Marisol Follows Its Own Beat : Clubs: For years, the Latin hot spot in Chula Vista has thrived on word of mouth. Its mix of jazz, salsa and other music shows why.
Nine years ago, George Villasenor got tired of the bad treatment he received from several local club owners. He decided to open a club to showcase his band, and today Marisol, the place he runs with his wife, has become one of Chula Vista’s hot spots for live Latin music.
Marisol, named after Villasenor’s wife, offers a weekly menu of live Latin jazz, salsa, merengue, cumbia and even norteno, the plaintive, polka-influenced Mexican folk music.
If you haven’t heard of Marisol, you’re not alone. For years, the club thrived on word of mouth and only recently began print advertising in an attempt to diversify its already sizable following. It’s a popular place.
The main attractions at Marisol are a large hardwood dance floor and an elevated stage that showcases live Latin music, especially Villasenor’s nine-piece group, Colour. On Friday and Saturday nights, upward of 300 people pack the club to shake out the week’s tensions with Colour.
Marisol is a labor of love for the Villasenors, who also hold full-time day jobs.
George Villasenor studied music at San Diego State University and has led his own large bands, always including horn sections, for more than 20 years. By 1983, he was tired of the way musicians were treated in most clubs and decided to open his own.
“The owners treated you like--not right,” he said. “I used to get tired of being pushed around. So one day, I just said to my wife, ‘Let’s open our own club.’ Eventually we did.”
Villasenor’s first bands during the early 1970s played the music of Chicago, Blood Sweat & Tears and Santana.
Today, he still enjoys rock, but Colour specializes in Latin. Villasenor plays trumpet, trombone and congas and sings backup vocals. A typical set might include covers of tunes by Little Joe y La Familia, Oscar DeLeon and Celia Cruz, as well as some Top 40 and whatever else the crowd--usually a multiethnic blend of people ranging from 25 to 55--wants to hear.
“We can do anything from Top 40 to salsa to mariachi to Glenn Miller,” Villasenor said. “Some people get bored listening to the same kind of music all night.”
Admission to Marisol, at Broadway and Main Street, is $6. Besides Colour at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, Marisol offers salsa on Wednesday nights with deejay Julio Martinez, and norteno on Thursday nights and Sunday afternoons. Call 429-8045 for more information.
Former San Diego singer Kevyn Lettau’s new release--her first for the JVC Music label--finds her rising to new levels of confidence, range and emotional nuance.
Several songs on “Simple Life,” released today, find Lettau, who now lives in Los Angeles, tapping a low end of her voice that she hasn’t used on earlier recordings. The result is a throatier, powerful, mature sound.
Produced by Lettau’s husband, Michael Shapiro, and former San Diegan Marcel East, the new recording is also Lettau’s most sophisticated production to date. Her voice blends smoothly with thoughtful, intricate instrumental and vocal arrangements.
Some of the songs are bright, romantic, upbeat and funky, probably destined to become hit radio material. Among these are “We Know the Way by Heart” and “Take a Look,” the latter co-written by Lettau, Shapiro and East.
But the collection also includes some successful risks, such as Lettau’s remake of the Joni Mitchell song, “People’s Parties.” Lettau’s version begins with her a cappella vocal of the opening stanza, before an Afro-Caribbean percussion section rumbles in, driving the music steadily forward while serving as dramatic counterpoint to Lettau’s voice. Thanks to the keyboard playing of Ken Rarick and Bill Cantos, the song takes on exotic, tropical textures reminiscent of the best music of Brazilian percussionist Airto Moreira and his wife, vocalist Flora Purim.
Lettau also delivers a respectable reading of Duke Ellington’s “Prelude to a Kiss,” a spare, emotional duo with bassist Brian Bromberg that closes out the CD.
“Simple Life” benefits from the presence of top guests including Russell Ferrante, Nathan and James East (Marcel’s brothers) and Tony Guerrero.
Lettau’s solo debut, “Kevyn Lettau,” released last year, had a polished, commercial sound that didn’t capture the full emotional and musical potential of Lettau’s singing. But “Simple Life” proves that sophisticated producing and arranging can go hand in hand with feeling. And Lettau’s vocal sophistication is growing by leaps and bounds.
RIFFS: Del Mar guitarist Peter Sprague plays on two cuts on pianist Dave Benoit’s new recording, “Waiting for Love,” due in October. Sprague describes the two songs as “chamber jazz--Bill Evans kind of stuff.” He said that Benoit and he developed a good chemistry in the studio, and Sprague hopes to play some dates with Benoit later this year. Sprague plans to begin recording his own new album later this month. . . .
Michael Hedges brings his appealing brand of acoustic guitar to Humphrey’s Concerts by the Bay Sunday night at 8. . . .
Top San Diego Latin band eSOeS, led by trumpeter Bill Caballero, appears Sunday nights from 7 to 10:30 in the Cargo Bar at the Hilton Hotel on Mission Bay. Caballero’s other group, Quien Sabe, plays Thursday night at Cafe Bravo in the Gaslamp Quarter downtown. Caballero also appears Saturday nights with Afro Rumba at Croce’s downtown. . . .
Next Saturday afternoon from 1 to 2, KSDS-FM’s (88.3) “Portrait in Jazz” will feature the music of George Gershwin.
CRITIC’S CHOICE
STEVE KUHN AT HORTON
Construction noise in the background testified to some major changes for pianist Steve Kuhn. He moved this summer from a condo on Long Island to Westchester County, N.Y., where he is remodeling a big house on an acre with longtime girlfriend Ellen Feldman, also his publicist.
“This is quite a stretch for me, moving in with Ellen and her two kids, owning a house, being responsible for everything,” Kuhn, 54, said by phone, as workers hammered away on a new studio, where he hopes to park his grand piano soon. “Essentially, we’re living on a construction site. I’m looking forward to getting out and doing this little tour.”
Kuhn plays the Horton Grand Hotel in downtown San Diego this Friday and Saturday before heading to the Bel Age in West Hollywood on Oct. 1, 2 and 3.
Kuhn’s most recent recordings are “Live at Maybeck Recital Hall, Vol. 13” and a live recording made at New York’s Village Vanguard in 1986. Both came out last year.
Although Kuhn is generally pleased with his playing of late, he stops short of contentment.
“I’m super-critical of myself,” said Kuhn, who is known for the subtle dynamic and tonal control he exercises over a piano, and for interweaving subtle rhythm nuances with warm melodic improvisations. “There used to be a time when I never listened to my own recordings. Probably that last batch, from the last 10 years, is the first time I can listen and not cringe. I think they’re decent records, certainly, but I’m not the one to ask about how good they are.”
However, Kuhn, whose roughly 20 releases as a leader date back to the 1965 “Three Waves,” did offer opinions as to other pianists who make the grade.
“I can look back on my influences,” he said. “Some Art Tatum recordings were incredible, those still raise the hair on the back of my neck, his solo recordings especially. Records I grew up listening to, Bud Powell--the good Bud Powell, when he was together, the stuff he did in the ‘50s . . . Erroll Garner, Horace Silver, Wynton Kelly.”
In his own career, Kuhn has long favored trios. This weekend, he’ll be joined by San Diegans Jim Plank on drums and Bob Magnusson on bass.