Al Viola Fits Volumes Between Career Bookends : Jazz: Decades after gaining fame with Page Cavanaugh’s trio, the guitarist finds himself part of the gang again. It was quite a ride in between, too.

Al Viola’s career has come full circle.

The guitarist gained renown working with pianist Page Cavanaugh’s trio. Viola played with Cavanaugh’s combo from 1946-49, during which they appeared in three films, including 1948’s “Romance on the High Seas,” starring Doris Day and directed by Michael Curtiz.

“We were like the white Nat King Cole trio, but we were different in that we all sang,” says Viola, 73, recalling those with Cavanaugh and bassist Lloyd Pratt.

Tonight, the veteran with the round, silky tone and spiffy execution appears again with Cavanaugh’s trio, which he rejoined five years ago. The pianist, guitarist and bassist Phil Mallory perform at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa.

“I don’t sing anymore,” said Viola, his blue eyes flashing. “I’m over 70 years old, and I don’t give a damn about singing.”

In the home he shares with Glenna, his wife of 48 years, Viola has mementos that tell you: Between his first gigs with Cavanaugh and his latest, the unpretentious musician has had a wonderful whirl.

There are framed letters, like the 1960 note from then-senator John F. Kennedy, thanking Viola for helping in his campaign by performing on “High Hopes,” behind then-Democrat Frank Sinatra.

And there are the photos: Viola with JFK as president (the guitarist performed at the White House with singer Julie London); with Cavanaugh’s trio, and with Sinatra--at the now-defunct Gilmore Field in Hollywood in the ‘50s and at the Great Pyramid of Giza in 1979.

Brooklyn native Viola became one of Los Angeles’ most reliable studio performers, playing on more than 500 albums with everyone from June Christy and London to Jimmy Witherspoon and Marvin Gaye.

He’s played on countless TV and film soundtracks, among them “The Godfather”--he’s the solo mandolinist who performed the now-classic theme--”West Side Story” and “Blazing Saddles.”

“When I was involved in studio work, the music was tops,” Viola said of his most active period, the mid-’50s to the late ‘70s.

Perhaps the high point of Viola’s career was his association with Sinatra, with whom he performed intermittently from 1946 to 1980, from the Sands in Las Vegas to the Parthenon in Athens. He played on such albums as “Nice ‘N’ Easy,” “Only the Lonely” and “Ring-A-Ding-Ding!”

“The big hits--’My Way,’ ‘New York, New York,’ ‘Strangers in the Night’--I was on all of those,” he said.

Viola can be heard on the recently released “Sinatra and Sextet: Live in Paris,” which documents a 1962 performance at the Lido nightclub.

“I didn’t even know we were taped until this CD came out,” Viola said. “In Europe, Frank and I did ‘Night and Day,’ just the two of us. I’d go out in front, and he’d introduce me. That was a thrill, a bit scary and a challenge, because he never does a song the same way.”

Besides his studio career, Viola has done well as a jazz man, having recorded 19 albums under his name. He’s also appeared both as a band leader and with others, including reed man Buddy Collette.

When he played with Cavanaugh in the late ‘80s for a couple of weekends in the San Fernando Valley, Viola didn’t foresee another lengthy relationship.

“Page had been working solo in Vegas for six years,” Viola said. “When you play solo, you don’t have to worry about time, and at first, (Cavanaugh’s) time was terrible. But by the second night of the second weekend, it was all jelling, and I said to him, ‘You’ve got yourself a trio.’ ”

Cavanaugh, Viola and bassist Mallory now work at the Money Tree in Toluca Lake. There they offer, as they promise to at OCC, seamless interpretations of standards and arcane numbers from Hollywood musicals of the ‘30s and ‘40s.

“You know, there are no written arrangements for this stuff,” Viola said. “Page and I just have chemistry. We just hit it. That’s the way it’s always been.”

* The Page Cavanaugh Trio, with guitarist Al Viola, plays tonight at 8 in the Robert B. Moore Theatre, Orange Coast College, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa. $11-$13. (714) 432-5880.