Condon All-Stars Bring Their ‘Musicians’ Haven’ to Escondido : Concert: Band leader Ed Polcer was a regular at the hip New York hangout in the ‘50s and ‘60s.

Eddie Condon’s was a hip New York hangout for jazz players during the 1950s and ‘60s. Named for its owner, the prominent jazz guitarist, the club developed a reputation as a musicians’ haven. On any given night, top names in jazz might wander in for a drink and even take the stage for a spontaneous song or two.

Cornet player Ed Polcer spent many a night playing in bands at Condon’s, and tonight at 7:30, he fronts the seven-piece Condon All-Stars in a show at the Escondido Adventist Academy, the second in a series of four concerts being presented by Hidden Valley Community Concerts, a nonprofit organization.

Condon’s closed when Condon died in 1973, but Polcer and a partner, bassist Red Balaban, bought the rights to the name and ran their own Condon’s from 1975 to 1985.

“People would come in and they’d never know who they would see,” Polcer said. “I can remember nights when half the Count Basie band was there. Joe Williams would come up to sing a couple tunes. Frank Sinatra came in frequently and Tony Bennett.

“It was a true musicians’ hangout. We gave special prices on drinks for musicians. When Red and I reopened it, we tried to not have a typical standoffish New York nightclub. We wanted to make it like our living room. If there was a mood created, it was like a jam session in your living room.

“All kinds of people would come in you wouldn’t suspect were jazz fans. Walter Cronkite, Alistair Cooke, Johnny Carson. This became an attraction for the regular people; they wouldn’t know who they’d see.”

Polcer, 55, is a seasoned player who has become a fixture on the traditional jazz festival circuit. He says the Condon All-Stars cover a range of jazz.

“We play traditional jazz, blues, ragtime, swing, Chicago style, Dixieland, Kansas City style. We try to show all the influences from the past on the music that we played for 10 years at Condon’s.”

While the music is traditional jazz--no be-bop or avant-garde--Polcer doesn’t see the Condon All-Stars as just nostalgia trippers.

“We’re not re-creating the past,” he said. “All of these little streams flow into the mainstream of jazz, and we consider it a valid thing as of right now. It’s like art--there’s room for realism and there’s room for modern art.”

Polcer and his six band mates will play two sets of their realistic jazz tonight. To attend, you must buy a ticket for the three remaining concerts in the Hidden Valley Community Concerts series. The other two shows in the series are a classical piano duet Jan. 25 featuring Stecher & Horowitz, and the Texas Boys Choir on March 22. Series tickets are $20. Call 746-0068 for more information. The Adventist Academy is at 1233 W. 9th Ave. in Escondido.

Rock ‘n’ rollers may have learned lots about breaking into the music business during the Independent Music Seminar earlier this month at the Marriott Hotel in Mission Valley, but at least one local jazz player was rubbed the wrong way by the event.

Drummer Chuck McPherson said he and his band, the Modern Jazz Disciples, were invited to play a free showcase concert at B Street California Grill & Jazz Bar downtown in connection with the seminar. McPherson says he was told by the event’s organizers that in exchange for appearing with his band at this IMS mixer--at no cost to the IMS--the jazz players would get to perform for an audience likely to include influential jazz recording label representatives.

“It was a waste of time,” said McPherson, who invited horn players Steve Baxter and Dale Fielder down from Los Angeles to bolster his group’s sound. “I was exploited and taken advantage of. Nobody was there from any record company. We just provided free entertainment while the B Street sold alcohol and these people sold plastic badges for the seminar. We didn’t even get a thank-you.”

Nearly 1,000 musicians paid $40 apiece to attend the weekend seminar, which offered insider tips on everything from music video production to making demo tapes.

Attendance at the first-ever Vallarta MusicFest Jazz ‘92, held Oct. 29 to Nov. 5, was less than expected, but San Diego promoter Ruben Seja, who booked all the acts, proclaimed it a success and says it will be held again next year.

A baker’s dozen of top Latin jazz bands descended on Puerto Vallarta to play a series of shows at 14 venues, including several large hotels.

The event got off to a slippery start when an opening-night street festival was rained out midway through, just before Encinitas saxman Anthony Ortega and San Diego guitarist Jaime Valle were about to play a tribute set to Stan Getz.

The biggest draws at the festival were three concerts held at an outdoor amphitheater at the Krystal Hotel, featuring such top players as Willie Colon, Dave Valentin, Robert Perera and Mongo Santamaria. Each drew about 700 fans (the promoters had hoped for 1,500). Colon turned in a burning performance despite a 104-degree fever.

RIFFS: Bassist Buster Williams is the main attraction Friday and Saturday nights at the Horton Grand Hotel downtown. San Diego pianist Mike Wofford is featured at the hotel Thursday night. . . . Jimmy Cheatham, co-leader of Jimmy and Jeannie Cheatham’s Sweet Baby Blues band, is taking early retirement after this term from his duties as a music professor at UC San Diego. He’ll continue to teach on a part-time basis.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

COLTRANE TRIBUTE

As a young jazz musician, San Diego saxophonist Charles McPherson admired John Coltrane, and even knew Coltrane when both men lived in the same New York City neighborhood. McPherson had not thought much about Coltrane’s music for several years, until he was asked by the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library in La Jolla to play in Thursday night’s tribute to Coltrane.

“I’m going to try to allude to certain periods of his career,” McPherson said. “Coltrane was a be-bop musician. Things he developed later are like a branch of the be-bop tree trunk. His music changed a couple times. There was his early period with Miles and on his own, during the middle and late ‘50s, and there was his modal period, where he used one tone center over an extended form as opposed to many harmonic progressions and changes.

“Coltrane and I probably have some common denominators that allow me to be privy to some of what he thought about musically. He studied Charlie Parker; I studied Charlie Parker. There are certain heroes he had that I have: Lester Young, people like Dexter Gordon that he drew from. I heard him live many times in the early ‘60s.”

This is actually not McPherson’s first Coltrane tribute. He played one last year at the Lincoln Center in New York.

And while McPherson plays alto and Coltrane played tenor and soprano, McPherson says he is after the spirit of Coltrane, not a replica.

“What I’d like to do is not ape him, mimic him, but give my impression of Coltrane, as opposed to a mirror image.”

Music on Thursday night begins at 7:30. The Athenaeum is at 1008 Wall St. There’s a $12 cover charge ($10 for library members).