Harboring Romance

The Regata restaurant is one of those places in the Channel Islands Harbor where customers can sit, eat and watch rich people cruise by on expensive boats. And providing the soundtrack to all that chowing and rubbernecking is one Joseph Chamaa, who plays piano and violin every Friday and Saturday night, plus Sunday mornings.

For Chamaa, the nights at the Regata begin slowly, echoed in his playing--slow and mellow piano songs. The venue has three rooms, and Chamaa’s piano is near the door, farthest from the diners and near the bar.

It’s piano time until the dining room begins to fill up, then it’s violin time, and time to tug on some heartstrings. At the opportune moment, Chamaa, violin in hand, strides into the dining area armed with a vast array of familiar tunes, such as the theme from “Doctor Zhivago.” A table full of men generally will totter on the verge of indifference, but Chamaa knows that. It’s couples who are the primary target, he says.

“No other instrument can give you the same expression as a violin--[it’s] not possible,” Chamaa said. “It’s very romantic. When I play, couples touch hands, they kiss.”

A Lebanese born in Egypt, the 60-something Chamaa has been playing as long as he can remember. He had his own band when he was 19, playing the waltz and the tango. Later he recorded a tape titled “Violo-Relax,” featuring 20 original compositions, which was sold at pharmacies in Lebanon.

Moving to France, Chamaa taught violin and wrote a philosophy book in French, which he hopes to translate into English. After immigrating to the United States in 1984, Chamaa these days is first violin in the New Valley Symphony and teaches violin in Northridge. Music is both his day job and his night job.

“I have played Arabic music and classical music all my life,” Chamaa said. “I have played over the years countless weddings and parties. Countless. I know many songs by heart--how many? Two hundred, 300, 500, 1,000? I don’t know. I also carry the notes to popular songs on a number of small cards. This place is just a restaurant I discovered, and they like me. It’s like an extra job for me, and they have very good food.”

Chamaa also has appeared on “Murphy Brown” and “The Young and the Restless” and was featured in a segment of a local cable show. He has done well enough to send two children to college.

“My daughter just graduated from Long Beach State and my son from Cal Berkeley. She sings in six languages and has a band called Blues Day, which is sort of like En Vogue,” he said.

Regata has been going well for three years now and is set to expand its horizons upstairs to include a Casablanca Room, complete with lots of photos of Bogart and Bergman. According to the owner, the place should be open in three months and will feature live blues and jazz. Meanwhile Chamaa, the one-man band downstairs, will continue to entertain on the weekends.

DETAILS

Joseph Chamaa plays piano and violin tonight, Saturday and Sunday at Regata, 2860 S. Harbor Blvd., Oxnard; free; 985-9991.

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There’s a whole lotta dancin’ goin’ on upstairs at Nicholby’s, and there’s more on the way. With salsa dance lessons coming on Tuesday nights, the Ventura venue will be busier than ever. Wednesday nights feature the popular swing dance lessons, and Thursday is Three-Bands-for-Three-Bucks night. Friday usually features a popular dance band, and Saturdays has the Atomic Dogs doing funk and disco. With the joint closed Sundays, all that’s left is a viable Monday, and no one’s figured that one out yet.

Tuesdays are usually dead nights in the bar biz, but if the first night of salsa dance lessons as taught by Sabrina & Alvaro is any indication of the future, it’s going to be a hit. Salsa, a dance style of Latin American origin, incorporates components of R&B;, jazz and rock. And the charismatic Sabrina Jackson has the experience to pull this off.

“I give private lessons or group lessons six nights a week,” Jackson said. “This is all I do. I never get to go to a movie, but I do get to meet an unbelievable group of people.”

The first-night crowd included more than 30 brave dancers, about equal numbers men and women, and the dance instructors had them grooving to the beat within the first 10 minutes. In the future, live bands will provide the sounds for all that shaking.

According to Jackson, it’s only the beginning.

“Salsa dancing is getting bigger because it’s fun and a good way to meet new people,” she said. “Everyone does it, from young kids to older people. It’s going to be huge.”

DETAILS

Salsa night at Nicholby’s, 404 E. Main St., Ventura, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday; $7; 653-2320.

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Stockton-born crooner Chris Isaak should be all smiles. His zillionth album, “Speak of the Devil,” is doing just fine and his Giants are ahead of the Dodgers in the NL West standings.

Isaak will bring his brand of moody, bluesy rock to the tree-lined Santa Barbara County Bowl for a Saturday-night show. Lapdog, featuring members of Toad the Wet Sprocket, the most successful local band until Big Bad Voodoo Daddy came along, will open.

Isaak, whose voice most resembles that of the late great Roy Orbison, is also known for his movie-star good looks and hair big enough to cause a major resurgence of Brylcreem stock.

He’s also known for his wardrobe--suits so bright that the audience should wear sunglasses and garish enough to inspire Liberace’s return from that great concert in the sky just to turn green with envy.

Lapdog, meanwhile, has risen from the ashes of Toad, which survived a solid dozen years.

Todd Nichols on guitar and Dean Dinning on bass are the former Toadies, with the other half of the band made up of drummer Eric Herzog and lead guitarist Rob Taylor. Expect more melodious pop rock.

DETAILS

Chris Isaak and Lapdog at the Santa Barbara County Bowl, 1122 Milpas St., Sat., 7 p.m.; $39, $30 and $24. (805) 962-7411.

Bill Locey can be reached by e-mail at blocey@pacbell.net.