On the Upswing

It’s a compelling enough reason to get out of the house to hear the live sound of well-honed, smartly arranged, passionately big band jazz in Ventura County.

But the appearance of the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza on Sunday, also comes at a time when that group, the pride of the West Coast big band scene, is making huge leaps into the jazz world at large.

Led by drummer Jeff Hamilton and bassist-arranger-conductor John Clayton, the ensemble will be a kind of house band at the Hollywood Bowl this summer, backing up the likes of Diana Krall, Quincy Jones and Dr. John. In between, the group will concertize in Europe, with veteran vibist Milt Jackson, who also appears at the epicenter of the group’s wondrous new album, “Explosive!’ (on Qwest label).

Sunday’s concert is presented by the Cal Lutheran-based KCLU-FM (88.3), the jazz spot on the local radio dial, and represents the fifth annual event in the “Jazz at the Forum” series, formerly presented by the American Assn. of University Women. The theater is a fine, acoustically friendly place to hear jazz, of whatever scale, and a great venue for a regional-cum-global jewel like this group.

DETAILS

Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the Forum Theatre of the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd. Tickets are $22.; 449-ARTS.

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Festival News: Although the Ojai Festival officially kicked off Wednesday with two concerts added to the traditional weekend-long program, the main event begins tonight and runs through Sunday evening’s orchestral concert.

In case you somehow hadn’t heard, this festival has been programmed by Esa-Pekka Salonen, the dynamic maestro of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Salonen is ushering in a program rich with music and musicians from his native Finland.

Salonen himself emerges as both conductor and composer, giving the world premiere of his “Five Fragments From Sappho” tonight, among others of his works over the weekend.

The new piece was written for soprano Dawn Upshaw, who had to cancel because of emergency back surgery. In her place will be soprano Laura Claycomb and mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves substituting for what would have been Upshaw’s recital on Sunday morning.

Other Finnish connections include composer-in-residence Magnus Lindberg and the Toimii Ensemble, which Salonen and Lindberg helped found 20 years ago. Toimii will be featured, along with the L.A. Philharmonic, giving the U.S. premiere of Lindberg’s “Kraft,” closing the festival Sunday. On a lighter note, they’ll also give a special family concert, called “Toimii Goes Opera,” at 10 a.m. Saturday.

All in all, it’s old home week, said Salonen, who remembers that the aspiring musicians in Helsinki in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s “all shared the starting points, more or less. Lindberg and myself grew up in a Modernist climate, very much influenced by the Second Viennese School and Darmstadt, plus some other people, like Ligeti and Lutoslawski, especially.

Obviously, none of us stayed there, as people don’t. We went in different directions.”

One Finn visiting Ojai who will be playing music from outside the native country will be pianist Olli Mustonen, appearing in recital at Libbey Bowl at 2 p.m. Saturday.

A composer in his own right, Mustonen’s main task at the festival will be to present his acclaimed, concert-length program of selected preludes and fugues by Bach and Shostakovich, which he recorded for BMG and has been presenting around Europe this year.

“Somehow, who wrote what” in the program, Mustonen explained, “seems less important.

Of course, you have the obvious contrast element. You have one composer from 350 years ago, and the other one is from this century and from Russia. These are totally different worlds. But I’ve always felt that, more important than the differences are the similarities.

“It’s like when you have two mountaintops, even if they are far away--one in the Himalayas and one in the Andes--the scenery and the feeling is very different. But when you reach seven kilometers height of genius, suddenly the sceneries start to resemble each other. Of course, Shostakovich’s work is a tribute to Bach. Of all his works, this one has the most to do with Bach.”

The past two years have been decidedly conservative, by Ojai’s Modernist standards, but this year there is a buzz of excitement about the goings-on. The Ojai Festival is special among festivals in the United States, and the reputation presents a high standard for those behind it.

“When we’re feeling glib, we call it the little Salzburg,” Executive Director Jacqueline Saunders says of Ojai’s place in the ranks of music festivals, referring to the respected Austrian summer festival. “I think this next year or two with [artistic director] Ernest Fleischmann could put us back in that spot in the beginning decades--the ‘40s and ‘50s and early ‘60s--when Stravinsky and Copland were here and there was a lot of the same kind of feeling we’re getting this year.”

DETAILS

The Ojai Festival runs through Sunday in Ojai’s Libbey Bowl and the Ojai Art Center. Tickets are $12-$42 for single events; 646-2053.

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Braziliana Department: Fans of modern Brazilian song take note: the sophisticated singer-songwriter Ivan Lins is appearing in Santa Barbara’s Lobero Theatre on Thursday as part of the “Sings Like Hell!” concert series.

DETAILS

Ivan Lins at 8 p.m. Thursday at the Lobero Theatre, 33 Canon Perdido, Santa Barbara. Tickets are $28.50 in advance, $32.50 day of show; 963-0761.