Pianist Wofford Shines on Live CD From Bay Area

On a Sunday afternoon last September, San Diego pianist Mike Wofford sat down at the piano in a small, rustic Berkeley recital hall designed by master Bay Area architect Bernard Maybeck in 1914. Going it solo, working without the safety net of a band that could camouflage small mistakes, Wofford played two sets.

The best of that afternoon is contained on “Mike Wofford at Maybeck,” the 18th in Concord Jazz’s series of solo piano CDs recorded at the Maybeck Recital Hall.

Wofford, who doesn’t like interviews and prefers to let his piano do the talking, made the instrument speak volumes on that September Sunday.

Best known as an accompanist and arranger for Ella Fitzgerald, and, before her, Sarah Vaughan, Wofford is a world-class pianist who doesn’t get the attention he deserves.

On the new CD, Wofford stamps his own identity on songs by great composers such as Duke Ellington (“Duke’s Place/Mainstem”), Benny Golson (“Stablemates”) and Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart (“Little Girl Blue”). Also included is “For Woff/One to One,” by Bill Mays.

Wofford has all the traits an ideal jazz pianist should have. Unlike pianists who use the left hand only in a chording, backup role, Wofford makes his an equal partner to his right. Listening to the warm, lyrical right-hand inventions Wofford dreams up is rewarding enough, but there is a whole other layer of subtlety going on farther down the keyboard, where Wofford’s left hand is busy not only with chords but with contrapuntal lines and surprising little accents.

Wofford may come off as quiet and conservative, but he takes risks with his music. When he improvises, he elegantly embroiders the melodies of the solid material he selects, but he also breaks up peaceful, placid sections with moody, atonal flurries that show his connections to avant-garde jazz and dark, brooding classical music by Bartok and others.

In addition to Wofford’s new release, Concord’s Maybeck Recital Hall series has documented solo piano performances by JoAnne Brackeen, Dave McKenna, Dick Hyman, Kenny Barron, Hank Jones and many others. The digitally recorded sound is excellent, and the comfortable setting seems to bring out their best.

Summer jams once blossomed in San Diego County, but the best of them, at places including the Salmon House, Croce’s and the Fish House West, have gradually faded out. The Salmon House still offers Sunday afternoon jazz, but not in a jam format. Croce’s discontinued Sunday jams led by Joe Marillo a year and a half ago. The Fish House West went out of business last year.

So the Saturday afternoon jams that began last January at Espresso Literati, the bookstore/coffeehouse/record shop in La Jolla, help fill a big void.

Guitarist Art Johnson, who leads the 2-to-5 sessions, believes the shortage of jams is a sign of hard times for jazz. Questions about this shortage launched Johnson into a lengthy harangue about what’s wrong with the music industry.

“The jam session has pretty much bitten the dust, mainly because the emphasis on jazz music in our culture has been so lessened,” Johnson said. “I was watching the news about a ‘new music’ industry meeting in New York, with performances at 60 or 70 venues, and it was all rap.

“Kids call me and want a jazz lesson. I ask who their favorite jazz guitar player is, and they say, ‘Eric Clapton.’ The Montreux Jazz Festival is now the Montreux Music Festival. I watched some of it on television, and I couldn’t find any jazz there. Quincy Jones compares hip-hop (rap) to be-bop. I would have to differ with Mr. Jones on that. I don’t consider John Coltrane and Ice-T as capable of sitting in the same room together.”

Obviously, Johnson thinks pure straight-ahead jazz is dying. But, although some kids still don’t know a thing about it, others are captivated. One such devotee is San Diego alto saxophonist Shawn Loescher, 18, a 1991 graduate of Point Loma High School who starts at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston in the fall.

Loescher is a regular at the Saturday jams, and his young jazz group takes the stage afterward, from 5:30 to 7:30 (through August).

“My friends are all be-boppers or jazz players,” Loescher said. “During summers, we go to jazz programs at Stanford or Fullerton, where we meet more people our age doing the same thing.”

Johnson praised Loescher as an exceptional example of a committed young jazz player.

“Shawn has researched his traditions. He knows his Charlie Parker. When he comes out to play, he has something to say.”

With youthful enthusiasm, Loescher disagrees with Johnson’s assessment of the state of jazz.

“I’ll go so far as to contradict Art,” he said. “I think jazz might be on a comeback. I think the listening audience was at a low and is now moving back up with the new young players. The first time I went to the record store four years ago to buy something by Phil Woods or Cannonball Adderley, there were only two tapes. Now the whole jazz section is about the equivalent of the rock section. I think jazz is starting to make a comeback. I certainly hope it is, because my future depends on it.”

RIFFS: San Diego-based jazz band Common Ground will play free concerts Wednesday at 7 at the San Diego Central Library downtown (presented by the San Diego Jazz Society) and Friday night at Stagecoach Park in Carlsbad (3420 Camino de los Coches). . . .

Lou Curtiss’ “Jazz Roots” program on KSDS-FM (88.3) will spotlight several female swing-era vocalists this Sunday night (June 28) from 9 to 10:30. Ella Fitzgerald, Helen Forrest, Doris Day and Ivie Anderson will be included. . . .

Tom Scott will talk about his new release, “Born Again,” during Art Good’s “Jazztrax” program on KIFM this Sunday evening between 4 and 9. Good taped the interview during a Caribbean cruise featuring live jazz in May.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

JAZZ SINGER MURRAY AT THE FAIR

San Diego jazz singer Arvella Murray’s career continues its gradual but steady rise.

Murray played a long set of straight-ahead jazz at Birdland in Los Angeles last week, backed by top L.A. musicians. She is hoping to gain airplay in New York and Los Angeles this summer for her debut single, “A Good Time to Love,” already being heard on KiFM (98.1) and B-100 (FM-100.7) in San Diego.

Tonight, from 8 to 10, she plays the Community Stage at the Del Mar Fair with her own group. And this Friday and Saturday nights, from 8 to midnight, she performs at the Rusty Pelican in the Golden Triangle.