A Quiet Time, a Quiet Place for Jazz

“Do you know that we’ve been here a year and we’ve never ever had to ask anyone not to speak?” boasts Ruth Price, singer and co-owner of the Jazz Bakery, a thrice-weekly jazz club located in what was once the garage in the old Helms Bakery off Venice Boulevard.

Indeed, throughout the evening’s performance by the Buddy Collette Trio, the audience--whose members show up Noah’s Ark-like in neatly dressed twosomes--is rapturously still, catching each crystalline note as it cascades off the stage. During the pauses, only breathing can be heard.

The high ceiling and generous volume of unobstructed space account for the acoustical clarity of the set. But it’s the absence of the usual base-line tumult generated by cruising waitresses and clinking cocktail glasses that creates an environment that discourages sonic interference.

And that’s as it should be. These jazzophiles--assembled in neat rows in front of the small stage--have come to listen.

The reason for this Spartan decor is that during the week this room still functions as the studio of photographer and Jazz Bakery co-owner Jim Britt.

It’s only on weekend evenings that the chairs are set up, the three urns filled with coffee, decaf and lemonade and the trays of sliced cake laid out.

“I don’t run a restaurant. There’s no liquor license. There’s nothing to sell,” says Britt, whose photo credits include a cover of Time and a number of Motown album covers. (His photos adorn the studio walls and are for sale.)

“The focus here is on entertainment. Afterward, people can go somewhere to eat, drink, make merry and be loud,” says Britt.

An admirer of Price’s singing style, Britt first approached her to take her picture. They began to chat. One thing, as they say, led to another.

“I don’t know if he took it seriously at the time,” Price says of their idea for a club. “But I went out and bought the rugs and the chairs and brought them here and he had to do it.”

A veteran jazz performer who’s clocked more than 40 years behind the mike, Price makes excellent use of her contacts, keeping the Jazz Bakery’s roster filled with first-tier entertainers.

“I’m able to do things like pick up the phone and call people like Tommy Flanagan, because I sang with them,” she explains. “If I tell them that it’s really gorgeous and they’ll have fun and they’ll be treated with great respect, that the piano is wonderful--it’s my piano, you know--then they believe me.

“Incidentally,” Price adds, now one year into running the club with Britt, “he’s still never taken my picture.”

What: The Jazz Bakery.

Where: 3221 Hutchinson Ave. (310) 271-9039.

When: Fridays and Saturdays; doors open at 8 p.m., show begins at 8:30. Sunday times vary.

Admission: $15 for most shows. Free beverages and cake.