Strings Attached

The acclaimed guitarist Gene Bertoncini enjoys small musical situations, where he plays either unaccompanied or with just a bassist or another guitarist. “In fact, when you have other instruments around, you limit the guitar, make it more like a horn, though that’s fun too,” said Bertoncini.

There’ll be few musical constraints when the New York native makes one of his infrequent Los Angeles-area visits, appearing on Saturday with fellow guitarist John Pisano, and Pisano’s wife, singer Jeanne, at Papashon in Encino. The evening should be one of easy communication, not just because the men work as a duo, “be each other’s bass player,” as Bertoncini put it, but also because the two have so much in common.

“We share a respect for the playing of good tunes, like the Brazilian repertoire,” said Bertoncini, a subtle, ear-pleasing soloist whose latest album, “Someone to Light Up My Life” (Chiaroscuro), is a tribute to the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim. “We have a general feeling for melody and good warm sounds. I played with John last year in New York and I was so impressed with his interplay: He does the right thing at the right time.”

At Papashon, Bertoncini said listeners should expect a mixture of grand pop classics such as “Gone With the Wind,” some Brazilian ditties and perhaps a blues tune or two. A good song gives an improviser a direction, he said. “You’re constantly thinking about the essence of what the song’s about, and that, I feel, has a greater impact on the audience,” he said.

Bertoncini, who turns 61 on Monday, has played with Buddy Rich--”just before I joined the Marines and he was a great introduction to what drill instructors are like”--and the Tonight Show Orchestra and has recorded with numerous greats from Clark Terry to Wayne Shorter. His performance on the latter’s “Odyssey of Iska” album led Shorter to invite Bertoncini to join a group he was forming, “but I was too busy with my own career to take him up.” The group turned out to be the famed jazz-fusion band Weather Report. “That’s one of my pet stories,” he said, laughing.

The guitarist knows he’s been lucky. His father, an Italian immigrant, played the guitar, “so it was natural for me to pick it up,” he said. Pursuing that early interest has led to a wonderful life, he said. “Music has given me so much freedom to live my values out, like loving people and not worrying too much about possessions, acquisitions, that kind of game,” he said. “Once you have music, you sort of have everything.”

* Gene Bertoncini plays with John and Jeanne Pisano on Saturday, 7:30 to 11 p.m., at Papashon, 15910 Ventura Blvd., Encino; No cover, no minimum. Call (818) 783-6664.

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On Top Again: Composer-arranger-bandleader Bill Holman became a three-time Grammy winner in February when his version of the tune, “Straight, No Chaser” (off his album “Brilliant Corners”) won a Best Instrumental Arrangement Grammy. Holman celebrates his victory by playing that number, and a host of others, when his big band, easily one of our clime’s best, takes the stage on Tuesday, 8 and 10 p.m., at the Moonlight (13730 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks; no cover, $25 minimum; (818) 788-2000).

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Career Ascending: It wasn’t that long ago that Dave Pike set up shop again in L.A., the town where he got his musical start, after lengthy residences in Europe and on the East Coast. Now the renowned vibist is appearing in the Southland regularly. He’ll no doubt get a career boost from his just-released CD, “Bophead” (Ubiquity). Hear tunes from the album Friday, 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), when the persuasive mallet man is joined by the ace trio of pianist Alan Broadbent, bassist Bob Maize and drummer Roy McCurdy.

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Another Bopper: The vibrant Colorado-based singer Barbara Paris, who arrives at Chadney’s on Saturday, loves to do vocal versions of such bebop classics as “Yardbird Suite.” “This stuff is swinging, it’s exciting and it brings you out of your seat,” she said. Pianist Llew Mathews, bassist John B. Williams and McCurdy, the threesome that backs Nancy Wilson, assist Paris in her boppish ways.