Dynamo in Demand

As you read this, even if it’s at 3 a.m., somewhere in this city a group of musicians is gathering to make music. And there’s a good chance that one of those musicians is Dan Weinstein.

“It seems like I’m playing with somebody four or five hours a day,” said the trombonist-violinist who will appear Saturday at Jax in Glendale, looking in his appointment book.

Weinstein--who plays trombone with a large, burnished tone and delivers singable phrases with an easy and logical rhythmic flair--gave a rundown of some of his activities, which include Viva, his Latin/jazz quartet that will appear at Jax.

“I’m also playing Latin music with Tavio Figueroa and Mango Bang, and I’m on recordings with Johnny Blas [the recent ‘Skin and Bones’] and [legendary Cuban bassist] Cachao’s ‘The Master Sessions,’ ” said Weinstein. An animated, enthusiastic fellow, he’s packed a large man’s personality into a smaller man’s body: although he stands 5-foot-8, he projects taller.

“In some other styles, I play with Johnny Upset and the Mad Tones, which you could call grunge lounge,” Weinstein said, adding to the list: “One World, which is world beat; tenor saxophonist Teddy Edwards’ Brasstring Ensemble, which I played with at the Moonlight Tango in Sherman Oaks and also on the album ‘Blue Saxophone.’ I’m also in Mandrill,” he said, citing a band that mixes salsa, jazz, rock and other elements that was active in the ‘70s.

“They’re coming back,” Weinstein added.

He also plays klezmer music and some old style jazz with the Blue Rhythm Jazz band and performs with four or five rehearsal big bands, one of which, Jack Ranelli’s, appears each Monday at Chadney’s in Burbank.

From where, I asked, did a fondness for so many types of music come?

“Music,” he told me, “I love the whole thing. It’s my life’s blood.”

The 42-year-old Weinstein was born in Los Angeles but raised in Granada Hills and Chatsworth, where he now resides with his wife, Socorro, their two daughters--Gabriella, age 3, and Julietta, who arrived two weeks ago--and his father.

“My dad was a music teacher. In the ‘60s, he was director of music at Van Nuys High. My mom sang, too, and played a little piano. By the age of 4, I could already sing barbershop harmony. I remember we’d take these drives to what is now Canyon Country, and we’d sing while we drove.”

Weinstein’s musical influences ranged from classics to Broadway show tunes and jazz from such people as trombone giant J.J. Johnson, through albums his father bought via mail from the Columbia Record club.

At Jax, Viva will comprise Steve Gutierrez on drums, Yuko Maruyama, piano, and Clarence Robinson, bass. The music will include numerous originals, like “I Remember Bennie Green,” a lovely bolero that appears on Blas’ album, and “Dame Tu Amor,” which local timbales player Bobby Matos recorded on his “Chango’s Dance” album. There’ll also be such standards as “You Stepped Out of a Dream,” a favorite of jazz great Dexter Gordon. “Jazz tunes like that so easily convert to a Latin feel,” he said.

* Dan Weinstein and Viva play Sat., 9 p.m.-1:30 a.m., at Jax, 339 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale. No cover, no minimum. Call: (818) 500-1604.

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Bang, Bang: Katia Moraes is a pistol. I’ve seen her a couple of times with Glen Garrett’s Brazilian big band, Feijoda Completa, at the Moonlight Tango, and she comes on stage like an explosion, her body in constant motion, her voice excited and dynamic.

“I have this energy that drives me,” she said. “I come from Brazil, a happy culture where we like to be dancing, singing, relate to life in a positive way.”

Moraes, who lives in Burbank, is celebrating her first domestic release, “Ten Feet and the Sun,” by performing Friday (and April 26), at 9:30 and 11:30 p.m., at La Ve Lee (12514 Ventura Blvd., Studio City; cover charge, $5, two-drink minimum; (818) 980-8158.