Bluesy Bryant Plays L.A. After 30 Years

Ray Bryant, the pianist whose elegant touch and resounding, bluesy feel have made him a favorite with audiences worldwide, makes his first Los Angeles dates in 30 years when he plays Monday through Wednesday at the Jazz Bakery.

But the 63-year-old Bryant hasn’t been absent just from Los Angeles. He says he hardly plays in the United States at all, spending most of his time performing in Europe or Japan.

“There’s a great response in Japan, and the fans are really nice,” says Bryant, who will leave for the Asian nation after the Bakery engagement. But Bryant says he plans this year to play at least a month in New York, where he lives.

Bryant will perform solo at the Bakery, a style he has developed into an art. “In my mind the piano is an orchestra, and playing solo gives me a chance to implement this concept,” he says. “There’s a feeling of real freedom, that I can do what I want to do, though it’s difficult. You have to keep both hands, and both feet, moving.”

Bryant says he’ll play some selections off his EmArcy album “All Mine and Yours,” and that he’ll certainly add blues inflections as he goes along. “I grew up with the blues,” he says. “I played with some great bluesmen, and it rubbed off on me. No matter what you play, you retain some of what you have been around.”

Asked what music has given him, Bryant is simultaneously effusive, and philosophical. “It’s given me life,” he begins, “kept me young with a fresh outlook every day, which you don’t get unless you’ve produced something fresh each night. Being born in the jazz age, I had a chance to develop what talent I had and to try and make people, and myself, happy in the process. In other words, it’s given me fulfillment. There’s nothing I would have rather done.”

Information: (310) 271-9039.

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Redman in Concert: When saxophonist Joshua Redman appears tonight at the Wadsworth Theater in Brentwood, he’ll be sporting a new band, at least to Los Angeles-area listeners. Pianist Peter Martin and bassist Chris Thomas replace Brad Meldhau and Christian McBride on their respective instruments, and Redman says different players really change a band dramatically.

“You have new voices, new ideas,” says Redman from his home in New York. “For example, some of the older tunes, such as ‘Sweet Sorrow’ and ‘Rejoice’ from my ‘Mood Swing’ album, have been transformed and sound completely different and fresh.” The group will also perform material recorded on Redman’s next album, a live recording made at New York’s Village Vanguard that will be released in September.

Redman’s Wadsworth appearance will be his Los Angeles concert hall debut; his previous engagements have either been at Catalina Bar & Grill or at the Hollywood Bowl. He says that he’s recently discovered that a nightclub is not necessarily the best place to play jazz and that working in a hall has a number of distinct advantages.

“With a single concert performance, you reach the same number of people you would in a week at a club,” he says. “Along with that, a larger crowd has a different kind of energy, maybe a slightly less intimate kind of energy but a potentially more expansive energy. And in a concert situation, you often get an audience that listens even closer, because they are there for the music, and the music only.”

Tickets, priced at $24 and $27, are still available. Information: (310) 825-2101.

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Look Here! Free Jazz: Continuing a splendid tradition, the Playboy Jazz Festival will host a number of free community events in the weeks leading up to this year’s event, which will be held June 17-18 at the Hollywood Bowl.

The opening concert takes place Sunday at 2 p.m. in the Beverly Hills Civic Plaza (near the corner of Canon Drive and Santa Monica Boulevard) and features the rousing Frank Capp Juggernaut big band and invigorating Latin/jazz violinist Susie Hansen. Then, on May 12th at 11 a.m., there’s the annual performance by the fine Locke High School Jazz Band, directed by Reggie Andrews, at the Watts Labor Action Community Center, 10956 S. Central Ave. in Los Angeles.

On June 3-4, energetic saxophonists Tom Scott and Everette Harp headline “Playboy Jazz at Summer Fest,” held at Pasadena’s Central Park (Fair Oaks Avenue at Del Mar Boulevard). Later in June, fans can attend a session of The Meeting--the group with Patrice Rushen, Ernie Watts, Ndugu Chancler and Alphonso Johnson, Eric Marienthal, Barbara Morrison and Marcos Loya--at Santa Monica College’s Corsair Field. That program is set for June 11 at 1 p.m.

On June 16 at 8 p.m., the community events conclude with a screening of classic jazz films by archivist Mark Cantor, held in the Center Green Theatre on the 2nd Floor of the Green Building of the Pacific Design Center, 8687 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood.

For information, call (310) 449-4070.

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Surfing the Jazzwaves: KLON-FM (88.1) spotlights Dexter Gordon today, pianist Marcus Roberts on Monday, clarinetist Buddy DeFranco on Tuesday and drum ace Mel Lewis on Wednesday and will play music by these artists throughout the day.

KPFK-FM (90.7) hosts “Smoke Rings” with John Breckow, Sundays at midnight.

KPCC-FM (89.3) offers the ’94 Jazz Marathon from Gronigen, the Netherlands, on “JazzSet,” airing Tuesday, 10-11 p.m.

Around Town: Ace area singers Sandra Booker, Cathy Segal-Garcia, Stephanie Haynes and Angela Carole Brown light up a special Mother’s Day bash being held Sunday, May 14, at Catalina Bar & Grill. Shows are at 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., cover charge is $12 and a full bar and brunch menu will be available. Information: (213) 466-2210.

Inventive San Francisco Bay Area saxophonist Harvey Wainapel makes his L.A. debut with trio performances featuring bassist Trey Henry and drummer Billy Mintz. The hornman, who describes himself as a player “on the inside but looking out, trying to stretch the envelope a bit,” appears Wednesday at Lunaria, Thursday at the Club Brasserie in West Hollywood, May 12-13 at System M in Long Beach and May 15 at the Alligator Lounge in Santa Monica.