Meeting of the Chairman’s Board Members

There’s an old line about life here on Earth, the planet that serves as home to Frank Sinatra: “It’s Frank’s world. We just live in it.”

When vocalist Jack Wood convenes his weekly jazz party on Thursday night at Kikuya in Huntington Beach, he’ll have a slice of that world at his back. The five-piece Sinatra Alumni Band boasts players--pianist Bill Miller, trumpeter Buddy Childers, bassist Chuck Berghofer, guitarist Ron Anthony, drummer Ralph Penland--who have all accompanied the Chairman of the Board.

Two of those musicians had bigger parts than most. Childers served as musical director for Frank Sinatra Jr. during the ‘80s and followed Sinatra Jr. over to Frank Sr.’s band in 1988 when Father asked Son to lead his orchestra. Pianist Miller began working with Sinatra on television in 1951 and became the singer’s most important accompanist in a relationship that lasted into the ‘90s.

Miller, who admitted in a phone interview from his San Fernando Valley home to being something past 80, downplays his part in Sinatra’s career. But Childers sees Miller as crucial.

“Bill is one of the greatest accompanists. He was so sensitive to all the things Sinatra did and knew how to respond to them. He always kept enough of the same figures in the right place so [Sinatra] would never get lost. That’s the job of the accompanist--always keep them on track--and Bill is a master of that.”

Over the years, Miller and Sinatra forged a friendship. Sinatra called him “Suntan” because of his light complexion and used Miller as a foil on stage, making him the butt of jokes and between-tune banter.

“I was allowed to get closer to him than most people,” Miller said. “After work, he liked to have a drink or two, and I liked to have a drink or two, so we would hang out and talk about what ever was happening--weather, current events, the things guys usually talk about.”

Miller plays arguably the best-known instrumental section on any Sinatra recording, the piano intro to “One for My Baby (And One More for the Road),” recorded in 1958 for the “Only the Lonely” album. The pianist says the introduction came about by accident.

“I had played it in a club once, just improvising, and Frank said, ‘Let’s add orchestra over that.’ Nelson [Riddle] wrote some string parts for it, and we recorded it.”

The song was recorded again in 1966 on the “Sinatra at the Sands” album with Quincy Jones conducting the Count Basie Orchestra.

“We had two pianos,” Miller recalled, “one for me and one for Basie. On the various charts where Frank was singing, Basie would lay out, and I would play. [Basie] would do his own thing on his own music, but when Frank was singing, [Basie] was just kind of window dressing, playing a few licks to establish the fact that he was the leader.”

Miller says Sinatra rarely dished out praise. “He expected you to do well all the time. If somebody played a part particularly well, he gave you credit. But it was expected of you to be proficient.

“But he had great respect for the good players he worked with,” he said. “That’s because they were so much a part of his career.”

The respect that Sinatra garnered from fans around the world still amazes Childers. “He’s the only singer I ever saw get a standing ovation for forgetting all the words to a song,” he said. “We were playing Atlantic City and after we finished the usual show, Frank was still feeling frisky and wanted to do some more tunes. Somebody called out “Something” and Frank asked if we had it in the book. We didn’t, but Bill Miller played an intro and Frank sang the name of the song and then, for the next 30 bars, he just kind of mumbled and looked confused. The audience gave him a standing ovation.”

Miller last saw Sinatra, who is rumored to be in ill health, late last year at a dinner party at the singer’s house. “I’m sorry to say that I think he only partially remembered me,” the pianist said. “But I don’t want to talk about that. It’s too sad.”

Still, Childers still feels the joy of having lived in Sinatra’s world. “There’s an overall magic that happens when you drop the line ‘When I was with Sinatra . . . .’ Everybody stops what they’re doing to listen.”

* The Frank Sinatra Alumni Band, with Buddy Childers, Bill Miller, guitarist Ron Anthony and drummer Ralph Penland, plays Thursday at Restaurant Kikuya, 8052 Adams Blvd., Huntington Beach, 8:30 p.m. No cover, $10 minimum. (714) 536-6665.