Big Man’s New Road Leads to Aja

If it was in Clarence Clemons’ power to draw the road map of his future, he would be driving on E Street, hurtling toward Thunder Road.

How strong, on a scale of 1 to 100, is Clemons’ desire to ride shotgun again to Bruce Springsteen, as he did for 18 years in one of the most creatively and commercially rewarding chapters in rock history?

“About 150. It’s off the scale, man. It’s off the scale,” said the football player-turned-saxophonist whom the Boss dubbed the Big Man after hiring him into the E Street Band in 1971. “It was a great part of my life, and I would like to live it again.”

But it’s up to Springsteen, not Clemons, to map out that particular future and decide if and when a return to Glory Days is in order. Except for a limited reunion in 1995 to cut several new tracks for a “Greatest Hits” CD, Springsteen hasn’t called on the E Street Band since he broke it up in 1989 as a prelude to his midlife career downsizing.

If Clemons, 55, isn’t traveling his most-preferred musical path, he has found alternate routes. He had phoned Tuesday from an alley in the San Fernando Valley, outside a rehearsal studio where he was working on songs with his latest band. Billed as Aja and the Big Man, it pairs him with a petite woman whose big, husky voice recalls Kim Carnes and Pat Benatar.

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While the E Street Band grew naturally from a community of barroom musicians playing the club circuit on the New Jersey shore, Clemons’ new venture started in a corporate office in Japan. He said a Japanese label, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi, proposed that he play the Ike half of an Ike & Tina Turner-type act, opposite an Asian Tina who would provide added appeal for the Japanese market.

“It was their concept. I thought about it for a while, and [decided] if they can come up with a person who has the voice and charisma and talent, then go for it. And this woman has it.”

Aja, a Korean American from Los Angeles whose real name is Pattie Rich, was the obvious choice following a wide-ranging series of auditions, Clemons said.

They cut a rock ‘n’ roll record, “Get It On,” that flopped upon its release in Japan two years ago.

“But we fit so good together, we wanted to keep it going,” Clemons said. Hence a series of upcoming Southern California dates designed to stir U.S. music industry interest in the band, including one Saturday at the Coach House. Besides the basic, lively stuff on their record, Clemons and Aja will play some songs from his solo records and a few rearranged Springsteen nuggets (the Big Man’s favorite is “Spirit in the Night”). Clemons’ new four-man band of L.A.-based players includes Aja’s husband, bassist Lynn Woolever.

For a man whose dream gig is in the past, at least for now, and whose recent solo albums have not sold well, Clemons sounds upbeat about his music and life in general.

He moved about a year ago from Mill Valley, near San Francisco, to the Florida community of Singer Island, near Palm Beach.

“I’m very happy. There’s a club I play at twice a week in West Palm Beach. We do a jazz jam on Monday, called the Big Man’s Improv, and on Thursday a blues barbecue. It’s a lot of fun.”

Clemons, who has three sons, all aspiring musicians, said he left idyllic Marin County for Florida because “I wanted to be in the real world.” He got a rude shot of reality in January when he was arrested after a girlfriend accused him of punching and kicking her during an argument. Clemons is fighting the charge.

“I have faith in the judicial system. I’m totally innocent of everything,” he said. “I’m going on with my life.”

Since the ride on E Street ended, Clemons has pursued other byways, including tours with Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Band and the Jerry Garcia Band.

“It was so natural and free with Jerry. He was a great inspiration. It kind of gets to me, him not being here.”

Clemons performed at the first Clinton inaugural, and he covered some of the balls at the second Clinton inaugural as a reporter for Fox TV.

“That is very hard work. I’ll never be rude to another news person,” Clemons said of his night of interviewing such celebrities as John F. Kennedy Jr. “It’s a tough job, a thankless job. You really have to get out there and grovel to get your story.”

Clemons also has worked film acting into his repertoire--he says he is booked for small roles as a detective in “Mardi Gras Moon,” and--here’s a stretch--as a saxophone player in “Swing.”

Another project simmering in his mind will lead to tasty licks of a different sort, should it come to fruition:

“I’ve been thinking about a cookbook. I’ve been making notes and promising myself I’ll do it some day. I have an idea for a cookbook and music together. Cooking is an art form, a creative thing. Sometimes music can come [from] it too.”

It’s said that music is the food of love, but Clemons believes that food is the food of love.

“I like to invite a beautiful woman over and [cook] a beautiful meal. That’s my idea of a good time.” So the way to a woman’s heart is through her stomach?

“No, the way to a woman’s heart is through her mind. The food creates a mental image of what this guy really is.”

On his most recent solo album, the 1995 release, “Peacemaker,” Clemons cast himself in a different musical image. The all-instrumental release had nothing to do with the brash or authoritatively anthem-like honking of his work with Springsteen. Instead, it was sparse, meditative and prayerful, with rhythmic currents from African, American Indian and Asian Indian traditions.

“I want to do another of those. I’m a very spiritual person in my own way, and those songs are my outlet.”

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Clemons didn’t say whether the prayer songs he writes include one imploring the spirits to make the Boss say yes to another ride with the E Street Band.

“I think it’ll happen, but I would never say when,” he said. “I really have a strong feeling, but I don’t want to cause rumors or get anyone’s hopes up. When it happens, it’ll be a great thing. And if it never happens again, I learned a lot and got to meet a lot of great people.”

* Clarence Clemons with Aja, Velvet Bleu and Bovine play Saturday at the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano. 8 p.m. $16.50-$18.50. (714) 496-8930.