Striking the right chord with skill and style

“Dave Koz can’t come on stage with pink hair,” says smooth-jazz alto saxophonist Mindi Abair, “but I can.”

Well, Koz might not want to rule out the possibility of making such a striking stage appearance. But either way, the eye-catching Abair is more likely to wear pink hair convincingly, even though the cover of her just-released album, “It Just Happens That Way,” reveals a similarly vibrant coiffure of dramatically contrasting blond and brown streaks.

Abair’s major-label debut (on GRP) introduces a highly marketable new talent to the smooth-jazz arena. Although she is little-known to the wider jazz audience, she has already achieved considerable pop-world visibility via gigs with the Backstreet Boys, Mandy Moore and Adam Sandler, among others. And she is well aware of the value in her unique combination of good looks and solid instrumental skills (she is a magna cum laude graduate of the Berklee College of Music).

“I like bringing a little glamour to a genre that doesn’t ordinarily have a lot,” says Abair, who celebrates the album’s release Wednesday at the Garden of Eden in Hollywood. “And I’m proud to be doing something that a woman doesn’t usually do. But I don’t want to be one of the guys.” Abair’s visual appeal will make it apparent that she is not “one of the guys.” But she’s not just another pretty face.

Much of her album is devoted to well-crafted, pop-oriented smooth-jazz originals showcasing the elegant sounds of her alto and soprano saxophones (as well as a vocal on a version of Eagle-Eye Cherry’s hit “Save Tonight”). But although Abair tends to identify such current pop figures as Garbage and the Foo Fighters as reference points, her album and her live performances often contain musical moments reaching beyond the recitation of radio-friendly tunes. In those brief but telling moments, her catalog of smooth-jazz licks is often set aside in favor of riffs suggesting an interest and a skill that reach into the mainstream of jazz.

The breadth of her interests (and her future career) may be best indicated by the source of her album’s title: a Julian “Cannonball” Adderley rap on his 1962 album “Live In New York,” in which he says, “Hipness is not a state of mind. It’s a fact of life. You don’t decide you’re hip. It just happens that way.”

The Mindi Abair band at the Garden of Eden, 7080 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. Wednesday, 7 p.m., $20.(323) 465-3336.

On the upswing

How do you go about opening a jazz club? With a great deal of trepidation. Ever since the bebop revolution of the ‘40s moved jazz away from its entertainment world status into a kind of limbo between art and commerce, it’s never been easy to determine the best method of presenting the music in a nightlife setting.

But the beat goes on, with new rooms -- undaunted by a shaky economy -- continuing to open with an optimistic degree of regularity. One of the latest is Fitzgerald’s in the Hilton Woodland Hills Hotel. The name, with its Jazz Age reference to F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a perfect choice, and the modern but intimate design of the room (in which no seat is more than 20 feet or so from the stage) is an added plus.

“It had been a sports bar, among other things, before we went to jazz,” says Wini Hammond, the hotel’s lead concierge. “But it was basically just a dead entity, and the management decided they wanted to see something happen, preferably with jazz.”

Which was, as it turned out, a serendipitous choice, since Hammond is married to veteran jazz pianist John Hammond, who at the time had just finished a 10-year run at Shutters.

“John offered his suggestions about how to get started,” says Wini Hammond, “and at the top of his list was the need for a very good piano, which we got with our wonderful 9-foot Yamaha grand. Next, he felt that it was important to keep the musicians happy, pay them properly, give them an environment where they can enjoy what they’re doing.”

John Hammond took over the booking and basically became the house pianist when the room opened in May. Working at the difficult task of building visibility, his acts have gradually begun to attract crowds from guests at the hotel, as well as people in the community. In recent months, the bookings have become more diverse, featuring artists such as Mike Melvoin, Alan Broadbent, Ray Pizzi, Ricky Woodard, Lanny Morgan and Julie Kelly.

“It’s never easy,” says Wini Hammond. “We have the benefit of corporate support, but we also have to satisfy the corporate people when they look at the numbers at the end of the month. But so far, so good. We’ve got complimentary parking, no cover and no minimum on Wednesday and Thursday nights, and a $5 entertainment charge on Friday and Saturday. That’s a pretty good deal.

“I get mad at people sometimes who say they love jazz and then don’t bother to go out and support it,” Hammond continues. “Obviously, my first interest is for people to come out and experience jazz at Fitzgerald’s. But beyond that, I think that if people really love this music -- and they should -- it’s time for them to stand up and be counted.”

Fitzgerald’s in the Woodland Hills Hilton Hotel, 6360 Canoga Ave., Woodland Hills, Wednesday and Thursday, 7-11 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m.-midnight. Performing tonight: Buddy Childers and Doug Webb. Saturday: Lanny Morgan. (818) 595-1000.

Riffs

The Original Jazz Classics Samplers released by Fantasy Jazz have been extraordinary bargains for those in search of a quick graze through a specific label without having to accumulate stacks of CDs. The first six specially priced samplers, which include compilations of key items from the Prestige, Riverside, Debut, Contemporary, Pablo and Fantasy labels, were released in 2002. The next six, available this month, are devoted to music from the Specialty, Jazzland, Swingville, New Jazz, Milestone and Bluesville labels. Running about 80 minutes in length, with 14 to 24 tracks, each album is a classic, reaching from blues through swing, bebop and hard bop, from John Lee Hooker, Coleman Hawkins and Django Reinhardt to Chet Baker, Joe Henderson and Oliver Nelson....

The death of trumpeter-cornetist Ruby Braff last week left a gap in the jazz world that will probably never be filled. Although he was part of a generation intimately involved with bebop, he elected instead to follow his own swing-based, lyrically melodic path. And the results were inimitable. In his last Los Angeles appearance, at the Jazz Bakery in June 2001 with pianist Roger Kellaway, his gloriously communicative improvised lines were balanced with his between-songs reminiscences, the expression of a true musical raconteur. Braff and his horns will be greatly missed....

The Mellon Financial Corp., which has been sponsoring jazz events in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh since 1985, is dropping its annual four-day jazz festivals in both cities. The company’s financial commitment to jazz will remain the same, according to Mellon officials, reflecting a decision to focus resources on jazz education, scholarship and grass-roots programs. Mellon will also continue to fund individual jazz concerts in both cities.