Career Tune-Up

A few years back, the dedicated and talented guitarist Frank Potenza told me he was hoping to get a boost in his career. After many years of now-and-then jazz jobs, a handful of R&B;/funk-leaning albums for the now-defunct TBA Records label and a post on the Commercial Music staff at Long Beach City College, Potenza hoped “to jump to a bigger boat.”

Well, he has. Since about January, Potenza has been a full-time member of the quartet of blues-based jazz piano whiz Gene Harris, playing such prime venues as New York’s Blue Note jazz club. And last year, he was hired as an assistant professor in the Studio Guitar Department at USC. And though the deal hasn’t been signed, it looks as if the guitarist’s recording career is getting back on track.

“I’d have to find something to complain about,” said Potenza, who possesses one of those sweet, singing sounds that stays in your ear long after the notes have faded. “All of my dreams are coming true slowly but surely.”

Potenza performs tonight at Chadney’s in Burbank with bassist Luther Hughes and drummer Paul Kreibich, his Harris bandmates.

“I thought it’d be fun without the piano,” he said, with that particular Eastern accent that belongs to natives of Providence, R.I. “My choice was either to go in cold with guys I don’t play with or play with Paul and Luther. We’ve been playing together a lot, so it’s easy.”

I asked Potenza what he liked about the pair and he didn’t have to stop and think. “Luther swings and gives me what I need: good time and good notes,” said Potenza, who lives with his wife, Miki, in Hawaiian Gardens. “He listens and plays what’s right for the music. Paul’s the same. He’s a very musical player, offering shadings and dynamics as opposed to making noise on the drums. Plus, he swings.”

Mostly straight-ahead stuff, picked from jazz and pop standards and Potenza’s contemporary originals that are suitable to the style, will be on tap tonight.

“I’ve been playing straight-ahead for so long that I almost don’t have to think,” said Potenza, a graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston who is pursuing his master’s degree at Cal State L.A. “It’s familiar, so it feels really comfortable.”

There’ll be a few Latin tunes as well, and that genre allows Potenza to explore a bit.

“In Latin, a whole different set of things occur to me to play,” he said. “With an authentic bossa nova or samba rhythm, you have to get into it. It loosens me up.”

Potenza finds his post at USC to be another kind of stretch.

“These students can already play; they are highly motivated and they want something from you and they want it now,” he said. “That’s inspiring and challenging.”

* Frank Potenza’s trio plays Thursday, 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., at Chadney’s, 3000 W. Olive St., Burbank. No cover, one drink minimum per show. (818) 843-5333.

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Party Time: It’ll be a treat--do your tricks earlier--when Sherman Ferguson leads his quartet on Friday, 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., also at Chadney’s.

“It’s Halloween, people will have that party energy and we’ll have a good time,” said the spirited drummer, talking on his car phone after leaving a rehearsal with flutist James Newton.

The celebratory aspect will be threefold: Friday is also the Philadelphia native’s 53rd birthday and his and his wife Annie’s fourth anniversary.

Ferguson, a playful and creative drummer whose feel for the beat is quick and responsive, will arrive at Chadney’s with a bang-up crew that includes Potenza, reed man Charles Owens and bassist Bob Maize.

The fellows have a variety of material in store for listeners, including some of Owens’ originals and a piece or two by Thelonious Monk.

“I always play Monk,” said Ferguson, who can be heard on recent albums by saxophonists Benny Carter, Dave Sills and Gabe Baltazar.

These days, the drummer is another player who is active as a teacher. As he spoke on the car phone, he was on his way to a lesson at Pedrini Music in La Crescenta, where he lives. He also instructs at the Los Angeles Music Academy in Pasadena.

“It’s going great,” he said. “The students are really learning.”