For Him, ‘Round Midnight Is Just the Beginning

It’s midnight. Ted Koppel is wrapping up “Nightline,” and the late-night TV talk shows are lulling many to sleep. But DJ LeRoy Downs is just beginning his workday. Or, more accurately, his work night.

Downs is the late-shift host on jazz station KLON-FM (88.1), filling a slot that runs from midnight Sundays to 6 a.m. Mondays, and on the remaining weeknights from 2 to 6 a.m. It’s a stint that might be difficult for some, but Downs thrives on the challenge of sending his jazz perspective across the post-midnight airwaves.

“There’s a different energy that’s in here late at night,” says Downs, who operates solo from a small studio on the campus of Cal State Long Beach. “Of course, the responsibility alone keeps me awake, since I’m the only one here, and I can’t go to sleep on the air. But the energy of the music and the comfort of the studio make this sort of like my little cave. It’s where I can reach out into the world with the music that stimulates me every night.”

On a recent Monday, the music stimulating him at the start of his show was the tenor saxophone of Joe Henderson, followed by a tune featuring the alto saxophone of Jackie McLean. Tracks by another saxophonist, Wayne Shorter, followed, succeeded by recordings from Thelonious Monk and others, the connections between them reflecting Downs’ spontaneous method.

“When I come in, I go into the CD library,” he says. “I just basically look at all the CDs, and the first one I pick up kind of sets the tone for the whole evening.”

That CD leads him to others, which he gathers in a cardboard box.

“This is my magic box,” he says with a laugh, gesturing toward the battered-looking brown container. “It fits two rows of CDs perfectly, and it holds a whole night of music. I mean, I could go in the library and pick up different things as I need them, but having them all together lets me do the show the way I want to do it. I don’t know anyone who uses the box but me, but if anyone ever tosses it out by mistake, I’m in trouble.”

As the show progresses, Downs continually surveys the collection of CDs in his “magic box,” trying to find precisely the right sequence of numbers. At one point, he pulls out a CD, checking out track after track on a second player, heard only in the studio, as another player delivers the music over the KLON airwaves.

“I wanted to play a Thelonious Monk tune I had in mind,” he says, “but it won’t work because it would be too slow to follow the Monk tune I’ve got playing right now, ‘Ruby My Dear.’ ”

A quick shuffle of CDs, a rapid check through the opening bars of several tunes, and Downs discovers what he’s looking for--even though he didn’t know what it was until he found it.

“It’s fun,” he says. “It’s like being a painter--having different colors in front of you. You can make the sound bright, you can slow it down, you can step it up. Sometimes, when I’m tired, I get into a lot of ballads. I kind of play the music depending on my mood.”

Unlike more pop-oriented or smooth-jazz-oriented stations, KLON does not generally deliver music according to preset playlists. And Downs’ late-night show is a completely off-the-cuff operation, an improvisation in listening that parallels the improvisation in the music it delivers.

“When I first got to the station,” he recalls, “I was programming shows for someone else, and it was “It’s fun. It’s like being a painter--having different colors in front of you. You can make the sound bright, you can slow it down, you can step it up. Sometimes, when I’m tired, I get into a lot of ballads. I kind of play the music depending on my mood.”

LEROY DOWNS KLON DJ

hard for me to do it in advance. It’s not as spontaneous, and to plan it ahead doesn’t allow the natural creative process to take place. With my own show, I’ve got total creative control. And that’s really important. It allows me to create my own sort of vibe. When you listen to my show, you’re not hearing music that someone else programmed for me.”

Three hours into the night, Downs is still blending tunes, trying to find the right flow from one piece to another. He finally finds a place for the Thelonious Monk tune he’d wanted to play earlier, “Epistrophy,” then follows it with a Brother Jack McDuff blues. Cocking his head and listening to this last piece, he frowns for a moment.

“Hmm,” he says. “I didn’t really expect to go that far into a blues direction.”

He quickly rummages around and triumphantly pulls out a CD.

“Here’s the solution,” Downs says. “Mary Lou. I can always count on Mary Lou Williams to take me in the direction I want to go.”

After scanning a few tracks, he settles on a number by the veteran jazz pianist, pushes a few dials and skillfully segues it across the ending of the previous track.

Downs, who is now in his mid-30s, did not grow up with jazz. In his teenage years, his music of choice was, he says, rhythm & blues and hip-hop. But all that changed when he was attending Fairfax High School.

“Across the street,” he recalls, “was Aron’s Records. You could go in there and buy an album for $1.98. And that’s when I started finding jazz. I heard a guy I liked on one album and then tried to find him on another one, and that often introduced me to some other guy I’d like.”

Interestingly, however, Downs’ jazz of choice at that time wasn’t the mainstream variety he now finds so appealing.

“I used to listen to KUTE 102,” he explained. “What they played wasn’t the same as the smooth jazz they have around now. It was more things like the Yellowjackets and Michael Franks, stuff like that, and I loved it at the time.

“But I found myself looking for something more. So I went back and began to ask musicians who they listened to. And that’s when I really began to learn about jazz. Now I know I’m on the right track when I walk into a club, and one of the musicians comes up to me and says, ‘Hey, man, that was a great tune you played last night.’ ”

Occasional night-owl calls light up the phone. One offers a painting he’s done while listening to the show. Downs says, sure, send a photo. Another has a specific request. It doesn’t fit into Downs’ flow of the moment, so he suggests an alternative. The caller is delighted.

The tall, elegantly dressed Downs--who also has a career as a voice-over artist, providing narration for, among others, Mercedes-Benz, Coldwell Banker and PayPoint Network--believes musicians are among his most frequent listeners. KLON’s Arbitron ratings, which put his primary listeners as men in the 35-plus age range, tend to confirm Downs’ belief that his hours represent the time period when jazz musicians--members of a still predominantly male profession--get home from their gigs and kick back to hear a few sounds.

As the clock turns toward 5 a.m., a subtle shift in Downs’ choice of music begins to take place.

“It’s getting-up time,” he says. “As soon as it hits 5 o’clock, I know that alarms are going off all over L.A. So I like to give folks a little boost of the energy they need to get moving.”

Two years into his career as a jazz program host, Downs is determined to pursue his mission to bring the music, in its purest forms, to a wider audience.

“People listen to smooth jazz,” he says, “because it’s simple and easy for them to hear. But there’s a lot more to discover, from Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young and Miles Davis and Charlie Parker to the young guys like Terence Blanchard and Joshua Redman. But it takes a little concentration and a desire to want to hear and understand it. And what irritates me is people--especially people my age, unfortunately--don’t seem to want to take the time to actually hear what’s going on.

“So that’s my goal,” Downs says, as he lines up the final few CDs of the night, “to help people to be more receptive. And I hope that since I’m younger, and since I’m a member of a minority [Downs is African American], that I can get some of them to take the time to listen, to get into the music. Because that’s what it’s going to take to keep jazz alive.”

* LeRoy Downs can be heard on KLON-FM (88.1) from midnight Sundays to 6 a.m. Mondays and on the remaining weeknights from 2 to 6 a.m.