Pump Down the Volume : Sometimes Softer Is Better, Says Jazz Guitarist Thom Rotella

Contemporary jazz and consistently high volume seem to be inseparable partners. But Thom Rotella doesn’t see it that way.

Even though Rotella plays electric guitar and his band offers a lot of pop-oriented original material, he likes to keep his sonic levels in motion, going from not-so-loud to fairly soft.

“There’s a sense of drama and emotion” when you change dynamic levels, says Rotella, who leads his five-piece ensemble at Randell’s in Santa Ana tonight.

“I like playing quieter,” Rotella, 41, said recently. “There’s a certain intimacy that comes with lower volume levels, a different kind of communication.”

Rotella feels that playing quieter does not mean his band packs less of a punch.

“Our band creates a lot of energy,” he said.

To get a handle on things when the group does get loud, Rotella has recently returned to an old friend, performing on the Gibson L-4 electric guitar he first played jazz on, when, in his late teens, he was working in his hometown of Niagara Falls, N.Y.

“I used to play strictly acoustic guitars with a pickup, but I find the L-4 makes volume easier to manage, sonically,” he said.

Rotella basically sticks with a format of energized, groove-based tunes, melodic pop-jazz numbers and pieces with a Latin or Brazilian flavor. But employing the L-4 suggests other types of tunes--straight-ahead jazz tunes such as John Coltrane’s “Impressions” or Wayne Shorter’s “Footprints.”

“We’ll play something like that once in a while,” Rotella said in a phone conversation from his home in Venice. “I like the different feel of the swing beat. It can be exhilarating. The chord changes give me options for different colors and textures to explore.

“And it’s almost nostalgic,” he said. “It brings me back to the kind of playing I did when I was in Boston at the Berklee College of Music (1970-72), or in Niagara Falls, when I was 21, playing in an organ trio with Ronnie Foster,” referring to the keyboardist from Buffalo, N.Y., who has gone on to considerable popularity since moving to Southern California.

But mostly, Rotella goes with his meat-and-potatoes offerings of pop-based material that easily reaches an audience.

“I like a mix of accessible music and things that are more far out, but I guess I want to appeal to people,” he said. “I think a lot of people who come to listen to music respond with a purely emotional feel, and having part groove tunes (in my repertoire) is another way of reaching those people. Plus, pop was part of what I grew up with, so it’s part of my musical expression.”

Rotella began playing guitar at 10--his grandfather also played the instrument--and two years later he had first band, playing rock. At 14, he began to listen to jazz; he says he was knocked out when he first heard Wes Montgomery.

After his stint at Berklee, and some time in New York, Rotella moved to Southern California in 1973, establishing himself as a session guitarist. His solo performing career took off through a series of albums for the DMP label, the latest of which is “Without Words,” recorded in 1990. The albums continue to sell--”I get royalty checks”--and receive airplay nationwide.

Rotella recorded for DMP on an album-to-album basis and is working on a new project, which he plans to shop around upon completion. He’s also been playing on a hip-hop recording project for another artist.

“I think some of that is seeping into my music, as some pieces become funkier, more hip-hop-ish,” he said.

While he makes most of his living writing jingles for TV commercials, Rotella is ripe to put his performing career on the front burner. To that end, he’s been playing at clubs from Pasadena to Venice to Santa Ana.

He last performed at Randell’s in March and says he’s looking forward to the return engagement.

“The crowd was really responsive, really paying attention, and when that happens, there’s a certain magic, a feeling that is unbelievable,” he said. “On a night like that, you can feel the emotion of the audience right with you, and it’s kind of like one big band at that point.”

* Thom Rotella plays tonight at Randell’s, 3 Hutton Centre Drive, Santa Ana. 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. No cover, $10 minimum. (714) 556-7700.