Passing Along the Beat

Louie Bellson, in a phone call from his Sherman Oaks home, is talking about great drummers of the past and present, reserving special praise for “young guys like Tony Williams, Elvin Jones and Steve Gadd.”

Young guys? Jones, at 69, is only three years younger than Bellson. Both Williams and Gadd have cracked the 50 barrier. None of them actually qualifies for the “young” category.

But they do in Bellson’s eyes. Often billed as “the last of the great swing drummers,” the percussionist, who brings a big band into Los Alamitos High School tonight, learned his craft listening to the late Sid Catlett (born in 1910) and drummer Jo Jones (who would have been 86 this year), both of whom worked with Count Basie in the 1930s and ‘40s.

Bellson at 17 won a drumming competition judged by Gene Krupa, then went on to play in the bands of Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Harry James, Count Basie and Duke Ellington. It’s no wonder that anyone under 70 seems young to the veteran.

In fact, Bellson himself could fool a lot of people with his age. Still looking vital and playing with athletic style, he can be heard on his new Concord release, “Air Bellson,” driving his seven-piece band with power and authority.

Explaining the album’s title and lead number, he says, “Yes, I’m very much a basketball fan, but I wasn’t a fan before Michael Jordan came on the scene. I look at that [guy’s athleticism] and think he could be a great drummer.”

Bellson has known a lot of great drummers over the years. His 1996 release, “Their Time Was the Greatest,” is subtitled with the words “Louie Bellson honors . . . “ and names a dozen drummers who either inspired him or were inspired by his play.

“Too bad I couldn’t make a CD with 50 drummers’ names on it,” Bellson laments. “I had to exclude so many great ones, like Billy Cobham, who started using two bass drums like I do.”

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The roaring, two bass-drum sound has been a trademark of Bellson’s since the 1950s. An aspiring tap dancer, he realized that he had the ability to play double foot-pedals in a way that has often been compared to dancing. Dual bass drums became especially popular with the fusion bands of the 1960s and ‘70s.

The passing along of styles and innovations from one drummer to another is a topic especially dear to him. “These young guys like Tony Williams, Elvin Jones and Steve Gadd took what Jo Jones and Big Sid Catlett did, took those tools and made great strides with them. They’ve taken the roots and made them blossom.

“I remember how Big Sid and Jo Jones would call me over to the corner and say, ‘Here’s how you play the brushes, here’s how you do this.’ And they told me one other important thing: ‘Pass it on.’ So after these guys showed me the way, I felt I had an obligation to pass my knowledge on to the youngsters.”

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Bellson will be doing just that when he plays two concerts at Los Alamitos High School, preceded in the afternoon by a drum clinic he will conduct. A frequent participant at clinics and jazz education programs, Bellson sees his work as a way to keep the craft and appreciation of jazz, including big band jazz, alive.

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Despite 40 years of public pronouncements, the big band days aren’t dead, according to the drummer. “It isn’t completely lost. There’s several bands still out there--the Basie band, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, the Dorsey band. There’s still a big audience for big bands, though it’s not like it used to be. I don’t think that great art will ever be lost. It’s just too vital, too good. It has longevity.”

Bellson names the economics of travel and the popularity of television as contributors to the decline in the big band era. “Those are the big factors. People used to go out and dance more. There were all these ballrooms across the country. Now there’s hardly any left at all. In the old days, we traveled everywhere by bus. Now it’s expensive, by plane. It’s a different story all together.”

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Instead, Bellson sees the big band movement existing as a localized phenomenon, active in different population centers, but unable to move out into the world at large.

“Look here in L.A. We’ve got Bill Holman, we’ve got Bob Florence, there’s the Clayton-Hamilton [Jazz Orchestra], there’s Tom Kubis. Those are all great bands. But the economics stops you from going out.”

Bellson beats that particular problem by keeping orchestras on call in New York and Chicago as well as here in Southern California. “I’ve never been one to prostitute myself and get a cheap band. I’ve been lucky to play with the greatest musicians in the world over the years, and I still do.”

The band he brings into Los Alamitos, he says, is no exception, containing many of the same musicians who record with him: saxophonists Pete Christlieb and Sal Lozano, trumpeters Steve Huffsteter, Carl Saunders and Frank Szabo, trombonist Andy Martin. Other standouts scheduled to appear are saxophonist Rickey Woodard and bassist Dave Carpenter. Together, they will help Bellson recreate the spirit of the swinging big band years.

“I was so lucky to get in on that era before it was lost,” he says. “It was a golden age.”

* The Louie Bellson 17-piece jazz band plays tonight at the Margaret A. Webb Performing Arts Center at Los Alamitos High School, 3591 Cerritos Ave., Los Alamitos. 6 and 9 p.m. Each show opens with sets from the McAuliffe and Oak Middle School Bands and the Los Alamitos High School Jazz One Band. Reserved seating for each show $20-25, general admission $10. ($10 and $25 tickets sold out at 6 p.m.) Bellson’s drum clinic at 2 p.m. will be open to the public. $10. (714) 761-5999.