O.C. JAZZ / BILL KOHLHAASE : Creativity and Vision May Find Less Room at the Inn

The proving ground for jazz--the place where styles develop, fresh statements are struck and innovations are made--has traditionally been the nightclub. But if current trends persist, there’ll be little of that in Orange County during 1994.

Sure, there’ll be plenty of concerts featuring respected names in wide and wonderful settings. But as good as many of these performances promise to be, you can bet they will chronicle history rather than make it. Jazz, like any art form, needs a laboratory where experiments can be conducted, good or bad. And that’s exactly what we’ll lack.

Remember the live jazz at Maxwell’s in Huntington Beach, dropped midway in 1993? Artists including saxophonist Buddy Collette, pianist Cedar Walton and singer Lorez Alexandria extended their craft in an intimate and responsive setting. Maxwell’s offered a chance to see singer Cheryl Bentyne perform in a way that transcended, and was more personal than, her work with Manhattan Transfer. Pianist Frank Strazzeri brought his harmonically ambitious WoodWinds West ensemble into the venue, and it delivered with one of its most improvisationally inspired sets.

Then there was Vinnie’s Ristorante in Costa Mesa, where musicians such as Supersax alto man Lanny Morgan and Gene Harris quartet guitarist Ron Eschete combined talents with a rhythm section that often featured bassist Luther Hughes and pianist Joe Massimino in unrehearsed jam sessions, the musical equivalent of a circus high-wire act. Vinnie’s dropped music in December.

O.C. has always lacked a venue, similar to Catalina Bar and Grill in Hollywood, that brings in New York-based acts to display their cutting-edge ways. But the loss of spaces like Maxwell’s and Vinnie’s--clubs that mined the deep, long vein of the local musical scene--is a tough strike indeed.

So instead, this year we’ll be feasting on jazz-rock bands and world-beat ensembles with albums charting on Adult Contemporary radio playlists. There’s nothing wrong with that. But a steady diet of this gruel will leave us hungering for something more substantial.

Take the Coach House, which last fall had to cancel one of its two planned performances from young tenor sensation Joshua Redman and guitarist Pat Metheny because of slow sales. Coming attractions include cross-cultural guitar duo Strunz & Farah on Jan. 21, the back-beat banjo band of Bela Fleck & the Flecktones Jan. 23, fusion all-star ensemble Fourplay on Jan. 25 and eyebrow-arching saxophonist Dave Koz on Feb. 18.

Mucho Gusto in Costa Mesa will continue to place the emphasis on Latin, electric and blues bands. And Randell’s in Santa Ana continues to offer bands, both fusion and straight ahead, with ongoing engagements where they can polish their sounds. Randell’s will continue to feature other, mostly electric and crossover bands, on Saturdays, as well as a healthy dose of the blues.

There will, however, be some opportunities to hear straight-ahead sounds.

Orange County saxophonist Eric Marienthal, known for his ongoing stint with pianist Chick Corea’s different bands as well as a series of fusion-oriented albums under his own name for the GRP label, brings in an acoustic quartet to play standards at the tiny Studio Cafe in Balboa every Wednesday (currently scheduled through March). This engagement, which has run on-and-off for some 11 years, finds Marienthal, backed by ace drummer Paul Kreibich among others, cranking in a way that doesn’t surface in more rhythmically accessible formats.

The Cafe Lido in Newport Beach continues to provide mainstream experiences in an intimate setting. Trumpeter Ron Stout’s regular Sunday afternoon jam sessions at the Lido are packed with the stuff jazz is made of: musicianship, mental acrobatics and chance-taking improvisation. (Stout’s quintet also plays every other Tuesday at the Lido.)

And the chance to see conguero Poncho Sanchez and his Latin jazz band perform in such close quarters, as they will Jan. 23, is not to be missed. Remember, Sanchez was the closing attraction at last year’s Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl.

Bassist Bobby Haynes, who books the music at Spaghettini in Seal Beach, says he’ll continue to bring in a variety of acts, including mainstreamers. “I like to schedule groups that play standards and straight-ahead, music that’s familiar to people, rather than bands that play all original material,” he explains.

But until some damn-the-torpedoes entrepreneur opens a club with a serious booking policy, it will be large-scale concerts filling the need in 1994.

The Performing Arts Center’s jazz series, which brought such acts as the Toshiko Akiyoshi Big Band to Segerstrom Hall in 1993, continues Feb. 25 with bassist Charlie Haden’s much-lauded Quartet West with saxophonist Ernie Watts. Young-lion trumpeter Roy Hargrove and his combo will open. The center promises other concerts in 1994, but no bookings have been finalized.

The nearby Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts will offer concerts with popular appeal, including Bela Fleck with Strunz & Farah on March 25-26, pianist George Shearing and vocalist Joe Williams on April 16 and singer Bobby McFerrin and his Hard Chorale on May 7. If these acts aren’t exactly on the cutting edge of jazz, they are at least representative of its best showmen.

A venue that will present one of jazz’s new direction, the Pan-American movement that combines musicians and their traditions from a variety of South and Central American countries, is the San Juan Capistrano Regional Library. The library’s Multicultural Performing and Visual Arts Series, endangered last year when the county cut its funding, will continue to present a wide array of styles and musicians, including Brazilian guitarist and composer Dori Caymmi, guitarist Juan Carlos Quintero, Japanese flutist and taiko drummer Kenny Endo and Colombian-born saxophonist Justo Almario.

But the library, which has presented mainstream jazz in the past, will steer clear this year.

“The demand for straight-ahead jazz is just not there,” says Jose Aponte, program director at the library. “We just can’t present it because financially it’s not viable.”

Sharon Weissman, acting general manager of KLON-FM, which has teamed past summers with the Hyatt Newporter to present the Jazz Live at the Hyatt series, sees Orange County as a place where mainstream jazz is popular.

“The Orange County audience is very enthusiastic about jazz,” she said. “We try to do events all over the Los Angeles geographical area. But the Orange County audience is very responsive.”

Though an agreement has not been finalized for the series in 1994, Weissman said the station looks forward to working with the hotel once again. Here’s hoping that plans proceed apace.