Now, She’s Satisfied

Until recently, Gayiel Von had no idea who she was--as a singer, that is.

She did musical theater, she tried blues, she sang cabaret. Somehow, none of them really got to her. “For most of my career, I sang a little bit of everything with a concentration on the entertainment aspect,” Von said. “This was not musically satisfying to me.”

Then about a year ago, Von was working with pianist Lou Forestieri at Monteleone’s in Tarzana and something clicked.

“We were doing a tune and he [began] making up an instant arrangement,” said Von, a Sacramento native who lives in West Hollywood. “He changed keys, tempos and yet we came right back together. This was with no rehearsal, no nothing. I saw right then that this was the next stage, that he was taking me to new levels of understanding about music.”

Von, who names Dinah Washington, Nina Simone and Carmen McRae as primary influences, makes one her once-a-month appearance at Monteleone’s on Saturday, with Forestieri in tow. The pianist, a renowned accompanist, has indeed widened her musical horizons.

“Before, I was a girl with her feet in the mud: very instinctive, emotionally real,” said Von, an attractive, “unapologetically large” 46-year-old. At a recent interview, she wore a boldly colored, striped pantsuit, Panama hat, and earrings that highlighted her luminous light blue eyes. “Now I’m learning to be more than that. Arrangements are very important. Lou is teaching me how to take what I feel and put it into a form that is readily understandable by all. This in no way limits me creatively. If anything, I’m more creative.”

At Monteleone’s, Von will offer a variety of material in a jazz-rooted framework. There will be “good old standards,” such as “Love for Sale”; Broadway tunes, like Sondheim’s “I Remember”; and classic ballads, such as “Something Cool.” On all of these, Von insisted, she would put her mark, her distinct point of view.

The intimate communication that is the core of cabaret remains central to Von’s show. “I usually have immediate rapport with my audience,” she said. “They give to me, I give to them. But I want them to listen. It may sound arrogant, but I believe I have a gift. I show people that there’s a thread that ties us together: our humanity. Our alikeness is much more prevalent than our dissimilarity. And when I see a man with tears in his eyes, I know I’ve done my job. But I also make the crowd laugh.

“Ultimately,” she said, “music is about more than just the pretty notes.”

* Gayiel Von appears Saturday, 8:30 p.m.-1 a.m., at Monteleone’s West, 19337 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana. No cover; without dinner, $9.95 food/drink minimum. (818) 996-0662.

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So Long: After about 20 months, the no-cover, no-minimum jazz policy at Monty’s Steakhouse in Woodland Hills is changing.

Friday and Saturday, fluid and warm-toned tenor Dave Sills will work with drummer Danny Pucillo’s trio and usher out the horn-with-rhythm-section setup. Notables such as saxophonists Lanny Morgan and Bill Perkins, trumpeters Carl Saunders and Steve Huffsteter, trombonists Rob McConnell and Eddie Bert, and pianists Claude Williamson and Lou Levy all played with Pucillo at Monty’s.

“We had a good first six to nine months, with a lot of people coming in,” said Pucillo, the veteran drummer who ran the house trio. But crowds slowly faded as jazz listeners were distracted by the lounge’s TV, which was turned to sports and drew a boisterous crowd. “You can’t have a sports bar and a jazz bar in the same room,” he said.

Starting July 25, music at Monty’s will be limited to solo piano renditions provided by Williamson, an artist definitely worth hearing.

* Dave Sills plays Friday and Saturday, 8:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m., with Danny Pucillo’s trio (Cecilia Coleman, piano; Bob Maize, bass) at Monty’s Steakhouse, 5371 Topanga Canyon Blvd. No cover, no minimum. (818) 716-9736.

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Premiere: Brazilian singer Sonia Santos will deliver pieces from her alluring new CD, “Sorte,” at an album release party Saturday, 9:30 and 11:30 p.m., at La Ve Lee, 12514 Ventura Blvd., Studio City; $10, two-drink minimum; (818) 980-8158.