western Canada, and manages the Bonedaddys through his own Solid Gold Management. In the past 18 months, two more agents have relocated to the area to work for Falk & Morrow. Diana Martinez, from Chicago, books the Midwest, South, and Mountain States. Michael Wood, who specialized in world music at an agency in Washington, D.C., handles the Great Lakes region, Northeast and eastern Canada.

“Including me, we now have four people who plug in their (telephone) headsets at 10 in the morning and don’t take them off until 6 in the evening,” Morrow said. “No lunch. We’re each making 100 calls a day. I get in at 7:30 a.m. in order to call Europe, and I usually don’t leave until 7:30 at night.”

The company is planning even more expansion.

“We’re talking about forming a partnership with a group of guys in Europe, so we could have offices in London,” Morrow said. “And, we’re planning to set up a new department to handle immigration problems that face incoming artists. You’d be surprised at the number of acts from Africa and elsewhere who have to cancel shows here because they can’t get into the country.

“We have someone in L.A. who handles that for us now, and she’s been so successful that we’re going to start our own immigration service, both for ourselves and for other agencies,” Morrow continued. “That could be really big.”