Playing in a Different Scene : Art Graham, who has been fronting trios for 30 years, performs Sunday at the Equestrian Center in Burbank.

Art Graham has known good times--and really good times.

Like from the mid-’60s to the early ‘80s. “There was a period of about 15 years where I was working six nights a week,” says Graham, who has been fronting piano trios for 30 years with consistent regularity. “We spent 10 to 11 years at Sneaky Pete’s, which was next to the Whiskey-A-Go-Go, where Duke’s Cafe is now. Johnny Carson came in, Ed McMahon, John Wayne.” Other rooms where Graham performed included P.J.’s, at Crescent Heights and Santa Monica boulevards, and Sonny’s on La Cienega Boulevard.

“Even a few years ago, I was doing six nights down at the beach. I didn’t even have to come into town,” he says, referring to steady engagements at Sausalito South and Annabelle’s, both defunct clubs in Manhattan Beach.

Things are different on the club scene now, Graham says. “I think it’s the people at the helm,” he begins. “Mostly they’re young, and they’re called Food and Beverage Directors, and I don’t know if it’s because they’re young, or just fickle, but they can’t seem to stand the same thing two nights in a row.”

Graham, who plays Sunday at the Equestrian Center in Burbank, sees this line of thinking as pure nonsense. “Before, you built up a place by staying in one location,” he says. “That’s how business mushrooms.”

The pianist says he’s in his 60s. “But I don’t know that age has anything to do with it, as long as you have energy and know what you’re doing,” he says.

Graham, who lives in Hollywood, says that these days he makes his living playing a few steady jobs, such as Barnaby’s in Manhattan Beach, where he appears Saturdays; private parties, and occasional engagements at such clubs as Chadney’s and the Equestrian Center.

Graham says he feels people like him because he never plays down to the crowd, “or over their heads.” And because he caters to terpsichoreans.

“Yeah, America’s dancing, whether we like it or not, and there are a lot of people who go out looking for places to dance,” he says. “More people I know like to dance than to listen. The last time we played Chadney’s,” which doesn’t have a dance floor, “people were dancing back by the waitress station, and that drove the waitresses crazy,” he adds in a wheezy laugh. There will be a dance floor set up in front of the band at the Equestrian Center.

Graham offers a wide repertoire, from traditional Argentine tangos and Brazilian sambas to Ellingtonia such as “Do Nothin’ Till You Hear From Me” and slow pop tunes such as “Through the Eyes of Love.” “I like to shift gears, so that the musicians don’t get bored and don’t have to play the same thing all night,” he says.

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Getting a nice foot-tapping groove is definitely part of an Art Graham show, and he points to Gene Harris, former leader of the Three Sounds and currently one of the most popular of jazz musicians, as a chief inspiration.

“When I was working at the Sands in Las Vegas in 1965, we’d get off at 3:15 a.m. and go over and catch Gene at Reuben’s,” Graham recalls. “I’d sit right behind him, and I learned a lot from that cat. He puts it in the pocket--not a lot of notes, not a lot of frills, just hard swinging.”

Dennis Duke, who has booked Graham for both Chadney’s and the Equestrian Center, says the pianist reminds him not of Harris, but of another favorite, Erroll Garner. “Art makes the room swing,” Duke says. “He’s very listenable.”

Graham grew up in Bridgeport, Conn., studied piano as a youth and soon was working in Manhattan with Lester Lanin, one of the city’s top society bandleaders.

“That was good basic training,” he says. “You learned all the tunes, and it was all dance music. Because of that, if somebody calls a tune, there are very few we can’t cover,” he says.

Graham moved to Los Angeles in 1959 and soon established himself in Southern California nightspots. He has recorded a pair of albums and twice appeared on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.”

Life without music would be a mistake, Graham says. “The day I don’t feel that way, I’ll quit.”

WHERE AND WHEN

Who: Art Graham Trio.

Location: L.A. Equestrian Center, 480 Riverside Drive, Burbank.

Hours: 4 to 8 p.m. Sunday.

Price: No cover, no minimum. Buffet available for $15.

Call: (818) 840-1313.