Jazzing Up a Landmark

Jazz takes root wherever it can, and, starting Sunday, that includes one of Ventura’s more notorious architectural landmarks. The Pete Jolly Trio will kick off a promising Sunday jazz series in the church that doubles as a kind of cross-cultural temple.

What was originally built as the First Baptist Church in 1931 is now the Church of Religious Science, and it’s one of those wonderfully eccentric edifices in our midst that we may well take for granted. Architect Robert Stacy-Judd was a self-proclaimed Mayan authority and amateur archeologist who designed several Mayan-esque structures in Southern California.

There it sits at the corner of Santa Clara and Laurel streets, so peculiar and anachronistic that it either piques curiosity or causes a perceptual short circuit. Last year, the church served as an exotic and acoustically kind venue for one concert of the Ventura Chamber Music Festival.

Now, it’s jazz’s turn. Theo Saunders is the artistic director for the fledgling series and, most often, will be house pianist for the series. This Sunday, though, veteran pianist Jolly will lead his own trio, with bassist Chuck Berghofer and drummer Nick Martinis.

The series continues with saxophonist Bill Perkins on April 13, guitarist Larry Koonse on April 20 and saxophonist Charles Owens on April 27.

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Ole Dept.: Cries of “ole!” punctuated the air of the Poinsettia Pavilion last week, and it wasn’t just lip service. Robert Amaral and Fuego Flamenco were showing the audience how flamenco is done with intense music and dance segments at the “Iberia Alive!” concert last Tuesday. Passionate flamenco music and dance conjure up the “ole!” instinct even in outsiders.

The New West Symphony’s rightly acclaimed “Music’s Alive!” series, now in its fourth season, consisted of only two concerts this year. But both were substantial events, living up to the series’ promise to present music of the world and the 20th century. “China Alive!,” earlier this year, featured music by the increasingly renowned Chinese composer Chen Yi.

Iberian music, rooted in the culture of Southern Spain, has found its way into classical circles, particularly in the music of Juan Rodrigo. But flamenco--the pure stuff, not the watered-down variety heard in restaurants--is an enigmatic world unto itself.

It has been compared to vernacular musical forms such as the blues in America, but flamenco boasts a special sophistication, especially in its rhythmic complexities. In the flamenco tradition, dancers’ footwork becomes a powerful percussion force and hand clapping is an art unto itself, articulating and expanding on the pulse behind the music.

Passion was worn on puffy sleeves. And there was skintight interplay between the dancers--Robert Amaral and the mono-named Yaelisa--guitarist Adam del Monte and the seductively raw vocalist Isa Mura. This is a group of undeniable energy and impassioned purpose.

Composer Manuel de Falla’s Harpsichord Concerto provided a different sort of Spanish musical expression, a kind of neoclassical charmer with obvious references to Stravinsky. Bright melodic snippets were sprinkled with tangy dissonances, and historical references mixed it up.

New West conductor Boris Brott led a sextet of players, with the versatile keyboardist Bryan Pezzone handling the harpsichord chores nicely.

Opening the concert’s second half, Pezzone returned to perform two short pieces from a collection by Issac Albeniz titled “Iberia.” “Evocacion,” as the title suggests, is a lyrical piece, evoking nostalgia. For the more rhythmically intense Albeniz piece “Triana,” Amaral added a dance element.

BE THERE

The Pete Jolly Trio plays Sunday at the Church of Religious Science, Santa Clara and Laurel streets in Ventura, 7:30 p.m. 642-4358. $15, at the door only.