From Big-Band Boss to Solo Brass Section

Rob McConnell, the Canadian valve trombonist, composer and arranger, is never far from a quip.

So since McConnell is most often heard in his 22-piece Boss Brass big band, he had a zinger to describe his upcoming gig as a soloist with Danny Pucillo’s trio.

“It’ll be a very small brass section,” he said. “That old gang of mine is me.”

Happily, McConnell makes music as easily, and as warmly, as he makes people laugh.

The 61-year-old native of London, Ontario, is a rhythmically supple, melody-oriented player. He finds his idols in great jazz players of the ‘40s and ‘50s, among them pianist Jimmy Rowles, trumpeter Harry “Sweets” Edison and trombonist Vic Dickenson.

“I’m an old-time swing player,” he said, talking by phone from his home in Peterborough, Ontario, about 70 miles northeast of Toronto. “I loved the beboppers like Art Blakey and Horace Silver, but I don’t know how you play bebop on the trombone.”

The gig at at Monty’s Steakhouse in Woodland Hills tonight through Saturday marks McConnell’s first Los Angeles appearance in a decade.

The Boss Brass played Carmelo’s in Sherman Oaks in 1981, and Donte’s in North Hollywood in 1984 and 1986 (also working that year at the Playboy Jazz Festival with singer Mel Torme). Both clubs have since closed. This stop is the southern leg of a tour that includes the Northwest, where he’s to play the Ottercrest Jazz Party in Oregon.

The trombonist is looking forward to performing with drummer Pucillo’s threesome, which includes ace bassist Bob Maize and fine bebop-based pianist Claude Williamson.

“I’ve known Claude’s playing forever, from jazz records he made in the ‘50s. He’s one of those underexposed guys, and I will be glad to see him,” said McConnell, whose most recent Boss Brass album is “Even Canadians Get the Blues” (Concord Jazz).

Spontaneous standards are the expected fare at Monty’s, said McConnell. “It’ll be loose, relaxed, and fun to work with these good musicians for the first time,” he said. “Who knows, we might even get some people to listen. I’m always an optimist. And crazy, too. In jazz, that helps.”

McConnell grew up in a musical family, though he was the only one to pursue music as a living. He picked up slide trombone in high school, quit playing in his early 20s, then resumed when he borrowed a valve trombone from a friend. “That’s when I started pursuing it more or less seriously,” he said.

He started writing music because, he said, “I’m an aggressive personality and I was always browbeating people to play ‘this note, not that one,’ even before I could write. Then I studied with a man named Gordon Delamont, ended up being his prize pupil and have done well with what he taught me.”

The Boss Brass, with which McConnell won a 1984 best big band Grammy, started as an all-brass ensemble in 1968, added saxophones in 1971 and eventually grew to its current swollen size; most big bands have 17 or 18 players. McConnell rarely tours with the group, mainly playing twice a year in Toronto, though this year he is doing an eight-concert tour across Canada.

Though he once did quite well as a studio musician in Canada, those positions have all but disappeared, as they have in New York, Los Angeles and elsewhere. Now, McConnell gets by as a jazzman.

“I’m very lucky,” he said. “ I don’t make much money, but I love music. I still get tears in my eyes from it.”

* Rob McConnell plays tonight through Saturday with Danny Pucillo’s trio at Monty’s Steakhouse, 5371 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Woodland Hills. Tonight, 7:30-11:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 8:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. No cover, no minimum. Call (818) 716-9736).

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Quick Hits: It’s hard to find two contemporary jazz guitarists who play with more flair and energy than John McLaughlin and Al DiMeola. And when you add modern flamenco stylist Paco de Lucia to the pair, you have a threesome guaranteed to deliver the heat. Known now as The Guitar Trio, which is also the name of their new Verve Records release, McLaughlin, DiMeola and de Lucia perform on Sunday, 8:15 p.m., at the Universal Amphitheater, 1000 Universal Center Drive. $13-42. Call (818) 622-4440. . . . Stephanie Haynes and Julie Kelly--two of the town’s top female jazz singers--can be heard Friday and Saturday, respectively, at Ca’ del Sole, 4100 N. Cahuenga Blvd., North Hollywood. No cover. Call (818) 985-4669.