New Digs to Dig Gene Harris Trio

Remember that nondescript entrance to Founders Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center? The battered old staircase that looked for all the world like the approach to an alley warehouse?

Don’t expect to see it this season. Founders Hall now has an entry more appropriate to the first-rate schedule of jazz, cabaret and classical music that graces the upcoming season.

On Friday night, as the audience strolled up the wide new staircase into the intimately lit room for the opening performance of pianist Gene Harris’ trio, there were smiles and murmurs of appreciation.

Inside, another change became apparent. “Look at this--new chairs!” said one long-term subscriber as she reached her table. “Very elegant.”

The near-capacity crowd was pleased with the upgrading, which enhances an already effective performance space. Founders Hall has always had super acoustics; its original role was to serve as a full-scale rehearsal space for Segerstrom Hall. And musicians have long found it an appealing venue.

“It’s a great place to work,” said bassist Charlie Haden, who performed at the hall last year with pianist Kenny Barron. “Nice sound and a nice environment for the players.”

Jerry E. Mandel, the center’s president and CEO, said before the show began, “We started this venue about three years ago, and we’re determined to present only the very best jazz. So we felt it was important to provide the proper setting for them.”

With a touch of pride, Mandel added that the jazz program has more than 400 subscribers.

“That really tickles me,” he noted. “I’m a jazz fan . . . so I’m really pleased to see the kind of response we’ve gotten for the jazz programs.”

Friday night was no exception, as Harris, one of the veteran jazz crossover performers, brought his infectious brand of melodic jazz to a vocally enthusiastic crowd of listeners.

There’s never much doubt about what to expect from a Harris program, and he did not disappoint. His opening rendering of “Green Dolphin Street” was characteristic. The first sounds were moody, filled with dark, floating chords from the piano before the rhythm kicked in with an urgency that soon had feet tapping and bodies moving throughout the room.

After the piece reached its rhapsodic climax, Harris turned to the audience for one of his amiable chats. He described his move to Boise, Idaho, where he has become an honored citizen (“I’m thinking of running for mayor,” he said) and talked about his long and productive musical career.

“I just turned 62 years old,” Harris said. Then, after an appropriately dramatic pause, he added, “And I expect to be around for another 30 years.”

This provoked a roar of enthusiasm from his audience, capped by a shout from one listener--”And we’ll be there with you!”

More familiar standards followed, with “Take the ‘A’ Train” and “How Long Has This Been Going On?” among them. Unexpectedly, Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “How Insensitive” emerged as a bright, swinging line, with crisp guitar soloing from Frank Potenza and solid rhythmic support from bassist Luther Hughes and drummer Paul Kreibich.

As the tune’s final harmonies faded, Harris, ever the humorist, said to Potenza, “What was the name of that? ‘How Insensitive’? Hmmm.”

The blend of impeccable, rhythmically propulsive jazz, mixed with Harris’ warm and whimsical interaction with the crowd, continued for a set that was clearly too brief for the pianist’s delighted fans. But it was a set that was a perfect illustration of what Mandel is trying to accomplish with the jazz programs at the venue.

“What I’m really trying to do is make this place like a New York experience,” he said. “My joy will be when people actually stay up late in this town--go out to hear jazz the way they do in New York. And what better place to go than to a late jazz set at Founders Hall.”